Tracy St. John's Blog, page 237

Create a Kalquorian: Everyone Needs a Hobby

As insignificant as it may seem on the surface, Conyod needs a hobby.  Hobbies tell a lot about a character, so we have to give our Imdiko one.  Saturday I will present you with four options to choose from, so get ready to give our guy something to while his free time away with.  See you then!

WIP Wednesday - The Font

This new paranormal story is now well underway, halfway into the first draft.  I'm enjoying digging into an old fashioned vampire tale.

In this book, we see the vampires are removed from the human world except to hunt.  They have their own society, and because most are at least a century old, they have a different way of conducting themselves.  At over one thousand years old, Heriolf in particular hearkens back to a time when brutality was the way to make one's mark in the world.  He has not gotten beyond this mindset in all his centuries, preferring to use force over politics to rule the vampires.

    As for the 'king' – Elisha's lip curled at that title before he could stop himself – well, Heriolf was more a dictator, a vicious tyrant that no one could depose.  Yet.
    Despite telling himself not to be a fool, Elisha couldn't help but glance at Heriolf seated at the head of the room, the intricately carved chair indeed resembling a throne.  Despise him as he might, Elisha had to admit the 1300-year old vampire was an intimidating sight.  Heriolf might have inspired legends of the Viking gods that he himself had once prayed to.  Well over six feet tall, massive with muscle he showed off by not wearing a shirt beneath the red cape with the gold clasp, he commanded fear if not respect.  Crystalline blue eyes swept those who had gathered at his order.  The forward part of his thick gray hair had been twined into two braids to frame his craggy face; the rest hung loose down his back.  A matching gray mustache and beard, also braided, made his fierce face even more bestial.  Old in his day, Heriolf had still been hale and hearty when he'd been made vampire at the age of forty-eight.
    Elisha felt bile rise in his throat and turned his eyes away.

Tutorial Tuesday - Writing in the Men's Room

Writing from the point of view of the opposite sex can be a bit worrisome.  After all, we know men and women don't think alike … why else all the real-world relationship drama?  Or all those womens magazine articles that breathlessly ask, What is He Really Thinking About?
Yes, if you're a woman trying to write from the male perspective or vice versa, you might find yourself floundering a bit.  How do we write the opposite sex's viewpoint convincingly?  That's what we're looking at today.

Yeah, We Are From Different Planets
It may sound a little too simplistic, but do yourself a favor and pick up the bestseller Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.   My husband and I read this book together, and we were stunned to discover how differently men and women really do think.  There were horrified looks exchanged too many times to count, and exclamations of "That's what you hear when I say that?"
It's an eye opener to be sure.  In general, men and women actually see and hear completely different things from each other.  One thing that shocked my husband is how women 'keep count'.  Because it's the big things that stand out in a man's mind, such as fixing a leak in the roof, they're stunned when their girlfriend/wife sobs in utter despair, "You never do anything around here to help me!"  That's because we women tend to count everything equally:  laundry, dishes, cooking, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, taking out garbage … along with fixing that leak.  Meanwhile the man is thinking along the lines of, "Okay, I did the big job – fixing the roof.  I'll take out the garbage, and that makes us even."
Amazing, isn't it?
Like any other part of your writing you're not entirely comfortable with your extent of knowledge of, you should research the opposite sex.  If you're a woman who wants to write from a man's perspective, read men's magazines.   Say your hero is someone who likes to hunt.  You'll benefit greatly from reading that kind of literature, not only for hunting information in the articles, but from the tone of male authors who write them. 

Men are Specific, Women are General
Something else to keep in mind when writing from the other gender's perspective:  men speak in specific terms whereas women tend to talk in generalities.
We women like to say words like never, everything, always, everybody.  For example:  "Everyone at work hates me.  I never get any respect from anyone!"
That's a pretty broad statement, and a man will take it literally that his lady is working in a veritable lion's den of enemies.  What his beloved actually meant was something along the lines of, "I had a bad day at the office.  I had a disagreement with a couple of co-workers who dismissed my suggestions on a project I've worked hard on.  I felt as if I wasn't being heard and my opinions weren't important to those who mattered."
Contrast that with what a man would say should he have faced the same issue:  "I don't know what's up with Charlie and Tony.  They ignored the new ideas I proposed on the Whitehall project today."
See how specific he is on this?  That's the way men talk.  Which brings up the next point:

Women are Descriptive, Men are to the Point
Men tend to not be very descriptive when they're speaking.  It's almost as if they're talking in bullet points (from the female perspective).  Women, on the other hand, want to paint you a picture.
Take a recent situation that occurred when my husband and I were watching a race.  There was a horrific crash, one in which a driver died.  If you'd asked us to separately describe what we say, it would have sounded something like this:
Me:  What's so crazy about this is that less than one second before the crash, the TV was showing the view from the driver's camera, the one who died.  Then the crash started happening with a few cars up ahead.  You could see all the smoke.  They switched to the other camera, which is a blessing considering what happened.  And there was all this smoke and cars hitting each other at high speed, a bunch of flames, then I saw one car fly into the air, and then a second car went flying.  And I was thinking, somebody's going to die.  I couldn't tell who was who.  I saw that Danica Patrick just missed being in the middle of it all.  Some of the cars were demolished and on fire.  They were showing the wreckage from all the onboard cameras of the different race cars as they drove past, then we saw an ambulance on the track.  Later we heard who died, and I was like, "Aw man, we were looking from his perspective LESS THAN ONE SECOND before his life was over."  That was creepy.  And so sad.
Him:  Well, there was a bunch of smoke, then you could see cars hitting each other.  A couple of the cars went airborne.  It was a mess. 
Women embellish.  Men don't do frills.  When it comes to man-speak, as Joe Friday would say, "Just the facts, ma'am."

Mr. Fix It
We women vent.  We talk about what's driving us crazy, what's not working in our lives, who said something we didn't like, so on and so forth.  Women tend to share.  A lot.  And all we're looking for is for someone to listen, nod at the appropriate times, pat us on the shoulder, and say, "Gee, that's awful."
But that's not what men hear when we're using them for a sounding board or a sympathetic ear.  What men hear from this is, "I'm not happy about something.  Fix it."   It's a call to arms, and the man is looking for a way to charge in and save the day. 
Then we women get peeved that the men are tossing unwanted suggestions and advice at us as to how to handle the issue.  We weren't looking for those men to solve the problem for us; we knew how we were going to handle it all along.  We just wanted them to listen. 
Men don't understand this a lot of the time, because men don't tend to talk just for the sake of getting stuff off their chests.  They talk to deliver information, request information, or solve problems.  If a man is telling you he's got a problem with his mother or co-worker, nine times out of ten he's asking for your insight and advice.  Not so with women.  We often talk simply to feel close to someone else.

Show Vs. Tell
Men rely on their actions more than words.  Some men don't feel the necessity of saying things like, "I love you.  You're important to me."  Why?  Because they feel they are showing you this by going out and working two jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over your head.  Or by slaying a dragon.  Or by searching the countryside for weeks on end with a glass slipper on hand that fits only you.  Men perform actions to show how much you mean to them.  Seriously, when was the last time you heard one guy say to another, "You're a great friend, and I treasure your company"?  No, he just buys the next round of beers, comfortable that says it all.
Women tell.  "I love you.  You mean the world to me.  I don't know what I'd do without you."  It's easy for us to emote through our words.  We tend to be more intuitive, more emotive.  We're encouraged as a gender to talk things out, whereas many males are told as children, "Big boys don't cry.  Suck it up."  The trouble with making men shut off overt displays of one emotion is that the rest tend to get shut down too.

Take a Good Close Look
Yes, we've been around the opposite sex all of our lives.  But when have you truly observed them?
Take the approach of a social psychologist and watch those of the other gender with an unbiased, critical eye.  Don't take apart what they're doing yet (he's left dirty clothes on the floor again because he's a slob, she's changed outfits for the third time trying to get ready for the party because women can never make up their minds).  Just observe.
After you've had a look at how the opposite sex acts differently and had time to think it over, then assign analysis to the act.  Does the man leave dirty clothes on the floor despite continuous nagging not to because he's a 'typical man slob' or because he's acting out against being treated like a child?  Is the woman changing outfits a ridiculous amount of times because she's the 'typical woman who can't make up her mind' or because she knows her ex and the bitch he dumped her for is going to be at the party and she can't be seen as anything less than stunning?  People are not simple male/female stereotypes.  They have reasons for what they do.
The biggest question to ask yourself when writing from the opposite gender's point of view is, what does he/she want most?  And how is that different from what a member of the other sex would want?  Is there a difference based on gender?  Let's consider a man and a woman in competition for the same promotion.  Do they have the same reasons for wanting to move ahead in their careers?  If not, do you feel their reasons have anything to do with their gender?   Are they hardwired by virtue of their sex to strive for completely different reasons? 

Get a Professional Opinion
The easiest way to know you've written your opposite sex's point of view right is to have a member of that gender read it.  I've written from male points of view in the Clans of Kalquor series, and my proofreader for these is a man.  It's a relief to know I won't emasculate my aliens, because I have someone keeping an eye on things who knows intimately how men think and act.
Draw on all the sources you can find to keep opposite sex characters believable.  It's worth the extra work because the different viewpoint will enhance your story and create marvelous tension between your hero and heroine.

Monday Man Time - The Santa Special

Twas the Monday before Christmas, and all through the blog
Tracy had visions of a different kind of Yule log...









Merry Christmas, all!

Six Sentence Sunday - Netherworld: Drop Dead Sexy

Whoa.  My mind reeled as I contemplated the idea of enjoying both men at once.  Okay, maybe I was easy after all.  I'd never considered doing such a thing before … but then I'd never been faced with two gorgeous examples of the opposite sex willing to share before either.  Were there consequences to such actions?  What's the worst that could happen to a girl who's already dead? 

Coming in January

Unholy Union a Top Pick on The Romance Reviews!

Terrific review too!  http://erotic.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=4053

Bits and Pieces of Me: Being My Characters

I admit it; I'm in all of my books.  In some form or another when you read one of my stories, you will find me.  It may be only a nugget, a tiny little seed of me, but I'm in there.
Of course I am.  Of anyone on this earth, I know me best.  I know the things that make me laugh, cry, strive, or cringe.  It's only natural that I would use the experience I have in being me to impart something to my characters.  I will sometimes base characters on people I know, but I must always come back to, "If I was this character faced with this situation, what would I do?"
Beyond just an empathetic link to those entities I have committed to your e-readers, there are more concrete parts of Tracy present in their tales.  Amelia Ryan from Alien Embrace faces pain from crippling nerve damage to her arms and hands, having been hit by a car a few years prior.  This came from my own experience after a terrible accident 24 years ago.  I know the hell of unremitting pain that can't be treated outside of habit-forming pain killers.  The agony that drove Amelia to seek help from Flencik is something very familiar to me. 
Alien Rule's Jessica McInness and Prince Clajak's infamous tempers are mine.  Age and a little wisdom have for the most part brought this beast under control, but there was a time when flying off the handle when I felt slighted came easily.  Well, I am a redhead.  What did you expect?
From Alien Conquest, we have Cassidy's above average intellect, cruelly unrealized.  That's a part of me too.  Unlike Cassidy's greatest obstacle, which was her grandfather's interference, I have only myself to blame for not taking my smarts to a higher level and doing more with them. 
Of all the characters in Alien Salvation, I am represented most strongly in Bacoj.  His lack of confidence early in the story is all me as a younger woman.  Intelligence and an intuitive grasp of certain things did not translate into self-assurance for a long time.  Even when I knew I was absolutely, positively right on an issue, I second guessed myself in the face of others' doubt.  I very much identified with this young Dramok's struggle to take control of situations when Japohn insisted on doing things his way.
Elaine Curtis' efforts to make it as a published author in Unholy Union mirror my own long-failed attempts in that field.  While I haven't enjoyed the over-the-top success she finally found, I am happy to have made it to the dance at long last.  And you'll also see me in both Father Thomas and Ash Moday as they struggle to be better people than they believe themselves capable.
Then there's Brandilynn Payson from the upcoming Netherworld series.  Smart alecky, sexual, impulsively making bad decisions, and not often politically correct, she's more me than not.  Oh, and we have the same embarrassing size 9 1/2 feet.  Now if I could just have her size 4 body, that would do me fine. 
Yes, I'm in those books, giving you a wave and tipping a wink.  Little pieces taken from myself, small bits adding to the whole puzzle that make up each character. 

First Five Friday - Alien Salvation (Clans of Kalquor 4)

Chapter 9

    Japohn looked at the rest of the rescue party under his command and felt like laughing and groaning all at once.  He fought back both urges.
    He was used to working on his own, a result of bounty hunting prior to the war.  When Kalquor called him to serve in the war against Earth, they'd deployed him to infiltrate enemy ground defenses, an assignment that played to his strengths.  Now he had a team consisting of battered and starved Earthers and an injured Imdiko. 

Available from New Concepts Publishing

WIP Wednesday - Alien Interludes: The Abduction

The war is over.  Kalquor can relax now that the Earth threat is done, especially its rulers, Clajak, Jessica, Bevau, and Egilka.  It's back to a peaceful existence where the most exciting things for these monarchs to manage are trade agreements with other worlds and plucking survivors off the dying Earth.

Not so fast.  You may have remembered Imdiko Emperor Egilka's initial reluctance to mix Kalquorian and Earther bloodlines before Jessica literally charmed the pants off of him.  I hate to tell you this, but he wasn't the only Kalquorian opposed to clanning Earther women.  Unlike Egilka, others aren't quite as quick to change their minds about their former enemy.  In fact, they're dead set against Earthers on Kalquor and determined to send a message to that effect.

And no one is as inviting a target as Empress Jessica herself.

    
     They ran on, dodging doctors, orderlies and patients.  As they closed in on the psychiatric annex, members of the arriving Royal Guard joined them in the rush.  There was a small knot of four guards waiting in the middle of the newly constructed area. 
     "What have you found?" Bevau asked.
     "It may be nothing, my Emperor," a grizzled Nobek answered with a bow.  He extended his palm out to show the Imperial Clan a handful of berries.  Egilka swallowed against a lump in his throat. 
     "Oh, a fresh shipment of nellus," Jessica said, greedily plucking several berries and popping them in her mouth.  "I think I'll take some to Narpok."
     Only this morning.
     "It's Jessica's," Egilka said with conviction.
     Bevau joined a pair of guards who knelt nearby.  "There's still dust from the construction."
      One Nobek nodded.  "Yes, my Emperor.  Footprints show a small Earther came through, along with two Kalquorians."  He pointed.  "Do you see these scuff marks?"
     Bevau showed fangs and Egilka went cold.  "And then two sets of large prints leave, but not the Earther's.  She was taken."
     Clajak was so furious he was shaking.  "They wouldn't dare take my Empress."
     Bevau straightened.  "I'm afraid someone has."  To the Royal Guardsmen he said, "Send out an alarm and alert Global Security at once.  No one leaves the hospital.  The Empress has been kidnapped."

Tutorial Tuesday - Reviews: The Good, The Bad, and WTF?

Nothing can send you soaring above the clouds like a great review.  When a reviewer gives a glowing report on your story, it's one of the greatest feelings on Earth.  You bounce around yelling, "Somebody gets it!"  It's a high like no other.
In comparison, the review that rips your book apart gives you a sick, sick feeling.  You plummet to the lowest caverns of hell, wondering if you're wasting your life with this writing thing.  Like being rejected by a publisher, it's incredibly hard to take.
Good or bad, a review has something to offer, something you can take and use in the here and now as well as future endeavors.  But before we get to those, let's take a look at recognized expert vs. reader reviews.

The Recognized Expert Review
These are the big ones, the ones you tout to potential readers when the review is full of compliments.  Some of the major players for erotica in this realm include The Romance Reviews (TRR), Just Erotic Romance Reviews (JERR), and Happily Ever After (HEA) Reviews.  This is just a small sampling of the recognized reviewers out there whose opinions are respected.  They take care to really read your work and make informed, detailed opinions to share with their readers.  They themselves may be bestselling writers or publishing professionals.  These are the sites you or your publisher should be sending review copies of your books to. 

Reader Reviews
These are the reviews you find on distributor sites like Amazon as well as places like Goodreads.  These come from the people who bought your book, ranking it usually from one to five stars on how much they liked it.   Good reader reviews are also worthy of much celebration.

The Good Review
So a reviewer liked your work and gave it four or more stars (or whatever their ranking symbol may be).  Congratulations!  If it's from a recognized professional site, feel free to share it on Facebook, your website, your blog, wherever.  This is great promotion.  Be sure to share the link as well.  This is like the old Siskel and Ebert 'two thumbs up' accolade, something to trumpet to anyone who will read it.  You did well.  Brag.
If it's a reader review, it looks darn good next to your book's title, especially if it's on a site like Amazon.  Do you use it as if it was a professional's opinion, splashing it everywhere for all to see?  I wouldn't. Instead, save the sharing of such for family and friends.  Celebrate on your personal Facebook page even.  But don't make it a major promotional vehicle.  In my opinion, treating a positive reader review (as much as I LOVE them) like it's the opinion of a recognized peer review tends to make you look like an amateur (especially if the reviewer's spelling and grammar are poor).  You don't see John Grisham or Danielle Steele using reader reviews to promote their sales.  I know if you're lacking any of the pro reviews it's awfully tempting to use these, and ultimately that decision is up to you.  If I may make a suggestion, should you decide to spotlight reader reviews, do it in such a way so that it doesn't look like you're desperate for someone to say nice things about your work.  Headline at least three good reviews with something like, "See what others are saying about this book!" or "People are talking about (insert title here)".  That allows you to showcase how great others think your work is while still looking professional.

The Bad Review
Okay, pick your shattered heart off the floor.  Remember, this was a review of your book, not you.  And believe it or not, it's not the end of the universe (which is admittedly what it feels like).  Everybody in the whole world didn't see it, and you're certainly not going to advertise that someone thought the whole premise was ridiculous, the pace was too slow, or the characters were flat as cardboard.
From a professional reviewer, the sting can be particularly bad.  After all, these are the people we writers have decided matter.  So what do we do with this one- or two-star slap in the face?
If it's from a reviewer who is recognized as someone who is usually pretty reliable, then take a close look at what they wrote.  Consider their objections carefully, especially if it's not the first time you've heard that particular complaint about your work.  Treat this as a learning opportunity.  And remember, even a review from a pro is still a subjective opinion.  If you've received one bad review but four good ones, you can chalk it up to your book simply not being to the one's tastes. 
When the bad review comes from a reader, the old maxim 'you can't please everyone' comes into play.  Sure, it sucks to see your overall approval rating sink because someone didn't like (or even abhorred) your story.  It happens to every writer.  Seriously.  I've seen the Twilight series of books on both 'The Best Books Ever!' as well as 'I'd Rather Take a Bath in Acid then Ever Read this Crap Again' lists.  No writer is immune.  And there is a good side to the bad review:   if it mentions specifically what turned the reader off, it should warn off many who would not like your book for the same reason; thus saving you from more bad reviews.  Or that's the way it should work … but more on that later.
You may be tempted to respond to a bad review.  Do not.  I am glad other authors warned me against this early on.  For whatever reason, we writers are not supposed to defend our work to the readers.  If you dare to answer a bad review, no matter how diplomatically you express yourself, the readers – and that is plural readers, not just the reviewer that gave you poor marks – will jump all over you for doing so.  I've seen it happen several times, especially with newly published authors who don't know they're not supposed to answer criticism.  It almost always degenerates into ugliness.  Don't go there.  As crazy as it might make you, pretend you are above it and keep quiet.

The WTF? Review
WTF? reviews come in a myriad of forms, but I'll share just a couple here.  To start with, when it comes to the 'pro' review I want you to understand that anyone can hang out their Internet shingle and call themselves a reviewer.  Many will, setting up professional looking review blogs and sites.  It doesn't matter if they can't spell cat or string two coherent sentences together.  They want to be recognized as experts, so they set themselves up as such.  People who don't write well in the first place have no business 'professionally' assessing those who do write for a living, but they will anyway.  If one of these creatures gives you a bad review, you can take solace in that potential readers will soon realize she's not an expert after all and ignore her.  Stick with the recognized reviewers for valid remarks, the ones publishers are clamoring to read their authors' books.
Then there's the WTF? reader review.  I absolutely agree everyone is entitled to their opinion and should freely state it.  Still, some people are silly, and sadly it is your book's rating that will suffer for that.  For example, say you have a little man-on-man action in your mostly M/F erotica.  So MoM or M/M is noted in your description to give readers who don't like that a heads up.  It doesn't matter in many cases however; people with same sex issues are going to either miss or ignore the notation.  And here come the one star reviews.  Even worse, other people will not only skip the description but they also ignore those reviews warning there are men batting for the home team in your book.  Then they write bad reviews too.  You're left wondering, who in the world buys erotica without making sure it's not objectionable to their tastes or buys it knowing it will have scenes they won't like?  In other words, WTF?
The epitome of a WTF? review for me was the person who bought Alien Rule, made a mistaken assumption about one of the characters, and posted a review based on that error.  They took issue with the heroine and her best friend both being hermaphrodites.  As most of you who have read Alien Rule know, the heroine was not intersex.  This was the one time I was tempted to break the rule about not responding to bad reviews; not to castigate the reader but to set the record straight on a factual error (as opposed to her entitled opinion).  I thought this misrepresentation of my book might unfairly affect sales.  Fortunately another reader posted a review correcting that error, for which I'm profoundly grateful.
When it comes to the WTF? review, roll your eyes and move on.  It could be worse.  You could be the subject of an entire hate forum like Laurell K. Hamilton.  The author of the Meredith Gentry and Anita Blake series of paranormal books is the victim of an actual forum on Amazon called 'Hating LKH'.  People take issue with her books for whatever reason and heap abuse on her in this poisonous thread.  To me that's a mega huge WTF? situation. Don't like her work?  Don't buy it.  On the positive side of this issue, you know Ms. Hamilton is incredibly successful when people actually devote that kind of time to hating her and making a huge deal about it.  You gotta love fame, baby.

When it comes to reviews, you have to realize you won't hit them out of the ballpark every time.  Everyone won't love you, and they'll be glad to tell the world all about it.  Keep doing your best and appreciate those who do love your work.   Celebrate those who do you the kindness of sharing their love with others.  In the end, they're the ones who truly matter.