Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 145

Proposal Almost Done!

I've almost got my book proposal done. I have about a page or two to write, then I need to edit the whole thing, come up with some chapter headers, and then edit the synopsis based on what I actually ended up writing. I also need to type out a few paragraphs for a couple of other book ideas. Then I'll go back to writing the rest of the book. I wanted to have that done before I go on vacation, but that's two weeks from tomorrow, so it's not going to happen unless I go absolutely insane for the next week or so.

Then again, we're looking at a rainy weekend with nothing on the calendar, so going insane with writing is a distinct possibility.

Fortunately, I already have today's lesson plan for the kids done, and we'll see how much of it we get to. Tonight we're going to make tissue ghosts and make them dance and then do ghost sounds (vocal exercises up and down the scales). We might even do a ghost parade to entertain the people getting dinner ready and show off our ghost sounds. Part of this is my sneaky introduction to classical music, as they'll be dancing to "Night on Bald Mountain." If I have time, I'll swing by the library and see if the CD with "Danse Macabre" is in (I need to buy a copy of that).

And then I get a week off because next week is the Halloween carnival. I'll still be there as a volunteer, but I don't have to plan anything. I'm just working either a game booth or the craft table.

Now I suppose I'd better get that proposal finished.

Survivor Stories

I spent much of the morning with my power out. I'm not sure how long it was out. I took a walk (a little more than two miles), got home, did some stuff in the living room, then headed into the bathroom (the only part of the house that doesn't get natural light), flipped the switch, and nothing happened. My first thought was that the bulb was out, but then I thought to check for power and noticed that the alarm clock, cable box, etc., were all blank. I think it may have been neighborhood-wide, since the lighted sign across the street is dead, and there were people coming out of houses and looking around when I was walking. Fortunately, my laptop battery was charged, so I could write, but I couldn't get online. It finally came back a little while ago.

After bailing on almost all the entertainment options over the weekend, I did go out last night. My city is doing one of those "one book, one city" things, and this year's book is The Book Thief, and since it's set during World War II and has some elements relating to the Holocaust, they sponsored a talk last night with an Auschwitz (and Dachau) survivor. It was mostly me, the library staff, and all the little old ladies on the library board and with the Friends of the Library group, and maybe a few other people from the community, but that was still a big turnout.

This lady's story was absolutely fascinating. If you wrote it as a novel, no one would believe it because her survival came down to a lot of very fortunate twists of fate. Though, really, in those circumstances, probably everyone who survived did so because of odd little bits of fortune, and maybe having the presence of mind to take advantage of those bits of fortune. This lady missed being sent straight to the gas chambers because she didn't go straight off the train upon arrival. Her grandmother had wanted to comb her hair, so her hair was down, and then they realized they were arriving at their destination and her grandmother made her go look for something to tie her hair back with. Everyone else was herded straight off the train, but they missed her somehow and she ended up in the line with people selected to work. From that point, she had a few more lucky breaks, but it sounds like she also developed the mentality of surviving rather than giving in, so she was conscious of strokes of luck when they came to her and was able to take advantage of them. That's how she ended up volunteering to go to Dachau to work in a munitions factory near the end of the war, so she was on the last train to leave Auschwitz before everyone else was sent on what ended up being a death march away from the camp ahead of the Russian advance. She figured that since they were asking for 200 people, it wasn't a ruse to send people straight to death and the job wouldn't be so hard and dangerous that they'd run through a lot of workers. That got her away from a death camp and into one of the earlier camps to be liberated by the Americans.

It was amazing hearing this sweet, bubbly, very funny lady talking about these horrible things she went through as a teenager and managing to find the humor and sometimes even the beauty. I was very glad I went. I watch all those documentaries on TV, but I don't know that I've ever actually heard directly from a survivor, and I feel it's important to bear witness as these people are aging and dying.

I got there early because the flyer suggested doing so. The event was held at the National Scouting Museum, and you got in free if you were coming to the event, so I explored the museum a bit. It would be a fun thing for kids to go to because there are a lot of activities, but it mostly made me wistful that the Girl Scout troops I was in never did fun stuff like the boys got to do. I did enjoy the gallery of scouting-related art. They had a lot of original Norman Rockwell oils. And then I hung out both before the talk and at the reception afterward with the ladies on the library board. They were fascinated about me being an author (the librarians recognized me, and I went to high school with one of them, and they introduced me to the board), but we ended up mostly chatting about books and PBS shows. They get together for Downton Abbey parties. They sound like a fun group.

Sneezing at Home

It turned out that I was right about the outcome of being paralyzed by options. I was in a writing groove on Friday night, so I stayed home instead of going to the downtown event, and I'm glad because some friends at church went, and they said the projected 30,000 crowd (that was big enough to make me wary of going) turned out to be more like 200,000, and so packed in that you could barely see things.

Then I guess I forgot to take Friday's dose of allergy medicine, and the ragweed levels were really high, so I spent most of Saturday sniffling and sneezing and decided that constant sneezing at the ballet would be a bad idea. I mostly sat around reading, which was nice.

I did go to Sunday's party, though. And I'm planning to go to a library event tonight. So I'm not being a total homebody.

My preschoolers had their first time to sing in church on Sunday, and it went pretty well. There were no tears and no one refused to wear a choir robe. There was one kid who sang in silly voices, which got some chuckles from the congregation. He continued bursting out with silly things during the children's sermon, so I got a lot of "oh, you poor thing" remarks later from people commiserating about having him in my choir. I'd been a little worried about the robes because that's caused some meltdowns with past groups, and there's usually at least one little girl who's dressed up nice to sing in church and then gets upset that she's going to have to wear a choir robe over her nice outfit. We went to the choir room to see and try on the robes Wednesday night, so they could get used to the idea of them and I could get the scary, new stuff out of the way and get them prepared for the idea that no one would see their clothes. But there were also racks of prom dresses and ballgowns near the racks with the choir robes. The church collected donations of formal dresses in the spring so that any girl in town who needed a prom dress would be able to have one, but they got more donations than were needed, and the extras got donated to be used in the spring youth musical, since they're doing Cinderella and will need lots of ballgowns. My preschool girls saw the rack of fancy dresses and started drooling. I was a little afraid I'd have at least one insisting on wearing a princess dress instead of a choir robe, but that didn't end up happening.

I figured out how to fix the book and got about halfway through the fixes on Friday and Saturday. I'll be losing a lot of it because I'm consolidating some scenes, but I think it will be a lot stronger. I'm hoping to get through the rest of the fixes today, then there may have to be some new writing, then I need to do some fact checking against the first book for continuity purposes, and then I should have a book proposal.

An Embarrassment of Riches

I passed the 100-page mark in the current book. Yay! But I suspect a few of those pages will have to go. Henry and Verity are spending way too much time chatting in his study, but the tricky part is that's the only place they can safely talk openly, and there's much scheming and plotting going on. I guess it's the equivalent of my first draft of Once Upon Stilettos, in which half the book seemed to be Katie and Owen walking to and from the subway station on the way to/from work. I ended up cutting and condensing those scenes or moving them to other situations.

Meanwhile, because my brain hates me, as I was falling asleep last night, it started writing an entirely different book. I now know a lot about that heroine and her life and how the book will start. This one could be a lot of fun, as it's a "sucked through a portal" story for adults -- a cynic who's lost all belief in romance and fairy tales finding herself in a fairy tale world.

But I have to write this other book first.

Right now, I have characters in six different fictional universes vying for my attention. That makes it hard to focus sometimes, and that's not even counting the characters from other people's universes who seem to think I should be telling stories about them.

This seems to be the Weekend of Arts-Related Events (and other festivals). There's a big outdoor light art (as in art made from lights) event downtown tonight that sounds cool if I can overcome the inertia enough to get myself to the train station and get downtown and then deal with crowds. There are two different ballet productions tomorrow that I would like to see, as well as at least three festivals that I'm aware of and another art event. Sometimes that much choice leads to paralysis, where the easiest choice is to stay home. Tonight's event is something that happens only every other year, and it looks like a real experience. But if I do that plus the ballet plus go to the party I have on Sunday, I know I'm going to feel overloaded.

And I actually kind of want to write.

New Book News!

I feel like I've finally hit a rhythm on this book. I may not have quite met my goal yesterday, but I did more than I usually do on a Wednesday, which is usually nothing. I'm about to get to a part I've been looking forward to for a long time.

Meanwhile, I have a book coming out next month, book 3 in the Fairy Tale series, A Kind of Magic.

Here's the cover:


(Oooh, pretty!)

And you can already pre-order it at a lot of places. Right now, only the e-book is showing up, but it will also be in print and audio, and all three formats will be available November 24.

In case you want to pre-order it, here are the links:

Amazon

Apple iBooks

Google Play

Kobo

I believe these are all US-only, but the book will be available worldwide. Check your regional/local version of these venues.

It will also be available for the Nook at B&N, but they're weird about pre-orders. There may be more links to come.

Looking at this book again is making ideas start stirring. But first I have to finish the book I'm working on.

Fighting the Don't Wannas

As I've been ramping up into a new book, I've found myself pondering the topic of writer's block. I think there are two totally different situations that often get lumped into writer's block -- there's not knowing what to write and there's what I often call the "don't wannas," when it's hard to get into the swing of writing. Today I'll tackle the "don't wannas" with some suggestions about how to get into a writing groove.

Writing, like just about any activity, is a habit that can take time and effort to form. Once it becomes a habit, it's easier to maintain. You may have gotten into writing because it's fun and something you enjoy doing, but once you start attempting to do it on a regular basis, whether or not you want to, you may run into a case of the "don't wannas," where you find so many other things you'd rather be doing. If this is just a hobby for you, it's okay to write when you feel like it rather than forcing yourself. But if you intend to make a profession of it, you're going to run into times when cleaning the bathroom sounds like more fun than writing, and you'll still have to write.

One thing to do is make your writing time an appointment. Put it on your calendar and treat it the way you'd treat a meeting with your boss or a dentist appointment that has a cancellation fee if you don't show up. How long and how often this appointment is depends on your situation. If you have a full-time job and a family, your appointment may be an hour on Saturday afternoons while the rest of your family has other activities or half an hour on weeknights after the kids are in bed. If you're a full-time writer, you'll have larger chunks during the day (or at night, if you're a night owl). If you have flexibility in your schedule, try to work with your most productive times, and it may take some trial and error to figure this out. I sometimes find that different books have different schedules.

Then set a goal for each writing session, something concrete that you can measure. This can be the amount of time you spend working, the number of words you write or the number of pages you write. Find a way to reward yourself for reaching this goal -- you can stop work when you reach your word count, you get to watch that show you're saving on the DVR when you reach your page count, etc. I've found that I write a lot more words and write them faster when I count out M&Ms into a dish, with one for each 200 words of my goal for the day, and then I get to each one each time I write 200 words. I can see my progress that way, and I often find that I go well over my goal even without the rewards continuing because by the time I run out of candy, I've got some momentum going. The rewards help me get started.

Make sure your environment is conducive to work, avoiding your temptations or distractions. Some writers like to go to coffee shops so they can't procrastinate by doing housework. I disconnect from the Internet and take my laptop to other rooms in the house or to the patio. You may like background music to block out other distractions, or you may like silence. Make sure you're physically comfortable so you don't end up hurting your back or developing carpal tunnel syndrome. You'll stay at the keyboard longer when it's a relatively pleasant place to be and when more pleasant places aren't beckoning you.

Establishing a ritual of sorts is a good way to get yourself into work mode. Doctors often recommend a bedtime ritual to train your brain to go to sleep, and getting ready to work functions the same way. Make a pot of tea or coffee or your other favorite beverage, set up your workspace, review your notes for what you're planning to write, listen to music that gets you in the mood, take a moment to meditate and visualize your story, or whatever works to signal your brain that this is writing time. Just be careful not to let this turn into a procrastination activity, where you spend more time getting ready to write than you spend actually writing.

And remember that we're all human and we're going to fail sometimes. There will be days when you don't keep your appointment or don't reach your goal. Just keep going and keep your next appointment rather than beating yourself up and giving up.

Next, the other kind of writer's block, when you don't know what to write.

Offline Time

I made my first short story submission on Friday, got my first rejection this morning. As nervous as I was about submitting, the rejection didn't bother me at all. I think part of me was expecting it. Now that's out of the way and I can submit to the next market on my list.

I took myself offline yesterday afternoon and got a ton of writing done. I've just about got enough written for a book proposal. I think I'll write the rest of the week so I'll have a better sense of where the story's going, then revise the first 60 or so pages and send to my agent next week. Then I'll write the rest of the book while I'm on a roll because I'm planning to publish it anyway, whether or not the publisher wants it.

Then I'll need to decide what to write next. Probably book 4 in the Fairy Tale series, but I've found myself going back to an idea I had a few years ago for a fantasy "cozy" mystery series. Those tend to do very well for independent publishers because there's usually the ongoing romance plot line that slowly builds from book to book, but then the stories are mostly standalone. I've got a lot of the situation and characters developed and even have a concept for a first book, but I would need to do some work to get it going. I don't know how many series I can sustain at one time. If I were more diligent about writing, I could probably do it because I write fast when I'm actually writing.

Which means more time offline.

It might be cool enough today for patio writing, which is always pretty efficient time because I'm away from just about all distractions.

I Was Promised Fall

I'm giving myself a fresh start on being all virtuous today. I took a short walk this morning, so I've done some exercise, and I'm really going to try sticking with a schedule for the rest of the day so I can make more headway on the book.

On Friday, I made my very first professional short story submission. It was strangely scary, considering that I've been a career novelist for more than a decade. But I have fallback plans in case it's rejected there, and I have ideas for other stories, so I may start trying to do that as a palate cleanser between books. If all else fails, I can offer them as loss leader teasers on Amazon and use them to drive readers to my books, and then I can put together an anthology.

It's supposed to be fall by now, but we're having summer weather. On Friday, I noticed one of my neighbors taking her kids to the swimming pool. Hmm, maybe I should hit the hot tub. I think the pool would be too cold for my taste, but the hot tub would feel nice.

Normally, October is my favorite month because I love fall weather. I like mornings that are cool and afternoons that are just right for being outdoors -- warm enough that you can sit around without getting chilled, but not so warm that you sweat. I like fall colors and stuff like hot cider, hot cocoa, things made with cinnamon, and sweaters. I'm not a big Halloween person, but I like a lot of Halloween-adjacent things.

But today I took my walk wearing shorts. It'll probably be too warm for me to work on the patio this afternoon. I was planning to make chicken pot pies this weekend, but it was too warm to turn on the oven and have that kind of food. Unfortunately, because they'd been forecasting a cooler weekend, I'd bought the ingredients. So yesterday I made the filling for pot pies, and there's supposed to be a cooler day this week when I can make the pastry and bake them. Let's just hope that we're finally having fall in November when I take my "fall" vacation. I based the timing on last year, when it was still a bit too early for that kind of thing in late October. Plus, I had to plan around our Requiem performance.

So, that's my week -- suffering through summer, trying to be good around writing and other virtuous stuff.

Vacation planning

I slept much better last night with no epic story dreams. However, the ragweed must have been bad, as the detail I remember from my dreams was that I always had a handful of tissues and kept sneezing.

I got a fun box from a state tourism office yesterday. I'd requested some maps and brochures from their web site for my vacation, and ended up getting a whole box of stuff. The main thing I needed was the current official map, but I got the rest of their trip-planning stuff, a guide to state parks, and the brochure about fall foliage drives. Based on some information in one of the guides, I'm pondering a slight modification to my plans, with a side trip to see something nearby. I could do it on the way up if I get an early start, since check-in at my hotel isn't until 3, and then I wouldn't have to go anywhere else for the rest of the time (all the things I want to do are on-site where I'm staying), or I could devote half a day to making this side trip. I can be spontaneous and decide on the fly how I want to handle things.

The brochures got me started thinking about actual camping, like with a tent. I have fond memories of doing that as a kid, but I'm not sure how I'd deal with it now. The state parks have bathrooms and showers, and some even have electricity at the tent camp sites. It might be a way to force myself to have a writing retreat, with enough electricity to charge the laptop, but no TV or Internet. I suspect, though, that this is the sort of thing that sounds good in my head but that I would find less appealing in reality. I like being outdoors, but I like coming in from the outdoors.

But before I can get too crazy thinking about vacation, I must work, and I'm already behind on the book.

The Shanna's Brain Channel

I think my brain needs its own cable channel. My dreams would be as freaky and detailed as anything on the SyFy channel. Take the other night … I had a dream about next month's planned vacation. I arrived at the place, but when I woke up the next morning, instead of being in the hotel room I expected, I was in a cabin like you'd find in a summer camp, on a bunk with lots of other people -- strangers -- in the cabin, and all of us sharing a bathroom. I kept trying to tell the management that there was a problem here, showing them my confirmation for an actual hotel room, and they kept telling me that this was the only thing available. I demanded a refund and snippily thanked them for ruining my vacation, then I told them I was a famous author and would be sure to tell everyone how awful they were (yeah, my 200 or so Twitter followers will ruin them). To tell you how weirdly detailed my memories of my dreams are, I recall that one of the people sharing my cabin was a middle-aged African-American woman who used sign language, and I didn't know sign but was communicating with her using the finger alphabet (which slightly mirrors a real life situation from years ago, when I helped a deaf girl navigate the Dallas train system using the finger alphabet, which was as close as she found to someone who could communicate with her other than in writing).

Throw in a murder that kept me from leaving in a huff, or maybe a conspiracy to explain why my hotel room ended up being a shared cabin, and we might have a story there. Unfortunately, it's not the sort of thing I have any interest in writing.

Last night, I got a whole series about an alien invasion apocalypse. We knew the world was going to end and we were likely all going to die, but we were trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. In all the inevitability, we were still trying to survive because as long as we were alive, there was still hope of pulling through. I kept waking up, having that "whew, it was just a dream!" reaction, then taking about an hour to fall asleep again -- only to find myself right back in the same dream. In part one, I was trying to decide whether to get out of the city and head to my parents' place, since being away from the city might give me more of a chance, but I was worried about what the roads might be like. Everyone was trying to leave the cities, and there was a general lawlessness, since knowing that we were probably all going to die soon anyway made people care less about the consequences of breaking a law or taking a risk. I ended up deciding to stay put, since a woman traveling alone would be seen as easy prey.

In part two, I was with a group of people attempting to ride it out. We were huddled in a building in the middle of a city, and the attacks were starting. There were scorch marks on buildings we could see through our windows, and something kind of like fireballs was raining from the sky. As is my usual luck, Mr. Right happened to be in the group (yeah, me finding the right guy is a sure sign of the apocalypse -- every time I've met someone who seemed perfect, he immediately got some kind of job transfer elsewhere, so meeting someone while the world is coming to an end is to be expected). An epic game of Truth or Dare got started during the attack, because under those circumstances, what was the risk of telling huge truths or taking massive dares?

In part three, the alien leader arrived, and he was something out of Classic-era Doctor Who -- an elegant, classically trained British actor type swanning about dramatically, walking down the empty streets and making proclamations. We were going to try to fight him, but some of us preferred to go into hiding.

Hmm, now that I look at it, I might have the makings for a YA dystopia kind of story. It's not the sort of thing I usually write, and alien invasion is more science fiction than fantasy, but I love the idea of an epic game of Truth or Dare in the face of apocalypse. I guess it's kind of like that movie Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, where they don't go into detail about the world-ending event, just that it's coming, and it's inevitable, and it's more about the things people do as they're preparing for it.

At any rate, a whole night of this sort of thing made for a very weird start to the day. I can't quite seem to adjust to the real world. Getting back into my steampunk world may be a bit of a challenge.