Cat Adams's Blog, page 12

SICK. UGH

Okay, I thought it was allergies, then a cold.  NOPE.  I have some sort of crud that is driving me to the doctor.  In less than 48 hours it's gone into my chest and I was running a 101.5 fever.  Fever is down at the moment, but I really didn't need this crapola.  Alas, there you go.
So I'm back to bed.  Everything -- the day job, the book, life, is just going to have to wait until I recover.

Cie

Back from the doctor.  Bronchitis.  Again.  Sigh.  I am very glad I live in a world with antibiotics and decongestants.

Life

As you probably guessed from the previous post about my Dad.  Things have been hard of late.  There's no getting past that.  Loss happens to every single one of us at one time or another.  You get through it.  You keep moving forward because, frankly, there is no going back. 

That's part of life.

It is not, fortunately, all of life.  But without the darkness, there would be no contrast for the light.  The light wouldn't burn near so bright were there no end to it, no knowledge of its absence. 

I need to get back to writing.  It's hard to focus, and I suspect that the loss will in some ways color the book I am writing.  That's good.  Because good art reflects life, illuminating reality in ways both beautiful and ugly.  And I would like to think I can create good art.  I would like to believe that my words can touch others.  Judging by some of the things readers say to me, they occasionally do.

I will spend the holiday weekend writing, and working around the house, and thinking about my family.  I won't do the social things because I'm not feeling particularly social.

I will probably start blogging regularly again soon.  Maybe I'll get to doing the newsletter and the interviews and all of the other stuff that has been backlogged.  I'll go through the e-mails and try to figure out who I owe prizes to, and get back to the beta readers and potential assistants.

But not today. 

Not even this weekend.

I wish you all happiness.  Memorial Day is about remembering those who have fought for, and sometimes died for, our freedoms, so do that.  Then go celebrate those freedoms whichever way suits your fancy.  Eat a grilled burger or raise a glass for me.

Cie

Goodbye and Thanks

My father is dead. 

You couldn't ask for a better man or parent.  He was a hero, and my hero.

Cie

Long, Long Ago . . .

A random FaceBook post reminded me of something from a long time ago.

My son worked odd shifts at a grocery store.  He would also go out late with his buds.  When he got home, he was invariably hungry, and would pop some food into the microwave.

Two or three times in a row I found myself out of bed and in the shower at like 2:00 in the morning because I thought the alarm had gone off.  Instead, it was the microwave ding (which was the exact same tone as my alarm clock.)

I got a different microwave.  Packed up the other one for when he moved out.  I mean, SERIOUSLY!  Yeah, I could have gotten a different alarm, but I was seriously pissed at that microwave.

Welcome Back.

Okay, I am behind on everything.  There are reasons.  The biggest is that my Dad has not been doing well and it has taken a toll. 

Also, the day job has been just nuts and the book had a deadline, my health has been iffy, and well, it's been crazed and I wasn't up for it.  I plugged along, am getting through it all, but it hasn't been a wonderful time.  Certainly it hasn't been the kind of time you want to write about.  So I haven't.  I will eventually catch up on everything.  But it won't be today.  And I'm not going to push myself too hard.  It'll get done when it gets done.

But know that I appreciate everyone's patience. 

Cie

Holy CRAP it's the Middle of April

Holy CRAP it's the middle of April.  How in the BLEEP did that happen? 
Life has been nuts.  Work has been nuts.  Dad is hanging in there.  I'm hanging in there too. 

But I am behind on everything and not terribly together as far as getting it all done.  I have to.  I know I do.  But I can't seem to do it. 

STRESS is not my friend.

Hang in there everybody.  I'll get my act together sooner or later.

Cie

Update on What's Happening

For those of you who wonder where I've been, my father was ill and in the hospital and I flew off to Illinois to be with the family.  He is now out of the hospital, and doing as well as can be expected, but there are some things that just "can't be fixed."   I love my parents desperately, but they are in their eighties, so there will be things like this trip happening. 

It was a wonderful visit, despite the circumstances, and I am SO glad I went, but it has changed all of my travel plans (as in canceled).  I will no longer be attending RT in two weeks.  I am sorry.  I hope no one is too disappointed.  But there you go.

I must go now.  A friend is picking me up at the hotel to go home and I need to be ready.  But I thought I'd let everyone know.

Best.

Cie

VISITING DIGNITARY -- SHANNON BUTCHER

Okay guys, besides being a terrific author, Shannon is a really good friend of mine.  So be nice.  Comment lots, and buy her books, not just because I said so, but because they are WONDERFUL.

I give to you (but only on loan and for a limited time)  SHANNON BUTCHER:

(INSERT SHOUTS OF JOY)


Whatreleases do you have coming out in 2012?
Ijust had an eSpecial novella come out in February, titled BOUND BY VENGEANCE.It's part of the Sentinel Wars world, featuring Liam and Dakota in a hunt forthe demons who killed her brother. In March book 6 of the Sentinel Wars, DYINGWISH, comes out. This is Jackie and Iain's story. After that, I have anothernovella coming out in late summer titled FORGET ME NOT, and the third book inthe Edge series, EDGE OF SANITY, coming this fall.
Ifyou had to be "stuck in an elevator" with one of your characters for severalhours, who would it be and what would you talk about?
I'mnot sure I'd want to be that close to any of my characters. They all havedemons, fanatical scientists, and killers after them. Way too much stress. J [image error] 
Youwrite romance (and do it well may I add), why that genre?
Igrew up reading fantasy and sci-fi. I didn't pick up a romance until 1998(after years of nagging from some of my friends and family). I'd always scoffedat them as those books my mom read. Finally, I gave into the pressure andpicked one up. I was totally and utterly hooked. This was what all of those other books I'd read had beenmissing—that deep connection and the thrill of falling in love. Even if I wereto ever branch out beyond straight romance, I don't think I'd ever be able todo so without that fundamental romantic core.
Doyou listen to music as you write? If so, which artists? What is your playlist?
I need music for inspiration, andtypically listen to rock and alternative rock. But when I write, I need silenceor white noise. Anything else is simply too distracting. 
Doeshaving another writer in the house make the process harder or easier? 
Both.There are times when there is twice the stress or double deadlines in thehouse. That makes things tough. But on the flip side, we also totally get whateach other is going through. There's no need to explain why I need to spend thenext week with my fingers attached to the keyboard to the exclusion of allelse. Jim just gets it. And being able to talk shop is nice, too.
Thebest part is the flexibility we have. If we want to run off on a date in themiddle of the day, we can. Assuming there are no looming deadlines. J
Thebusiness of writing is changing rapidly. Do you find the change scary?Invigorating? How (if at all) have you changed your career plans/path as aresult?
Youknow, if I worried about this stuff, it would eat me alive with stress. I'vedecided just to worry about that part that's within my control, so I write thebooks I want to write as well as I can, as quickly as I can, and let peoplesmarter than me worry about the future of publishing and strategizing.
Whatis one key bit of advice you would give to a prospective writer?
Write.A lot. Every day. Even if it's only a few words you get down, your head willstay in book space, and your subconscious will work even while you're not.Plus, one of the great benefits of writing a lot is that each word you writebecomes less precious. One of the keys to writing a great book is cutting outall the crap that isn't good. Ifyou've written 100k words, you're much more likely to cut out the bad 10k thanif you've only written a total of 20k, and you're looking at cutting half. Andthere's that whole thing where you actually get better when you write more, andhave less to cut. That doesn't suck. J   AND FOLKS -- THERE IS A GIVEAWAY AVAILABLE TO ONE LUCKY COMMENTER.  NOT JUST A BOOK EITHER (ALTHOUGH THAT'S GREAT ENOUGH.)  WE ALSO HAVE A HAND-MADE PIECE OF JEWELRY MADE WITH SHANNON'S OWN TWO HANDS.  I HAVE SOME OF HER STUFF.  IT'S GORGEOUS.  SOOOOOOO  COMMENT ALREADY!!!

Saturday Morning/BOOK SIGNING TODAY

Reminder -- we have a signing today at the B&N in Round Rock, Texas.  Hope lots and lots of folks show up to keep us company.

AND NOW FOR THE SATURDAY MORNING BREAKFAST SERIAL:
Who in the @#*$& is Boone Carter?


Sara and my mother died in the crash.  I was thrown from the wreckage on the way down.  Knocked me out, broke my leg, but I lived:  lived to testify against Abe, who'd been driving the truck that hit us.  That testimony, combined with the DNA evidence that Sara's baby was his, convinced the judge and jury to send him away for a long, long time.

It didn't bring them back.  Nothing could.  At fourteen years old I was alone, with enemies that wanted me dead.  I stayed with a foster family until I graduated high school at seventeen.  They were nice enough folks.  They took good care of me.  But I didn't love them, and I don't think they were heartbroken when I went out on my own.

After Katrina I went down to New Orleans, started over in a new place with a new name. 

But you carry your past with you wherever you go.  It's part of who you are.  It may not be as immediate as it was.  But it's there. 

And now the enemies of my past where here.

The question was, what was I going to do about it?

VISITING DIGNITARY/SENIOR EDITOR MELISSA SINGER

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to take a minute to do a bit of a special introduction for our Visiting Dignitary this week.  Melissa Singer is our editor, the editor at Tor who has worked with us for several years and gives us the kind of advice that is sometimes hard to hear but ALWAYS makes the book better.  She is a wonderful person, too, and I feel absolutely privileged to work with her.  She even took time from her hectic schedule to stop by and do a blog post.  So please give her an especially warm welcome.  I give you - Melissa Singer.
***


Melissa Ann Singer is a Senior Editor at Tor/Forge Books, where she has worked for more than 25 years. She began her career in publishing at the ripe old age of 19, as an assistant in the science fiction and fantasy department at Berkley Books, and survived at least three corporate mergers before moving to Tor, where she began by editing horror and a series of nonfiction books on parenting—topics which any parent will tell you dovetail nicely. In the years since, Melissa has edited just about every category of genre fiction there is, from sf/f to westerns, from woman-and-child-in-jeopardy to disaster thrillers, from historical novels to police procedurals. She edits Tor's monthly email newsletter, supervises the graphic fiction publishing program, occasionally acquires fiction for tor.com, and goes to far too many meetings. Melissa is a 3rd-generation native of New York City, where she is currently raising a teenage daughter. In her wild youth she studied stage combat and could periodically be seen slinging steel in Central Park, often while very oddly dressed.

***
I am a lucky, luckywoman.  I grew up with parents who notonly understood genre fiction; they were fans. In my household, Star Trek wasfodder for dinnertime conversation (which series? which captain? would yourather be in engineering, science, or command?); as a teenager, when I finishedmy weekly stack of comic books, I'd pass them to my dad; my mother still readssf. 
So I grew up surrounded by titans of category fiction (allkinds of categories, not just sf/f). When I was 19, I started working in publishing, first in sf/f, later inhorror, and even in comics, a tiny bit. Now I edit pretty much any category that appeals to me.  I was in my early 20s when I started meetingsome of the writers who had shaped my literary life.  I am eternally grateful for their courtesyand tolerance for what I am sure was a fair amount of fangirl squee. 
Cool as meeting some of my idols was, actually working with them was utterlyterrifying.  I mean, how dare I tamperwith their words?  What would convincethem to take editorial advice from me, snot-nosed child that I was? 
At some convention in the mid-to-late 1980s I walked up tomy boss, Tom Doherty, who was chatting with an older man, and Tom introduced meto:
ROBERT BLOCH
ROBERT BLOCH!
ROBERT BLOCH!!  
I almost fell on the floor. The man was a god.
He was also one of the nicest human beings in the entireworld.  (This is true of many horrorwriters, btw.  Nice, nice people.  All the nasty goes into the writing, Iguess.)  He and his wife invited me totheir home (!!!) and introduced me to their cats, who were sweetheartstoo.  Bob and Ellie Bloch werecompletely, devotedly in love with each other; it was wonderful to see. 
And then we worked together.
I. Edited. Robert. Bloch.
I cannot tell you how terrified I was to send off my firsteditorial letter to Bob. I just kept thinking, Are you people all insane?  Whyare you trusting me with this?
Bob was a gentleman, so even if I had sent him a letter fullof twaddle, he would have found a polite way to express his displeasure. Bob hadbeen a working writer for decades longer than I'd been alive.  I think I entertained him with my youthful enthusiasm,and once I stopped treading on eggshells around him, we developed a goodrelationship.
Bob really enjoyed his work. Once we had lunch at  convention(probably the first World Horror Convention) and talked shop through most ofit, working out plot details for the book he was writing and hashing over theCrippen case, which we were both fascinated with.  We were deep in discussion of various methodsof disposing of bodies (quicklime, dismemberment, etc.) when the restaurant'smanager came over. 
Apparently we had terrified our waitress to the point whereshe refused to serve us!
We gaped at the poor man before bursting out laughing.  I reassured the manager that no actual crimeswere being plotted, only fictional ones. I gave him my business card and introduced Robert, author of Psycho, Bloch.  The manager went off to calm the waitress,who eventually returned, bringing tea and the check.  I tipped her a little extra in an attempt tocompensate for the scare we'd given her. 
Bob was not-so-secretly delighted that he'd frightened thewoman.  As he often said, he had "theheart of a small boy."  ("I keep it in ajar on my desk.")
Scaring people was what he did.  On the page, on the screen, and in reallife.  I'm so happy I got to witness someof it.
I've been lucky to work with many authors whose writingsI've enjoyed, but there are only two others for whom I felt similar youthfulpassions.  One is Kit Reed.  The first thing of hers I remember reading isthe short story "Automatic Tiger," which was published in 1964 but which Isuspect I read sometime around 1971, when I had begun devouring my dad's sflibrary.  Reed's feminist and subversivesf changed the way I looked at the world. I edited three novels of hers, and one of them, Thinner Than Thou, is a powerful and important work that I willalways be proud of being associated with.
The other is Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, whose Hotel Transylvania was published in1978.  I read it that year, shortlybefore I started working in publishing. I was 18, just a few years older than the novel's heroine, and Hotel Transylvania was the majorromantic vampire story of my youth. Quinn and I have now done ten books together and I cannot begin to tellyou how much I've learned from her.  On everybook, I try to think, what will make people feel about this novel what I felt whenI first read Hotel Transylvania? 
Editors want to kindle passion in people.  When we get to do that with writers whoinspire passion in us, it's a huge bonus and one that we treasure.