Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 7

Happiness is Realizing How Much Better Things Are Now

Not in general; my country is still going down the tubes because it’s being run by heartless morons, but for me personally, it’s better. One of the keys: self-publishing. I was reminded of this when Chirp put an old audio of mine on sale, Trust Me On This. There’s a lot of back story attached to that book, but the one that always comes back to me is about when the publisher showed me the book cover.

“That’s not going to work,” I said. “There’s no dog in this book.”

“Books with dogs on the covers sell better,” they said.

“But there’s no dog in the book,” I said, “so it’s misleading. Readers are going to be annoyed.”

“Books with dogs on the covers sell better,” they said.

“BUT THERE’S NO DAMN DOG IN THE BOOK!” I said.

“Do you want to do a final edit on the galleys?” they said.

“Yes,” I said, and rewrote the damn book to put a dog in it.

Have I mentioned how much self-publishing (with Bob doing all the work) makes me happy?

What made you happy this week? Was there a dog in it?

Focusing Act One

So it was a rough spring, and June wasn’t that great, either, but now I am back in the zone (Bob never left the zone, Bob has put down roots in the zone).We had 70,000 first draft words done, but I wasn’t happy because I couldn’t see the focus. So I did what I always do, split it into smaller parts (acts) so I could see the pattern. (This stuff makes Bob crazy, but he knew the job was dangerous when he took it.). So in case you wanted to know why I’ve been so silent, I’ve been panicking.

The first act was 25,000 words, which is short for one of my first acts (usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 33,000 words) but that’s no big deal. Faster start. The first act is where the trouble starts, the conflict starts, the protagonist is introduced, the setting is introduced (that’s place, time, community), all of it propelling the protagonist into the second act where things get much worse. And since we each have a protagonist, the second scene is Bob’s set-up scene. So it’s at this point that I take the 25,000 words that I separated from the draft and separate it some more into scene sequences.

A Scene Sequence is a sequence of scenes that taken together form a complete narrative, like a chapter in a book. In this case, Chapters One and Two show first Anna and then Nate having a bad start to their day as the people around them (community) who are on their side, thwart them. And because readers are good at reading into things, they’re also developing expectations, such as that even though Anna’s in NJ and Nate is in NYC, they’re gonna meet.

The second scene sequence is Things get worse when their individual bosses saddle them with jobs they don’t want and send them to Atlantic separately. Chapters three and four.

The third scene sequence is each of them in AC, where their jobs go even more wrong than they’d anticipated. Chapters five and six.

Okay, that’s six chapters without them meeting, which I was worried about, but I sent the first act to Anne Stuart and she said it was moving fast enough and besides the reader knows what’s coming, so no worries. That helped. (Thank you, Krissie!)

Then finally, Chapters Seven through Thirteen, they’re both so frustrated and annoyed by their very bad days, that Anna picks up Nate and they have a one night stand using fake names, figuring they’re not taking any chances because they’ll never see each other again. I was worried about that, too. That’s a very long scene sequence, and the sex is not very explicit–here’s a surprise, it’s mostly dialogue–but Krissie said no problem again, so moving on . . .

The next scene sequence is the Aftermath when Nate finds out he slept with the woman he’s supposed to be surveilling, and Anna finds out the FBI is after her because of the package she dropped off in AC, and they meet again, for real this time, real names and everything. That’s the turning point, the place where the story turns a corner and becomes something new.

Okay, with that done, I could move on to the second act, which is what I’m working on now, The second act starts off with the aftermath of what they did in AC–neither of their bosses is happy–and moves on through scene sequences that arc their new relationship to the midpoint where they have to decide to trust each other or not. Then the third act is the two of them working together to find the Big Bad, and the fourth act is the climax, a big party scene where they bring down the antagonist and Nate suggests they try dating for real.

I am happy with this plot. We still don’t have a good title, but that’ll come; we still have two more books to write. And the great thing is, when you’re doing a series, you do the heavy lifting in Book One and then build on that in the next two. So I’m hopeful the next two will go fast.

Once I figure out the pattern. (Somewhere Bob is sighing.). Anyway, that and the health stuff is the reason I have been absent. I apologize. I will do better. Noting but good times ahead.

This is a Good Book Thursday: The New Rivers Edition

This week I read the new (tenth) Rivers of London book, Stone and Sky. It gave me interesting thoughts about series books, among them how happy I was that our series are three books and not ten, which is not a criticism of Stone and Sky. I’ll pretty much read whatever Abramovitch writes.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday: Analyzing is a Good Thing

I wrote a fairly long post about analyzing the first and second act of the story we’re working on and accidentally erased it. Not feeling the need to type it again. But the book is progressing so all is good.

What did you work on this week?

Argh Author: Jeanne Oates Estridge writing as Opal Mason in Harold’s Harmonance

Our own Argher Jeanne Oates Estridge has a new pen name—Opal Mason—and a new series—Ice Planet Octogenarians. A quartet of sci-fi romcoms, the first book in the series, Haroom’s Harmonance, released July 1.

Retired teacher Ginny Robinson is on the way to the casino to celebrate her birthday with her three best friends when she cuts off a convertible full of pretty young girls in traffic and gets caught up in an alien tractor beam.

You’d think being eighty-five years old would protect you from being kidnapped by sex-trafficking space aliens. But you’d be wrong.

Because my friends and I took out the slave traders only to crash-land on an ice-ball of a planet called “Oog.”

The natives here are huge and purple, with feet like beaver tails, two thumbs on each broad hand, and towering antlers. You wouldn’t think they’d be interested in a quartet of eighty-somethings, but their tribe is really short on females.

Also, their saliva contains a chemical that, when applied to the right location, turns back the clock on these rickety old bodies.

Before you judge us, let me ask you this: What if you were standing so close to the Grim Reaper you could see the whites of his eyes? And what if a strapping young fellow came along and offered you the chance to be twenty-five again?

Do you really think you’d turn that down?

Available in print and ebook: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F92YTP5W/

Happiness is Accomplishment

After weeks of not being able to get into the book we’re writing, I went off on a tangent and wrote two scenes we hadn’t planned on. Then I sent them to Bob and braced myself, but he wrote back, “These are really good.” I’m still on a high from that.

What made you happy this week?

Argh Author: Barbara Monajem’s Lady Rosamund Confesses

Our own Barbara Monajem has a new novella in her Regency Mystery series, “Lady Rosamund Confesses.”

After the terrifying experience of confronting a murderer, Lady Rosamund retreats, along with her father and McBrae, to the home of friends in the country for some much-needed relaxation.

But before long, they find themselves embroiled in the affairs of a neighboring family, and soon this involves a corpse.

If this isn’t trouble enough, Rosie can’t figure out what McBrae’s intentions are—not to mention her own. Will he ask her to marry him? What will she reply? And what more must she confess before daring to say yes?

This novella takes place immediately after Lady Rosamund and the Plague of Suitors.

https://books2read.com/Lady-Rosamund-...

Argh Author: Jean Marie Ward’s “Brigid and the Snakes”

Our own Jean Marie Ward has a story, “Brigid and the Snakes,” in the anthology Intergalactic Rejects, out now (Calendar of Fools, June 20, 2025).

For readers: A collection of exciting, powerful science fiction and fantasy stories. For writers: a reminder that rejection isn’t the end and to never give up on stories you believe in.

A man who lost his son finds family again piloting a lab-grown dolphin and helping it navigate loss while, hopefully, preventing more; an Irish goddess must contend with the magic of a saint to save her people; and a bullied boy finds common cause with the ghosts of dead horses in the basement of the Hermitage Museum.

These stories and many more await in this anthology of stories. Each one powerfully demonstrates the point of this anthology: that great stories are rejected every day. From Science Fiction Grand Masters and New York Times bestsellers to writers just starting their career, this anthology is packed full of strong stories that waited a long time to find a home. Every story is accompanied by a rejection history from the author themselves, each with different lessons on the nature and meaning of rejection as well as words of encouragement for their fellow authors on those days when the rejections roll in too many at a time.

Along with the seven stories from our anchor authors Samuel R. Delany, Robert J. Sawyer, Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta, Gregory Norman Bossert, Jean Marie Ward, William Joseph Roberts, and David Boop, we also have an original essay from Robert Silverberg, and a foreword by Neil Clarke, the editor and publisher of Clarkesworld Magazine.

Finally, there are also thirteen original stories slushed from our open call by Christopher Blake, Laurence Raphael Brothers, Marie Croke, Sam Harris, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Kotowych, Rich Larson, Sam Loiaconi, Amelia Dee Mueller, Sam W. Pisciotta, Erica Ruppert, Paul Dale Smith, and Catherine Wells.

• The website(s) that has the book info on it: Calendar of Fools https://calendaroffools.com/intergala...

• Buy links:

Print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Ebook
 Amazon < https://www.amazon.com/Intergalactic-...
 Barnes & Noble < https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/inte...
 Kobo < https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/inte...

Jean adds: “I’m really excited about being on the cover of a book with all those big names in the science fiction and fantasy field—and for being the only woman on the cover until Kevin J. Anderson got around to adding his wife. It’s also gratifying to be one of three stories specifically referenced in the jacket copy. Better yet, it’s the only story I’ve ever submitted that sailed from submission through proofing with no changes. I still don’t quite believe it.

“On a more productive note, for folks who would like to learn more about the anthology as a whole, Tangent Online recently published a review and recap of all 17 of the previously unpublished stories. ”

This is a Good Book Thursday: Steve Martin on Comedy

I read Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up, his memoir about his stand-up career, and it was fascinating, especially his insights about comedy and the push-pull of creativity and fame and the perils of genre-bending. Highly recommend.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday: Catching Up

I am finally getting sort of back up to speed. Behind on everything but still trying. Turns out my meds were making me tired because my blood pressure was too low so I was napping to extremes. (I was going to do a writing book for my next non-fiction but now I think I’m going to do one on Extreme Napping.) Then I went to lunch with Cathy Maxwell to discuss writing, found a great bookstore, and followed her to the library where I tripped on the last step and fell into a grand piano. Later I said, “I wish I hadn’t fallen into that grand piano,” and Cathy said, “That’s a great line,” and I said, “It’s yours,” so if Max’s next heroine falls into a large musical instrument, that’s on me. Our new book, tentatively titles Arresting Anna, is finally shaping up as Bob and I push and pull each other to the center again. This collaboration stuff is not for wimps.

So what did you work on this week?