Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 208

Well, This Is Another Fine Mess

Some of you may have noticed that the blog is REALLY SLOW to load.  No?  Well, I have, and we’re in the midst of trying to fix it.   Okay, not we exactly, Mollie’s in the midst.  I’m dealing with other things, many things.  I have multiple fine messes on my hands, as Ollie might have said to Stan.

For example, I can’t find my lawn trimmer which is essential because the grass is about a foot tall so my lawn mower won’t cut it.  Which means I just bought another trimmer, so now I will undoubtedly find the first one.   My lawn looks like pure screaming hell, so I had no choice but jeez, how many places could have I have put a four-foot long bright green rechargeable trimmer?  Also I need to plant things.  And finish putting together the potting table I bought, not realizing that it had ONE MILLION PIECES.   I know, these are not pressing problems, but they’re a nice distraction from the news except that there’s an air quality warning out (POLLEN) so I can only go out there and hack at grass for about ten minutes before I have to come back in to avoid dying.  At which point I obsessively read the news again.

And then there’s the house.  Oh, god.  I think I’m just going to throw everything out except for the dogs and some of the yarn and my good cooking pots and the computers.  Because this is ridiculous.  

Oh, then there’s the news.  Our President is a mornonic Russian collaborator except I think he’s too damn dumb to know he’s colluding with a foreign power.  Meanwhile the Republicans seem to be closing their eyes and wishing real hard this will all go away except for Chaffetz who’s quitting Congress and so doesn’t give a damn.   The good news: The FBI, the CIA, and the NSA now have good reason to hate him, so much so that they are now collaborating with an institution they once regarded as a bitter enemy: the free press.  You know that old saying, “Never pick a fight with somebody who buys their ink by the barrel?”  There is no old saying about never picking a fight with all the intelligence agencies because nobody is that damn dumb.  And now, Trump has alienated both.  Oh, and the courts are doing a very nice job, too.   It’s fascinating because it used to be that every time he did something, I’d think, “Well, he’s hit bottom.”  Then he gets out a shovel . . . .  

I’m really looking forward to: the Tell-All books that will be published if the country is still standing after we kick the Donald to the curb.  

And then back in Nita’s world, I’m writing antagonist monologues, first person pieces in which the antagonists explain exactly what they’re doing and why that’s the right thing to do, aka Evil Overlord Monologuing according to the Evil Overlord Rules (Rule #34: I will not turn into a giant snake.  It never helps).  The monologues won’t be in the book–although I think any book is improved by giving the antagonist a POV except for mysteries,–but I still need to do it for me.

And sometime soon I must get the dogs to the vet for their well-puppy check-ups and take the car in for it’s well-Prius check-up and then get that inspection sticker and a new septic tank . . .

Maybe I’ll just lie here in bed and listen to the dogs snore for awhile while I pretend to be various nefarious Evil Overlords out to get Nita, all of whom will have a competence that Donald Trump does not.  Did you see the WaPo report that said the people who write his security briefings make sure that his name is in every paragraph because if it’s not about him, he stops reading?  

Maybe he’ll turn into a giant snake.  At this point, it couldn’t hurt.

 

 

 

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Cherry Saturday, May 13, 2017

 

Today is World Bellydance Day.  It’s also Frog Jumping Day but I figured you were all frogged out from last week, so shake that ungrooved thing. 

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Good Book Thursday 5-11-17

Hey, it’s This Is a Really Good Book Thursday.  Tell us the title and author of something delightful to read, fiction or non-fiction, old or new.  The only requirement is that you loved it.

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I FIGURED IT OUT!

I know how Nick gets the sword.  It’s freaking brilliant.  The Girls are geniuses.  I’m a genius.  No, I won’t tell you, it’s a major plot point, but I love it so that one’s solved.  And may even have solved the “Why does’t he talk like a Rennaissance Italian?” problem.

You know, when I’m good, I’m GOOD.  

 

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Sense8 is Back

Remember Sense8, the Netflix show about eight people born on the same day at the same hour who are psychically linked so that share everything including fist fights, sex, and karaoke?  I bitched about it because it was such a chaotic mess last year and raved about it because the characterization was so phenomenal, the romances so well crafted, and the emotional payoff so overwhelmingly satisfying.  I’ve only watched the first two episodes of season two, and once again it moves like molasses on ice, but I’m in.   Which is odd because I’m such a structure wonk.  Where are the turning points?  Where’s the escalation?  Who cares?  These characters are back.  Turns out character really is everything.

Of courses it’s a huge help that I start this year knowing what’s going on.  Last year was basically Act One, drawn out forever, all set-up, and the writers left everything unexplained so my overwhelming response to the first episodes was annoyance and frustration.  The only reason I stuck around was that the characters were great.  But this year I’m no longer saying, “WTF?” Instead, at the end of Episode 2, understanding everything that was happening, I said, “Fuck, YES.”   It’s okay to have mystery in a story, to have unanswered questions, teases, things that will be revealed later.  It is not okay to not know what the hell what’s happening or why it’s happening or why I should care.  Plot is not everything, but it helps.  This year, the set-up is over, the annoying coyness about plot points is gone and we hit the ground running.  

And all the people are back, albeit one has a new face.  I know these characters, I love these characters, I would watch these people just sit around and have dinner together (and I have).    I even love the rat bastard who’s trying to lobotomize them because Terence Stamp is just doing amazing work as the guy I love to hate.  They even swapped out of one of my favorite characters and I don’t care because the actor who’s replacing him is doing a great job. My epiphany during the first episode of this season (which is actually the Christmas episode) was that I will give Sense8 a pass on plot if I can be with these characters, watch them come together to celebrate, to fight for each other, and even to make love because the show makes it clear that the orgy scenes aren’t so much orgies as just a lot of people who love each other sharing a really good feeling.  Character may not be everything, but it’s about 90% of everything.

Which brings us to the love stories, be still my wonky little romance-writing heart.   There are still four members of the team who haven’t found partners: Kala married Raj, clearly a mistake, although that apartment he got for her was almost worth getting married for; Wolfgang is being pressured into becoming a mob boss and in the process is having a lot of sex with women who are not Kala; Capheus just met a really nice journalist; and Sun is still in prison,   I have hopes for all of them.  I mean, Raj is really nice, but come on, Kala, Wolfgang.  Mostly though, I’m finding comfort in the love stories that are already settled.  Noni and Amanita are as bonded as ever,  and now Riley and Will are committed, too, and the best OT3 ever–Lito-Hernando-Daniela–is even stronger now that they’ve been outed.  There is so much pleasure in watching people who love each other just do that daily, no drama or fighting or will-they-or-won’t-they, just people who are with the people they belong with.

And then there’s the team/community aspect that I’m addicted to.  It’s not just the eight, it’s all their relationships, the people who love them and support them, walk into danger for them, defy men in black suits and sunglasses for them.  It’s Lito’s mother giving a speech about how proud she is of her son, telling him she’s always known he was gay and welcoming Dani and Hernando into the family.  It’s the look on the face of Noni’s friend Bug when he realizes they’re inviting him to celebrate Christmas with them.  It’s Sun’s cellmates welcoming her back from solitary confinement with smiles and hugs and “Welcome home.”  It’s the antidote against the cruel reality of my cruel government and my country in pain, all those people coming together without judging and just loving each other.

So this year, Sense8 is pretty much everything I want on my TV..  Plus they used “Hallelujiah” in the Christmas story, the second most overused song on soundtracks (next to “Hurt”) and it was glorious.  Fingers crossed the rest of the season is as good as the beginning.  

Yep, I’m in.

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Cherry Saturday 5-6-2017

Today is No Diet Day.

Or as I call it, any day of the week that ends in Y.

It’s actually about body acceptance, not to mention LIFE acceptance where food is not the enemy and you can eat the damn cake.  And the carrots and the romaine, yes, eat healthy, but stop making food the enemy.  I stopped making food the enemy and now we’re best friends.  Sometimes we snuggle.  

Or as Auntie Mame would say, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”

Eat the cake.

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So What Have We Learned From This?

It really is great to have so much feedback on the content of a Discovery Draft.  (And nobody rewrote, so you are now expert beta readers.)   So here are some of the questions I’m working on now as I continue making up stuff that will have to be fixed later, along with some character notes that you can tear apart. 

Nita:

I’m pretty good with Nita.  I still have to smooth out her emotional arc in these scenes, but by the end of breakfast the next day, she’s coping and changing, which is good because there’s more stuff coming her way.  I can easily see her looking at her personal life and deciding to concentrate on her professional life instead and getting back to work (good for the plot).  And getting angrier; she’s always been snarky and fairly ruthless, but she while she may snap at people, she doesn’t lose her temper.  So I can see her taking on more and more surprises and getting angrier and angrier at all the people in her life who’ve lied to her and finally breaking, and then just going after her enemies like Hell unleashed.  That’s gonna be fun.

Nick:

Oh, hell.  

So okay, he died in 1506 and was buried with his short sword (“In Italy, the upper classes favoured a short sword called a cinquedea the blade of which was broad at the hilt (supposedly five fingers wide: hence the name) and tapered its entire length to a sharp point. It came in a range of sizes”)

because it was a work of art.  Here’s Nick’s half-brother Cesare’s sword:

 

So twenty inches long, worn on the back, buried with him, and FOR A REASON TO BE DETERMIMENED LATER, shows up on Demon Island now. Hey, DISCOVERY DRAFT.  I need that sword in the story.  

The stuff where he’s jealous of Rab is stupid and has to go.  It’s too soon in the story and he wouldn’t be jealous of Rab anyway.  He wouldn’t be jealous of anybody.  The guy has an ego the size of medieval Italy, and he knows Nita and Rab.   C’mon, Jenny, stop with the dumb tropes.

So his body is coming back because of a combination of the drug and his awakening memory, muscle and otherwise, which create a loop.  I know what the drug is, it comes from this plant, although in real life the plant is a kind of purplish red instead of blue.  I also added “Resurrectionis” to the scientific name which Google translate tells me is right and yet does not sound right.  I’m still figuring out how it works, but I can fudge it because I’ve already got devils and demons, a Lazarus plant is a small leap after that (especially since it really is called a Lazarus Bell in real life).  

I know what happens with Nick, it’s these pesky historical details.  Plus how to tell the reader that he’s really 500 years old without stopping to do that, just as part of the ongoing action.

Keres

Keres is essentially Nita’s mom even though she’s only four years older.   Even as a pre-schooler, she protected her little sister from her mother (with lots of help from her brother and dad), she’s been running the funeral home since her early twenties (right after graduating from college) so death is no big deal, and she’s lived on Demon Island all her life so the strange is not a big leap forward.  I like the idea that Keres is basically a simple, joyful person who inherited her mother’s strong will, independence, and sexual curiosity and coupled it with her father’s strong will, ruthlessness, sense of justice, and basic goodness.  I love Keres, but she has no arc in this book, she’s just Keres.  SOMEBODY has to be sane in this story.

Mort

Mort is the male Keres, same parents, same upbringing, same close relationship to his sibs.  He’s a little more easy-going because as a male he hasn’t had to fight as hard, but anything that threatens anybody he loves brings out the Mayor in him.  Mort is also not going to arc much.  There has to be a reason that Nita didn’t grow up to be bitter and vicious with her mother’s attitude toward her, and that’s Keres, Mort, and the Mayor, all of whom love her without reservation and think she’s fabulous.

Mitzi

Mitzi has issues that are not all her fault.  Her mother is basically the church lady with a side order of monomania, her father didn’t like her, and there’s some stuff in her geneology that contributes to her general SuperBitch persona.  But she has good qualities, too: she’s strong, independent, sexually curious and not guilty about it, and active.  And she’s very good at her job because the people she takes out really were causing problems, they just weren’t, for the most part, demons.  Of course she’s also a murderous sociopath, but you can’t have everything.  

The Mayor

The Mayor has depths, but he’s basically the Politician You Wish You Had: he takes responsibility for the people on his island, he’s ruthless in protecting them, he balances the budget, he compromises as much as he can, and he gets things done.  His story is really in the past, he’s become who he’s always meant to be, so he’s not going to arc.  

Button

Button is genetically predisposed to believe in demons, so while her initial reaction is not good, she adapts more quickly than Nita.  Button is a fairly simple person with simple goals in a very complicated situation, so her reaction is to first simplify everything.  And if it won’t simple down, she’ll just shoot it.

Rab

Rab is Rab, a force of nature, following his curiosity wherever it takes him, embracing new things.  This point in time is a choice for Rab; he really likes being an agent but because Nick elevated him and Dag as a team, he’s reached the top of his job arc unless he becomes Devil, a position he wouldn’t have as a gift.  Earth appeals to him, but there are drawbacks.  Mostly he’s just trying to help everybody survive the current multiple revelations and disasters.  It’s why he brought a tranq gun, twenty gallons of scupper, and Nick’s Visa.

Dag

Dag was ambitious, and then he met Daphne.  Love has hit him hard, and he doesn’t know what to do about it, so he’s trying to navigate between her and Nick while his hormones are pinballing and horrible things are happening.  I’m a little concerned because I have two love story subplots but I’m not giving up either one of them, so I’ll just have to cope.

Daphne

Daphne is another strong-willed woman who goes after what she wants, in this case Dag.  She has a laser-like focus on her goals, so things that other people would find completely disruptive she categorizes as either related to her goal or not related to her goal.  The not related stuff can wait until later.  Do not cross Daphne.

Max

Max, although he will never admit it, wants to be Nick when he grows up.  He’s loyal to Mammon because Mammon has been extremely good to him–they have almost a father-son relationship although the balance of power has been shifting as Mammon ages–because he’s also practical with a strong sense of justice if not a respect for law (two different things).  

The Team

This is a team story:

Leader: Nita/Nick

Lancer: Nick/Nita

Research/Hacker: Rab

Enforcer: Button

Thief/Grifter: Max

Nita and Nick tag team depending on what aspect they’re working on: Nita knows the island and Nick knows demons.  The team has to be fully formed and operational by the midpoint.

This is going to be a long book.  Argh.  

And then there are the antagonists, which is what I’m working on now.

Anybody know how Nick’s sword which is in a tomb in Italy ends up on Demon Island?  I’m also not sure how Lazarus Bell works (it’s DISCOVERY DRAFT, I’m discovering), and about twenty other things.  So back to work.

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Good Book Thursday 5-4-17

Hey, it’s this Is a Really Good Book Thursday.  Tell us the title and author of something delightful to read, fiction or non-fiction.  The weekend is coming and we need good books!

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For A Short Time Only

This will be up until about this time on Wednesday.  You have been warned.

Let me know if the link doesn’t work.

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Wandering Around, No Particular Place to Go

So I’m back in Discovery Draft for the rest of the book, and it’s terrible.  I look at it and think, “Explanation, chat, more chat, something happens!, explanation, more chat . . .”  And here’s the really bad part: no antagonist action.  It’s just Nita and Nick trying to sort out the aftermath.   

But then, it’s Discovery Draft.

The good thing about having worked through the first act is that I know it’ll be fine.  That’ll be four thousand drafts from now, but it will be fine.  There’s some comfort in that.  Nora said once (paraphrasing here) that she could fix a bad page but she couldn’t fix a blank page.  The discovery draft is just the first part of the journey, putting the colors on the page, so I’m settling in to admire all the bright, fun scenery as I wander through my story (there’s a dog!).  My mind is actually a fun place to be. 

So I’ll get serious later and remember I have antagonists after I’ve written my next twenty pages of Rab explaining to Nita how Hell works.  

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