Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 206

Telling Myself the Story

So I have now accumulated enough Nita plot that it’s all over the place.  Think putting together Ikea or any multi-part kit: You have all the pieces but they’re all spread out; you know how to put them together, but you keep checking the directions; you’ve counted the connectors and you’re pretty sure you’re short a couple, except you’re doing it all in your mind, which cuts down on losing the screws, but ups the screw-up level.  It’s time to take a step back and consider the big picture.

That’s when I tell myself the story.

“This story is about Nita who loves the island she lives on and the people who share it with her and who is determined to protect it and them.  Then one day, a friend of hers is killed, and as she investigates she gets a new partner and meets a man who’s not real and two guys who are green . . .”

And then I just keep going, trying to mention everything I’ve already written and how it fits in. It’s not a synopsis; those are much shorter and much more efficient.  This is me, telling myself the story so I can get a feel for the shape of it.  I’ll go back and change things as I remember them, fill in details as I think of them, find the big plot holes and put asterisks on them, all just trying to get the shape of the story in my head.

And along the way, miracles occur.  For example, I now know what Nick found when he was going through that desk in the nightclub.  (Remember the nightclub scene?  I posted it ages ago.)  I backed into it when I was thinking about another problem: “Wait, how do they find out about X?”  It’s in the desk in the nightclub, of course.  I’ve solved problems I didn’t know I had, too, like how does everybody know Nick’s the Devil when he consistently says he isn’t (yet)?  Because when he got to town, somebody recognized him and told a key character who passed it on to Witherspoon, who assumes it’s a joke and mentions it to Mort, who calls Nita . . . .   I mean, sometimes the Girls are just geniuses, that’s all there is to it.

Something else odd happened while I was half asleep, waking up this morning, and thinking this through: I called Nita “Sophie.”  (Not to be confused with the Sophie from WTT.)  It’s always been one of my favorite names, but she was so much softer in my mind this morning because of the name change that I seriously considered it.  Then I woke up the rest of the way.  I’m not sure I want Nita softer.  More likable, maybe, but not softer.  The woman is going to be sleeping with the Devil, she’s going to need all steel she can muster.

So I’m still telling myself the story, smoothing it out.  The climax is a little long–lotta stuff to wrap up there–and the beginning runs way long, but there’s definitely a book here, if I can keep all those plots in the air without dropping one.  It’s getting closer.  I’ll probably only have to tell myself this story another dozen times until it makes sense in my head.  Hey, it could be worse.

I could have a job that required me to put on underwear.

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Good Book Thursday 6-22-2017

Tell us something good to read, please.

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So I’m Still Here . . .

I just have nothing to say.

Okay I have a lot to say about Wonder Woman, but I’m cogitating.  Short version: I loved it.  Long version: I have some nitpicks . . .  So later for that.

Nita: So Nick gets poisoned and cycles through past lives, and that’s what I’m figuring out now. Turns out he was a real bastard back in 1502, and Max has to hit him with a sealed bottle of bourbon to save Rab from being choked to death.  That was fun to write.  Nita’s gone all day but comes home to meet Nick 1934, also a bastard, albeit an English-speaking one.  The logistics of this aren’t fun, but the dialogue is.

Yarn and House: I got through almost all of my yarn while Krissie was here (she took a couple of bags back with her) and I now I have to finish and then start using it up.  And finish building the rest of the storage in the living room.  I need one room in this damn house that’s done.  Okay, I love this house, but really.    Then there’s the kitchen counters and the extra shelves in the pantry and clearing out the little tool room so I can put the freezer in there.  So there’s that.

Garden: I have two potting benches to put together and the plan was that Krissie would help, but we got sidetracked talking, so now I have to go out there and just do it, and build the planter I have wood in the yard for.  And mow.  And plant.

And the dogs need to go to the vet and the car needs to go in for its well-baby check-up and the website needs work and this blog needed a post so . . .

The days are just packed.   

So how’s by you?

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Cherry Saturday 6-17-2017

Today is Juggling Day.  

Or as most of us call it: Multitasking.

So what are you going to juggle today?

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Good Book Thursday 6-15-2017

So what do you recommend for summer reading (YAY IT’S SUMMER)?

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The Cinderella Deal $1.99

Once upon a time, I wrote a book called The Cinderella Deal about a painter named Daisy Flaherty who had some father issues.  Harlequin bought it, but they wanted a few changes: Her name couldn’t be Daisy, artists didn’t sell so she had to have a different occupation, and HG heroines didn’t have father issues.  I found out later that they didn’t the want the book–the fools–but they didn’t want to void my option clause.  So instead of saying, “How about a completely different book?” to which they would have said “GREAT IDEA!” I tried to rewrite The Cinderella Deal.  Never do that.  I ended up with a book that was not what I wanted at all.  HQ wanted it, and they published it as Strange Bedpersons.  Fast forward a year or two . . .

So now I’m between publishers, trying to get a single title published, and my agent, Meg Ruley, wants to make a deal with Bantam so I can eat while I’m trying to fix the mess that will be Tell Me Lies. “Do you have any unpublished manuscripts?” she asks.  “Well, there’s The Cinderella Deal,” I tell her.  “I rewrote it so much that it’s not really the same book as Strange Bedpersons, although there’ll be a lot of similarities.”  “Give it to me now,” Meg said and presto, I have a two-book deal with Bantam starting with The Cinderella Deal, a book that achieved a 97% sell-through (which is a bad thing, but still 97% of the copies printed of that sucker sold, so there). 

All of which is to say that The Cinderella Deal goes on sale for $1.99 today as advertised in Book Bub, or so I’ve been told.   My Bantam editor is lovely, I’m sure she wouldn’t lie to me.  

Note: I’d put the blurb on here, but I just looked at it and it’s awful.  I did not write that blurb.  I keep forgetting that long ago I wasn’t as hands-on with the whole marketing thing as I am now.  Argh.

Another Note: The cover here at the bottom was the first one they did.  I hated it.  The one at the top is the one I asked for on the reprint.  I love it.  The one at the bottom probably sold better. BECAUSE IT HAS A DOG ON IT.

Moral: Always put a dog on the cover.  (Kidding.)  (Kind of.)

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Staring Into Space While Cleaning

I’m getting company this afternoon (YAY) so I’m cleaning, which in this house means getting a backhoe.  The thing about cleaning is, it’s pretty mindless except for the “Why is that in here?” moments and the “I should just get a box of garbage bags and put everything into them” moments.  That means that I am now productive while staring into space, which is what I’ve been doing for much of June because Discovery Draft sometimes comes with a side order of “Why would that happens?” (Because the Girls want it to.)  And “How could that happen?”  And What does that mean? (Who care, write the damn book.)

Example: I really like the fact that Nick is dead.  I also really like the changes that happened because he’s poisoned with Lazarus Plant which has unexpected side effects (unexpected to the Bad Guys; the whole thing is unexpected for the Good Guys).  These side effects involve him cycling through five hundred years of different Nicks, and that’s a pain in the ass to write. But the stuff I get from that–Nita having to deal with a dozen different Nicks after starting a relationship with him, Max making a choice between protecting Nick and telling Mammon, Nick himself having to sort through a maelstrom of identities–is too rich to jettison just because it’s hard to write.   So I stare into space and look at this piece of plot like it’s three-dimensional, turning it different ways in my brain so I can see all the sides of it.  Every plot point is like a gear that turns multiple other gears.  Which means I have to look at those gears, too.  So cogitating..

Then there’s the whole physical thing, in particular, blood flow.  Everything I’ve been writing pretty much  means that Nick gets a fully functioning body back, but I want him to still be dead, no heartbeat.  I don’t know why I want that, but the Girls seem convinced.  However, if he’s dead (no heartbeat) then there’s no blood flow.  I kinda need a blood flow here.  Cogitating.

And then there’s Nita’s plot.  The first turning point is Nita accepting the supernatural.  The next two turning points are Nick’s.  But Nick is the subplot, which means I’ve lost the thread of Nita’s plot.  (What plot?)  I have the romance arc and it’s solid.  What the hell is Nita doing?    I know, fighting evil, and I did give her the last turning point, the climax, but the middle seems to belong to Nick.  Nope, nope, nope, cogitating.  

There’s more but I have to go clear a path from the front door to the guest room so Krissie can get to her bed tonight.  I think we’re seeing Wonder Woman on Friday, so we’ll have a spoiler post then.  Plus I can run all of this stuff by Krissie to see what she thinks.  She was against the hero being a skeleton so she’ll be happy about him having a body again, but when I e-mailed her and told I was thinking about skipping the sex scene, she wrote back, “Nooooooooo.”  And it would be a cowardly thing to do since the first time people make love is usually pretty significant for the relationship.  I’ve got the run-up done and the aftermath, it’s just the mechanics I’m not interested in.

I’ll think about that while I’m finishing the dishes.  The heat from the water usually makes me warm anyway.   Argh.

What’s new with you?

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Cherry Saturday 6-10-2017

Today is Knit in Public Day.  I’d say something snarky about how crochet is better, but knitting’s good, too.

It’s also Gin Day, Iced Tea Day, Ballpoint Pen Day, and Doll Day, so spike your tea with gin and take it outside with your craftwork and a doll along with a pen to take notes, and you should have this covered.

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Good Book Thursday 6-8-2017

So what words do you recommend this week?

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Georgette Heyer, Queen of the Cosy

I know, I know, there’s Sayers and Christie and Tey, and Marsh, and my fave, Allingham, all of whom were better known as Golden Age goddesses of wrongful death, but Georgette Heyer will always hold a special place in my heart.  She and Dorothy Parker were my muses when I started writing; I wanted to be the next Them.  And she wrote marvelous (for the most part) mysteries about clever young people before and after WWII, good solid plots full of characters who you either fell in love with or wanted to strangle yourself.  

Herewith her mystery list to glom:

1932: Footsteps in the Dark

Her first mystery that wasn’t primarily a romance.  It’s not good.  There’s a haunted house and a villain who sneers.  

1933: Why Shoot A Butler?:

Heyer was evidently bitten by a spider named Wimsey because her detective is a supercilious upper class barrister and her damsel in distress is, well, a damsel in distress, sullen and rude and yet inexplicably drawn to our hero .  And the cast is kind of boring.

1934: The Unfinished Clue 

A house party murder with the head of the family bumped off and nobody really missing him much (he was a real bastard which nicely does away with the whole mourning thing).  The family is where the fun is since they’re Heyer’s usual bag of colorful personalities any one of which could have picked up that paper knife.   Pretty much classic Golden Age Mystery.

1935: Death in the Stocks 

This is one of Heyer’s murderous romps where the hero is the only truly sane person in whole story, but the characters are so much fun you don’t care.  And with the exception of putting the body in the stocks, the murders are actually very believable.  First appearance of Superintendent Hannasyde, a very smart cop.

1936: Behold, Here’s Poison

This is Krissie’s fave because she adores the hero, who’s described as an amiable snake.  If they’d made a movie, they’d have cast Robert Downey, Jr.  Heroine’s a little weak, but it’s a damn good plot and another cast of characters not to be missed.  Also more Hannasyde. Highly recommended.

1937: They Found Him Dead

Another “the family gathers and the head of the family dies” plot, this one including a teen-age boy dubbed the Terrible Timothy by Inspector Hannasyde’s Sergeant, Hemingway,  The murderer sticks out a mile, but once again it’s worth it just to watch the cast bounce off each other.

1938: A Blunt Instrument

This may be the best of the bunch as far as mysteries go: Heyer plays fair all the way through but I did not see the murderer coming.  Another amiable, rotten RDJ hero but this time with a heroine who can go toe to toe with him, assorted colorful characters and Hannasyde and Hemingway at their best.  Highly recommended.

1939: No Wind of Blame

The plotting in this one isn’t great, but the characters are so fantastic: an ex-chorus girl in middle-age, a poor-ish relation/secretary with backbone, a  beautiful, brainless young blonde who’s not that brainless (she is, however, nuts), a cheerfully adept hero, a bounder of a husband, a Russian prince, a would-be lover silently glowering in the background (not a stalker), impossible neighbors, shady business associates, and Sergeant Hemingway who has gotten a promotion to Inspector so it’s all his case.,   It has a terrific romance subplot trapped in a fairly unbelievable mystery plot that’s so crowded with wonderful Heyer characters that you just don’t care.  Highly recommended.  

1941: Envious Casca

Considered a Golden Age classic.  Quarreling but entertaining family arrives for holiday dinner with irritants such as a beautiful, brainless fiancee (this time really brainless) for the heir and an aspiring playwright who wants to cast the hero’s sister as a prostitute in his next play, plus an old friend of the hero’s who is not beautiful but who is nevertheless intelligent and active, plus the rest of a Heyer supporting cast of crazies including our old pal Insp. Hemingway.  Naturally, the head of the family is murdered.  I did not figure out who the murderer was because I could not figure out how it had been done (excellent locked room mystery).  Fortunately Hemingway does.  Highly recommended.

1942: Penhallow

I’ve never read this one and it’s not available in digital format.  The rumor is that it’s a book she wrote to get out of a contract and it’s extremely unsatisfying.  No Hemingway in this one, so maybe she didn’t want to waste him.

1951: Duplicate Death

Perfectly good mystery and it brings back Terrible Timothy from They Found Him Dead, now all grown up–having survived the war as a commando, no less–and in love with a damsel in distress who has a lot of pluck and (my fave) anger.  Hemingway is delighted to see him and of course solves the murder.  Good mystery, just not as much fun as her earlier work, possibly because there was a major war after she wrote the last one, or possibly because it had been twenty years since she wrote her first one.  . The underlying themes are darker, the brainless blonde is not funny, and our heroine has been dealt a grim deal.  Of course she does get Timothy, so there’s that..  

1953: Detection Unlimited

Her last mystery, very well plotted but again I miss the nutso characters of her earlier books, something definitely took the bounce out of her bungee..  I just read this over the weekend and I can’t remember who the hero and heroine are (well, they’re supporting characters as Hemingway solves the mystery), so obviously it didn’t create an impression in my romance-hungry heart.   And again, the themes are darker. Well, it was 1953.

Still, with the exception of the first two (hey, my first book is a complete stinker, I sympathize), and the lost Penhallow, these are all good Golden Age mysteries.  Don’t get me started on her romances, we’ll be here for days.

Anybody here read Heyer mysteries?  

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