Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 178
May 20, 2014
Fantasy Travels
I'm going to have to tell my ballet teacher tonight that the looking up and out thing isn't going so well. I was doing that while walking around my house, which you'd think I'd know well enough to do blindfolded, and I misjudged walking past the staircase, so now I have a lovely bruise on my hipbone from hitting the end of the bannister. There may be fewer obstacles in a dance studio, but the obstacles that are there are moving.
I hit a roadblock in writing yesterday when I reached what was planned to be a pivotal action sequence and realized that I didn't know much about what was going to happen other than that obstacles would arise when there was a ticking clock. I knew stuff needed to happen, but I didn't know what stuff, exactly. It took me a long time to figure it out, and I ended up going in directions that I hadn't planned, which is good. And then this morning I figured out that this plan still won't entirely work, though it's more a problem with the execution than with the plan. I was writing it in the dullest way possible. Back to the drawing board. I know what I want to do, but it refuses to stay in focus well enough for me to capture it.
But I have been doing some reading, which is good. I mentioned that I developed an epic fantasy craving after reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and had started in on The Belgariad by David Eddings.
I have now remembered that it's generally a bad idea for me to try to read fantasy in omnibus form. I have a very bad track record with that. Because all the books are in one volume, my brain tries to make them into one book, so I feel obligated to read cover-to-cover. But then I burn out about two chapters into the third book, almost invariably. With this book(s), I think I would have been frustrated if I hadn't had the next volume immediately available because each book doesn't really feel like a complete novel. There's no sense of "the end" at the end. But at the same time, reading them back-to-back makes things get really repetitive. I think I'd have become obsessed with this series if I'd read it as a teenager when it first came out. The main character is a teen, and I probably would have related to him, and fantasy was a lot newer, so the travelogue nature of the series, which mostly seemed to involve traveling from place to place and seeing how varied this world was, would have been fresher. As it is now, I thought the teen read way too young and often came across as too stupid to live, and I've read enough fantasy that I've seen just about every kind of fantasy society. I don't much care about the worldbuilding other than to create a place where things can happen. I'm far more interested in the things that are happening, and it seems like there's a lot of wheel spinning in the middle books of this series. I wonder if the author was encouraged to stretch the series longer than planned because it was selling so well, and so a lot of "and then they tried looking for the thing they were pursuing in this place, which was like this, and then the main character stumbled into something and needed rescuing, so they had to flee" got added.
Maybe I've reached past a point of being able to enjoy the classic epic fantasies from the 80s. The publishing world has changed and so has my perspective.
So I moved on from there to a newer book, a recent young adult fantasy, The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. I stumbled upon this one in a very roundabout way. I was looking for book cover concepts by scrolling through Amazon bestseller lists, and I kind of liked the way the covers for this series looked. It didn't quite fit my book, but the concept might have been applied, and I even tracked down the artist's web site. I don't think I'm going to go in this direction, but the books looked intriguing, so I picked up the first one at the library. The story's about a pirate's daughter who's being forced into an arranged marriage with the son of a prominent pirate family. She's so not up for that, so she runs away, but her prospective groom's family sends an assassin after her. But when the assassin finds her, something goes wrong, and the result is that they're magically bound to each other. He's in terrible pain if she's very far from him, and any injury to her hurts him. This isn't an arrangement favorable to either of them, so they set off on a quest to find someone who can break this curse for them.
It's very much the start of a series. In fact, I would almost say that the "crossing the threshold" part of the overall series story doesn't happen until the end of this book. But it's not a travelogue. Stuff happens along the way, and it's far more about the developing relationship between the pirate girl and the young assassin, who are similar in a lot of ways but who have very different perspectives and life goals. They both have issues that interfere with their forced partnership, and you do sometimes want to bang their heads together to make them realize that they could make a good team, even as you realize why it's difficult for them. I've already requested the next book from the library because I can't wait to see what happens next.
One caveat is that the book is written in what I guess you'd call "vernacular." It's first-person narration that's very much in the heroine's voice. It's not "talk like a pirate day" pirate talk, but it's not standard English grammar, so if you're a grammar Nazi, it may take a while to get into the book instead of wanting to correct it. It wouldn't be quite as distracting if limited to dialogue, but then again, it would make no sense for the dialogue to be the way she speaks and then the narration to sound like an English teacher (unless, perhaps, it was being written from the perspective of her future self after receiving some education). I know of people who can't deal with narration in dialect, so this is something to be aware of.
I hit a roadblock in writing yesterday when I reached what was planned to be a pivotal action sequence and realized that I didn't know much about what was going to happen other than that obstacles would arise when there was a ticking clock. I knew stuff needed to happen, but I didn't know what stuff, exactly. It took me a long time to figure it out, and I ended up going in directions that I hadn't planned, which is good. And then this morning I figured out that this plan still won't entirely work, though it's more a problem with the execution than with the plan. I was writing it in the dullest way possible. Back to the drawing board. I know what I want to do, but it refuses to stay in focus well enough for me to capture it.
But I have been doing some reading, which is good. I mentioned that I developed an epic fantasy craving after reading Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and had started in on The Belgariad by David Eddings.
I have now remembered that it's generally a bad idea for me to try to read fantasy in omnibus form. I have a very bad track record with that. Because all the books are in one volume, my brain tries to make them into one book, so I feel obligated to read cover-to-cover. But then I burn out about two chapters into the third book, almost invariably. With this book(s), I think I would have been frustrated if I hadn't had the next volume immediately available because each book doesn't really feel like a complete novel. There's no sense of "the end" at the end. But at the same time, reading them back-to-back makes things get really repetitive. I think I'd have become obsessed with this series if I'd read it as a teenager when it first came out. The main character is a teen, and I probably would have related to him, and fantasy was a lot newer, so the travelogue nature of the series, which mostly seemed to involve traveling from place to place and seeing how varied this world was, would have been fresher. As it is now, I thought the teen read way too young and often came across as too stupid to live, and I've read enough fantasy that I've seen just about every kind of fantasy society. I don't much care about the worldbuilding other than to create a place where things can happen. I'm far more interested in the things that are happening, and it seems like there's a lot of wheel spinning in the middle books of this series. I wonder if the author was encouraged to stretch the series longer than planned because it was selling so well, and so a lot of "and then they tried looking for the thing they were pursuing in this place, which was like this, and then the main character stumbled into something and needed rescuing, so they had to flee" got added.
Maybe I've reached past a point of being able to enjoy the classic epic fantasies from the 80s. The publishing world has changed and so has my perspective.
So I moved on from there to a newer book, a recent young adult fantasy, The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. I stumbled upon this one in a very roundabout way. I was looking for book cover concepts by scrolling through Amazon bestseller lists, and I kind of liked the way the covers for this series looked. It didn't quite fit my book, but the concept might have been applied, and I even tracked down the artist's web site. I don't think I'm going to go in this direction, but the books looked intriguing, so I picked up the first one at the library. The story's about a pirate's daughter who's being forced into an arranged marriage with the son of a prominent pirate family. She's so not up for that, so she runs away, but her prospective groom's family sends an assassin after her. But when the assassin finds her, something goes wrong, and the result is that they're magically bound to each other. He's in terrible pain if she's very far from him, and any injury to her hurts him. This isn't an arrangement favorable to either of them, so they set off on a quest to find someone who can break this curse for them.
It's very much the start of a series. In fact, I would almost say that the "crossing the threshold" part of the overall series story doesn't happen until the end of this book. But it's not a travelogue. Stuff happens along the way, and it's far more about the developing relationship between the pirate girl and the young assassin, who are similar in a lot of ways but who have very different perspectives and life goals. They both have issues that interfere with their forced partnership, and you do sometimes want to bang their heads together to make them realize that they could make a good team, even as you realize why it's difficult for them. I've already requested the next book from the library because I can't wait to see what happens next.
One caveat is that the book is written in what I guess you'd call "vernacular." It's first-person narration that's very much in the heroine's voice. It's not "talk like a pirate day" pirate talk, but it's not standard English grammar, so if you're a grammar Nazi, it may take a while to get into the book instead of wanting to correct it. It wouldn't be quite as distracting if limited to dialogue, but then again, it would make no sense for the dialogue to be the way she speaks and then the narration to sound like an English teacher (unless, perhaps, it was being written from the perspective of her future self after receiving some education). I know of people who can't deal with narration in dialect, so this is something to be aware of.
May 19, 2014
So Many Channels ...
It's really nice to have the kind of weekend you don't need a weekend to recover from. I love starting the week feeling fresh and revived. I did my social activity on Friday evening, then had a productive and restful Saturday. There was the usual church stuff and an extra choir rehearsal on Sunday, but otherwise I managed to do the things I'd planned, and I'm not starting the week feeling behind.
Even better, I have meals mostly taken care of for the week because I defrosted something that will cover at least a couple more meals, and I got a meatloaf on "manager's special" at the grocery store that I cooked last night. Last week was almost entirely vegetarian, so I guess this will be a meat week.
I did discover something new on TV this weekend while I was eating lunch/reading the newspaper/doing crossword puzzles/knitting: A Hallmark series called Signed, Sealed, Delivered. I've only watched the pilot so far, but it seems to be a quasi-anthology romantic comedy series. There seem to be some ongoing story lines among the main cast, but there's a different story for the main plot each week. It's about the dead letter office at the post office in what supposedly is (but totally isn't) Denver. The office is staffed by a group of quirky people and led by a very old-fashioned guy. When a new woman is assigned to the group, seemingly by mistake (she's supposed to be working with computers), she really shakes things up and gets them personally involved in tracking down the people and the stories around the lost letters. It's very sweet, so you have to be in the mood for that kind of thing, but if you are in the mood for that kind of thing, it hits the spot. I think they're kind of going for a faith-based approach, but so far the only nod to that is the acknowledgement that the boss is a believer who goes to church and whose faith has a lot to do with the way he approaches his work. Then again, for TV that's pretty heavy-handed, since he isn't a cop who's a lapsed Catholic confronting his faith in a Very Special Episode and he's not a villain trying to purify everyone. It's funny that there's a disclaimer at the end about how this isn't really the way the post office handles mail, and yet the US Postal Service logo is plastered all over everything, and there are lengthy monologues romanticizing the idea of letters, so I'm guessing there's some paid placement or sponsorship going on here.
I saw this OnDemand, but I recently discovered that I now have the Hallmark channel, along with a lot of others. I was theoretically supposed to start receiving them last year, but they finally showed up. And, apparently, Hallmark shows movies that are like those holiday movies, just without the "Christmas threw up all over the place" set design, all the time. Yes, whenever I want a fix, I can watch a cheesy, heartwarming romantic comedy, often with a paranormal twist.
BBCAmerica came with this, so now I don't have to wait for OnDemand or rely upon the kindness of friends when Doctor Who returns.
Though, strangely, this seems to be a case of a zillion channels with nothing on because whenever I have a viewing gap and it would be nice to just put something on for background noise, I still can't find anything to watch and have to resort to OnDemand. That's how I ended up watching this show. It looked like what I was in the mood for and it was about to expire, so it was now or never.
But I don't have much time for TV because I have a book to write. Now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'm hoping to really make tracks this week.
Even better, I have meals mostly taken care of for the week because I defrosted something that will cover at least a couple more meals, and I got a meatloaf on "manager's special" at the grocery store that I cooked last night. Last week was almost entirely vegetarian, so I guess this will be a meat week.
I did discover something new on TV this weekend while I was eating lunch/reading the newspaper/doing crossword puzzles/knitting: A Hallmark series called Signed, Sealed, Delivered. I've only watched the pilot so far, but it seems to be a quasi-anthology romantic comedy series. There seem to be some ongoing story lines among the main cast, but there's a different story for the main plot each week. It's about the dead letter office at the post office in what supposedly is (but totally isn't) Denver. The office is staffed by a group of quirky people and led by a very old-fashioned guy. When a new woman is assigned to the group, seemingly by mistake (she's supposed to be working with computers), she really shakes things up and gets them personally involved in tracking down the people and the stories around the lost letters. It's very sweet, so you have to be in the mood for that kind of thing, but if you are in the mood for that kind of thing, it hits the spot. I think they're kind of going for a faith-based approach, but so far the only nod to that is the acknowledgement that the boss is a believer who goes to church and whose faith has a lot to do with the way he approaches his work. Then again, for TV that's pretty heavy-handed, since he isn't a cop who's a lapsed Catholic confronting his faith in a Very Special Episode and he's not a villain trying to purify everyone. It's funny that there's a disclaimer at the end about how this isn't really the way the post office handles mail, and yet the US Postal Service logo is plastered all over everything, and there are lengthy monologues romanticizing the idea of letters, so I'm guessing there's some paid placement or sponsorship going on here.
I saw this OnDemand, but I recently discovered that I now have the Hallmark channel, along with a lot of others. I was theoretically supposed to start receiving them last year, but they finally showed up. And, apparently, Hallmark shows movies that are like those holiday movies, just without the "Christmas threw up all over the place" set design, all the time. Yes, whenever I want a fix, I can watch a cheesy, heartwarming romantic comedy, often with a paranormal twist.
BBCAmerica came with this, so now I don't have to wait for OnDemand or rely upon the kindness of friends when Doctor Who returns.
Though, strangely, this seems to be a case of a zillion channels with nothing on because whenever I have a viewing gap and it would be nice to just put something on for background noise, I still can't find anything to watch and have to resort to OnDemand. That's how I ended up watching this show. It looked like what I was in the mood for and it was about to expire, so it was now or never.
But I don't have much time for TV because I have a book to write. Now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'm hoping to really make tracks this week.
May 16, 2014
The End of the TV Season
I was very good yesterday, getting more than 3,000 words written and taking an extra dance class (I have some to make up from when I was sick earlier in the year). Now my thighs are a little angry with me, but they'll live. I just have one more week of dance, and then a short break before the summer term. I'm a little nervous about summer because it's a teacher I haven't had before, since my teacher will be on maternity leave. My teacher gets that we're adults, not all of us have danced all our lives, and we're doing this for fun/exercise, not to make a career out of it. When we've had subs, sometimes they're a little too intense for our group, and then it's not fun anymore. But I don't want to take the summer off because then I'll turn into a slug. I actually need to find more ways to trick myself into exercising.
The main TV season is pretty much winding down, though these days there are summer shows, so it's not quite the vast wasteland of reruns it used to be. Most of my favorite shows were renewed or are coming to a natural end. One loss was Almost Human on Fox, which I thought was just starting to get into its potential. The other is one I got into late, The Crazy Ones on CBS, but I think my main interest there was seeing when Josh Grobin would show up. I love how as a singer he's so serious and dramatic, but as an actor, he's a raging goofball who specializes in playing characters who are clueless or jerks or clueless jerks, and it was interesting to see him holding his own against Robin Williams in a comedy, even if he was just in a minor recurring role (as the somewhat psycho jingle writer). Warehouse 13 is ending Monday, and while I've loved that show, I think it's time for it to end. While there have been some high points and brilliantly clever moments along the way, I still think it peaked in the first season. It just seemed tighter and the characters seemed more real then. It became a little cartoony along the way.
The Grimm season finale is tonight, so I can't judge how it compares to everything else, but it would be hard to top the Once Upon a Time finale for sheer fun. I liked that NCIS didn't feel obligated to have a cliffhanger. When every show ends every season with a big cliffhanger, the concept of the cliffhanger loses its impact. You expect it, and a good cliffhanger should leave you with a surprised, "Wait, that's it?" moment. When a show like Grimm can follow their "to be continued" screen with "oh, come on, you knew it was coming," you know cliffhangers have become run-of-the-mill. Though I did find their "Oh #&%*$!" instead of "to be continued" kind of amusing.
Now to go make a grocery list, run some errands and get my house in reasonable order before I get a little work done and then do some late-afternoon/early evening hiking. Tomorrow is going to be a good work/reading day.
The main TV season is pretty much winding down, though these days there are summer shows, so it's not quite the vast wasteland of reruns it used to be. Most of my favorite shows were renewed or are coming to a natural end. One loss was Almost Human on Fox, which I thought was just starting to get into its potential. The other is one I got into late, The Crazy Ones on CBS, but I think my main interest there was seeing when Josh Grobin would show up. I love how as a singer he's so serious and dramatic, but as an actor, he's a raging goofball who specializes in playing characters who are clueless or jerks or clueless jerks, and it was interesting to see him holding his own against Robin Williams in a comedy, even if he was just in a minor recurring role (as the somewhat psycho jingle writer). Warehouse 13 is ending Monday, and while I've loved that show, I think it's time for it to end. While there have been some high points and brilliantly clever moments along the way, I still think it peaked in the first season. It just seemed tighter and the characters seemed more real then. It became a little cartoony along the way.
The Grimm season finale is tonight, so I can't judge how it compares to everything else, but it would be hard to top the Once Upon a Time finale for sheer fun. I liked that NCIS didn't feel obligated to have a cliffhanger. When every show ends every season with a big cliffhanger, the concept of the cliffhanger loses its impact. You expect it, and a good cliffhanger should leave you with a surprised, "Wait, that's it?" moment. When a show like Grimm can follow their "to be continued" screen with "oh, come on, you knew it was coming," you know cliffhangers have become run-of-the-mill. Though I did find their "Oh #&%*$!" instead of "to be continued" kind of amusing.
Now to go make a grocery list, run some errands and get my house in reasonable order before I get a little work done and then do some late-afternoon/early evening hiking. Tomorrow is going to be a good work/reading day.
May 15, 2014
Processes
No kids in choir stories today because I'm done with children's choir. Oh happy, happy joy. Well, until the fall because I'm a sap and agreed to do it again. I was sitting on the sofa, writing, when I had a moment of panic at the time, and then I remembered that I didn't have to go.
I only got a little more than 2,000 words written yesterday, but then about 45 minutes of my work time was devoted to brainstorming, and now I have at least the next four or five scenes figured out, and I have a few new twists that I hadn't anticipated that will make things a lot more fun. I'm really enjoying myself now.
This particular series is a weird one for me. For one thing, my process changes entirely. I do a lot more rewriting as I go, sometimes multiple drafts of the beginning before I move on. This is because I don't seem to really know what it's about until I write it. With the first book, I had one idea when I started, and by the time I was done, it had changed entirely. It's about as close as I get to "seat of the pants" writing, and yet I do extensive plotting and planning. Also, I can't seem to write it in silence. I have to leave iTunes playing on shuffle while I write. With almost everything else I write, I need total silence or just instrumental music (movie soundtracks work). With these books, not only do I need music, but I need music with lyrics. There's occasionally a pause to sing along, but when I'm really going, I can tune it out.
I just can't take as long from start to finish on this book as I did on the previous one. I wrote three other books between the time I started it and the time I really considered it finished enough to submit. I started researching in the summer of 2009, started actually writing that fall, and will be releasing it this summer. The sequel just has multiple rounds of revisions on another book in the middle of it.
It's funny how different books have different demands, and it takes a while to figure out if this is a music book or a silence book, an afternoon book or an evening book, a push to the end book or a revise as I go book. Usually, there's some process consistency within a series, but not always.
I probably need to start figuring out what to write next. Probably the sequel to the steampunk book to offer it as an option book on that contract, and then have it ready to self-publish if they don't want it. But they didn't really want to think in terms of a series, so it might be better to give them a standalone until they see how the first book does, but then that would delay publication of the sequel. This is a chat I'll have to have with my agent after I get this book done.
I only got a little more than 2,000 words written yesterday, but then about 45 minutes of my work time was devoted to brainstorming, and now I have at least the next four or five scenes figured out, and I have a few new twists that I hadn't anticipated that will make things a lot more fun. I'm really enjoying myself now.
This particular series is a weird one for me. For one thing, my process changes entirely. I do a lot more rewriting as I go, sometimes multiple drafts of the beginning before I move on. This is because I don't seem to really know what it's about until I write it. With the first book, I had one idea when I started, and by the time I was done, it had changed entirely. It's about as close as I get to "seat of the pants" writing, and yet I do extensive plotting and planning. Also, I can't seem to write it in silence. I have to leave iTunes playing on shuffle while I write. With almost everything else I write, I need total silence or just instrumental music (movie soundtracks work). With these books, not only do I need music, but I need music with lyrics. There's occasionally a pause to sing along, but when I'm really going, I can tune it out.
I just can't take as long from start to finish on this book as I did on the previous one. I wrote three other books between the time I started it and the time I really considered it finished enough to submit. I started researching in the summer of 2009, started actually writing that fall, and will be releasing it this summer. The sequel just has multiple rounds of revisions on another book in the middle of it.
It's funny how different books have different demands, and it takes a while to figure out if this is a music book or a silence book, an afternoon book or an evening book, a push to the end book or a revise as I go book. Usually, there's some process consistency within a series, but not always.
I probably need to start figuring out what to write next. Probably the sequel to the steampunk book to offer it as an option book on that contract, and then have it ready to self-publish if they don't want it. But they didn't really want to think in terms of a series, so it might be better to give them a standalone until they see how the first book does, but then that would delay publication of the sequel. This is a chat I'll have to have with my agent after I get this book done.
May 14, 2014
Looking Up
I got back into the swing of things yesterday with more than 3,000 words of new material. Yay! I feel like I've been rewriting, revising, editing and proofreading forever, but now I'm moving forward. I have a bit of brainstorming to do before I get started today because I don't think I've delved deeply enough into today's scenes to get their full potential. It's nice that I don't have children's choir tonight, which gives me an extra couple of hours, in addition to time not spent preparing a lesson plan. I was sort of joking about how every time I get started working on this book, I get another round of revisions. Well, I just got an e-mail from that editor wanting a far more detailed map than I sent. Does that count?
My ballet teacher gave me an assignment for the summer (she's on the verge of giving birth, so she will be on maternity leave for the summer session). I have to learn to look up. I have a very bad habit while dancing of looking at my feet or the floor. We were joking about how I need an Elizabethian ruff around my neck to keep me from seeing the floor. Or maybe a really big tutu. But the thing is, that's generally how I go around all the time, watching the floor instead of straight ahead. Some of it may be a factor of my eyesight. I'm nearsighted, but only slightly enough to need glasses to watch TV or drive. Just walking around, I'm okay, but that does mean my focal point is fairly close to me, and so I walk around looking at the ground about a yard ahead. It's actually kind of freaky to walk around looking up and ahead. I'm having sensory overload issues. My brain is going "aaah, way too much information to process!"
In dance, some of it may be confidence. I'm not sure my feet are doing the right thing, so I have to look down and watch them. I got kind of lost last night when I was forcing myself to look up. But in general, it's a habit, so it will take time and effort to break. My personal summer assignment is to work more on stretching and get my flexibility back. And we'll see what the summer teacher does to me.
I suppose that looking up and ahead is a good way to deal with life in general. It's easy to get focused on what's going on now, and watching your own feet is a good metaphor for self-absorption. Looking up and out at the world makes you more of a part of it. Ooh, I feel so profound.
My ballet teacher gave me an assignment for the summer (she's on the verge of giving birth, so she will be on maternity leave for the summer session). I have to learn to look up. I have a very bad habit while dancing of looking at my feet or the floor. We were joking about how I need an Elizabethian ruff around my neck to keep me from seeing the floor. Or maybe a really big tutu. But the thing is, that's generally how I go around all the time, watching the floor instead of straight ahead. Some of it may be a factor of my eyesight. I'm nearsighted, but only slightly enough to need glasses to watch TV or drive. Just walking around, I'm okay, but that does mean my focal point is fairly close to me, and so I walk around looking at the ground about a yard ahead. It's actually kind of freaky to walk around looking up and ahead. I'm having sensory overload issues. My brain is going "aaah, way too much information to process!"
In dance, some of it may be confidence. I'm not sure my feet are doing the right thing, so I have to look down and watch them. I got kind of lost last night when I was forcing myself to look up. But in general, it's a habit, so it will take time and effort to break. My personal summer assignment is to work more on stretching and get my flexibility back. And we'll see what the summer teacher does to me.
I suppose that looking up and ahead is a good way to deal with life in general. It's easy to get focused on what's going on now, and watching your own feet is a good metaphor for self-absorption. Looking up and out at the world makes you more of a part of it. Ooh, I feel so profound.
May 13, 2014
Reading Influences: War Stories
I spent yesterday re-reading the first part of the book and outlining the next scenes, so I think I'm ready to plunge back in and see how much I can get written, fast.
Since I'm still wading through the Belgariad (I'm nearly done with book 2), I guess it's time for another discussion of reading influences.
On the surface it looks like an anomaly in my general reading taste, but I've long had a fondness for war-related novels, particularly World War II. Unlike a lot of my reading influences, I can't point to any specific time or book that kicked this off. I grew up in a military family, and we lived for a while on a historic post that had a lot of museums. I remember visiting these museums with my dad and seeing things like the evolution of the army uniform, from the Revolutionary War to the present (at that time). My school bus passed the row of artillery from the beginning to the present every day. Daddy-daughter bonding time for me often involved us watching old war movies (my dad called them "training films") together. Then we moved to Germany, and I was seeing a lot of war-related stuff first-hand.
I think I read Anne Frank's diary in fifth or sixth grade (I remember what school I was going to when I read it, and I was at that school in those years), and I liked to read war-related children's books, which tended to focus on stuff like the adventures British kids evacuated from cities during the war had while staying either in small, remote towns or castles. There were a few about Jews in hiding, and as I got older and veered into what we'd call "young adult," there were books about American teens being caught in France when the Nazis invaded and having to escape.
The summer between sixth and seventh grades, we went on a family vacation to Berchtesgaden. One day, we took the Sound of Music tour of Salzburg, but the rest of the time, we were exploring the Obersalzberg, which was sort of the retreat/mountain hideout for the main Nazis. At that time, that mountain was where the American military rec area was, so we were staying in a hotel that used to be Hitler's guest VIP hotel, and everywhere you went, you found remnants of the time when that area was heavily fortified. We got to go into the bunkers, and once we got a map, we were able to figure out which blocked-off driveways led to the sites of the homes of which Nazi leaders. I think that stirred a lot of interest and curiosity because it became very real, but at the same time, I found myself trying to make sense of it all, and fiction helps with that because fiction generally makes sense.
In seventh grade, the junior high school shared a library with the high school, and that meant the children's, young adult, and adult books were all shelved together, which helped me transition to adult books. That was when I really got into reading war books. I never much cared about actual battlefield stories. I was more into stuff like espionage, capers, and secret missions -- essentially adventure stories in a war setting. I got into authors like Alastair MacLean (The Guns of Navarone) and Jack Higgins (The Eagle Has Landed). By the time I was in high school, I was reading Herman Wouk (The Winds of War/War and Remembrance) and Leon Uris (Mila 18).
As I was thinking recently while planning this post, it occurred to me that these books are actually pretty similar to the classic fantasy novel. The spy/secret mission stories involve putting together a team that usually comes from all walks of life and has different specialties. They go on a journey together, usually having to evade the all-seeing eyes of the enemy. They have to sneak into some kind of fortress, and then they either have to find something or destroy something. The Guns of Navarone and The Lord of the Rings are basically the same story, but in a different setting and with technology instead of magic. Though The Guns of Navarone has a lot less elven poetry and is a lot shorter. So, it's not so weird that I would like both kinds of books.
I don't inhale these books quite as much these days, though I have enjoyed Elizabeth Wein's WWII YA thrillers. I don't know that quite so many books about that era are being written now. When I was in junior high, the people who'd experienced the war were probably the prime demographic for writing and buying books, and most of the books I was reading were pretty old even then. Now it's more like ancient history.
Since I'm still wading through the Belgariad (I'm nearly done with book 2), I guess it's time for another discussion of reading influences.
On the surface it looks like an anomaly in my general reading taste, but I've long had a fondness for war-related novels, particularly World War II. Unlike a lot of my reading influences, I can't point to any specific time or book that kicked this off. I grew up in a military family, and we lived for a while on a historic post that had a lot of museums. I remember visiting these museums with my dad and seeing things like the evolution of the army uniform, from the Revolutionary War to the present (at that time). My school bus passed the row of artillery from the beginning to the present every day. Daddy-daughter bonding time for me often involved us watching old war movies (my dad called them "training films") together. Then we moved to Germany, and I was seeing a lot of war-related stuff first-hand.
I think I read Anne Frank's diary in fifth or sixth grade (I remember what school I was going to when I read it, and I was at that school in those years), and I liked to read war-related children's books, which tended to focus on stuff like the adventures British kids evacuated from cities during the war had while staying either in small, remote towns or castles. There were a few about Jews in hiding, and as I got older and veered into what we'd call "young adult," there were books about American teens being caught in France when the Nazis invaded and having to escape.
The summer between sixth and seventh grades, we went on a family vacation to Berchtesgaden. One day, we took the Sound of Music tour of Salzburg, but the rest of the time, we were exploring the Obersalzberg, which was sort of the retreat/mountain hideout for the main Nazis. At that time, that mountain was where the American military rec area was, so we were staying in a hotel that used to be Hitler's guest VIP hotel, and everywhere you went, you found remnants of the time when that area was heavily fortified. We got to go into the bunkers, and once we got a map, we were able to figure out which blocked-off driveways led to the sites of the homes of which Nazi leaders. I think that stirred a lot of interest and curiosity because it became very real, but at the same time, I found myself trying to make sense of it all, and fiction helps with that because fiction generally makes sense.
In seventh grade, the junior high school shared a library with the high school, and that meant the children's, young adult, and adult books were all shelved together, which helped me transition to adult books. That was when I really got into reading war books. I never much cared about actual battlefield stories. I was more into stuff like espionage, capers, and secret missions -- essentially adventure stories in a war setting. I got into authors like Alastair MacLean (The Guns of Navarone) and Jack Higgins (The Eagle Has Landed). By the time I was in high school, I was reading Herman Wouk (The Winds of War/War and Remembrance) and Leon Uris (Mila 18).
As I was thinking recently while planning this post, it occurred to me that these books are actually pretty similar to the classic fantasy novel. The spy/secret mission stories involve putting together a team that usually comes from all walks of life and has different specialties. They go on a journey together, usually having to evade the all-seeing eyes of the enemy. They have to sneak into some kind of fortress, and then they either have to find something or destroy something. The Guns of Navarone and The Lord of the Rings are basically the same story, but in a different setting and with technology instead of magic. Though The Guns of Navarone has a lot less elven poetry and is a lot shorter. So, it's not so weird that I would like both kinds of books.
I don't inhale these books quite as much these days, though I have enjoyed Elizabeth Wein's WWII YA thrillers. I don't know that quite so many books about that era are being written now. When I was in junior high, the people who'd experienced the war were probably the prime demographic for writing and buying books, and most of the books I was reading were pretty old even then. Now it's more like ancient history.
May 12, 2014
Diva Moments
I got the book proofread, and it will go to my agent today. And then I can get back to its sequel, which means I'll get a package of copy edits on the steampunk book on my doorstep tomorrow. That seems to be how this works.
I had a minor trial by fire with the ensemble on Sunday morning, since the first soprano didn't show up for the rehearsal and barely slipped in at the start of the service, so I never got to practice with the full group and wasn't entirely sure which part I'd end up singing. It went pretty well, and I think I sang the right notes, or if I messed up, I likely sang the alto note, which still wasn't entirely "wrong" in an obvious way. I don't know what her deal was, if she forgot, overslept or got caught in traffic, but this is a big reason why I fit in better in the second soprano section, in spite of my voice. The stereotype of the first sopranos is that they tend to be flaky divas -- they're not entirely reliable and don't care because they know the world revolves around them. That's a bit of an exaggeration, and this girl seems nice (she's new, so I don't really know her well), so something really may have come up, but it's common enough behavior among sopranos that it's not entirely unexpected that the soprano will be the last to arrive in a group like this. Meanwhile, I'm obsessive enough to have practiced the piece thoroughly and then arrive early. I'd give myself a heart attack if I just breezed in right before a performance, and I'd be afraid the others wouldn't wait for me. I'd just assume they'd have planned around me and wouldn't want me to be part of the group if I wasn't there to rehearse.
But we got through it and sounded good. And I ended up with two Mother's Day flowers since I was in both services. We recognize all women for their role in the church (which actually was supposed to be the original idea of what became Mother's Day in the US), not just people who are literal mothers.
And then I had way too much fun with the season finale of Once Upon a Time. It worked like a nearly self-contained two-hour movie, and will be going on my swashbuckling fantasy romance shelf next to Stardust. How could I not love a fairy tale version of Back to the Future, starring Princess Leia?
I really need to write something like that.
But first, to finish the book I'm working on.
I had a minor trial by fire with the ensemble on Sunday morning, since the first soprano didn't show up for the rehearsal and barely slipped in at the start of the service, so I never got to practice with the full group and wasn't entirely sure which part I'd end up singing. It went pretty well, and I think I sang the right notes, or if I messed up, I likely sang the alto note, which still wasn't entirely "wrong" in an obvious way. I don't know what her deal was, if she forgot, overslept or got caught in traffic, but this is a big reason why I fit in better in the second soprano section, in spite of my voice. The stereotype of the first sopranos is that they tend to be flaky divas -- they're not entirely reliable and don't care because they know the world revolves around them. That's a bit of an exaggeration, and this girl seems nice (she's new, so I don't really know her well), so something really may have come up, but it's common enough behavior among sopranos that it's not entirely unexpected that the soprano will be the last to arrive in a group like this. Meanwhile, I'm obsessive enough to have practiced the piece thoroughly and then arrive early. I'd give myself a heart attack if I just breezed in right before a performance, and I'd be afraid the others wouldn't wait for me. I'd just assume they'd have planned around me and wouldn't want me to be part of the group if I wasn't there to rehearse.
But we got through it and sounded good. And I ended up with two Mother's Day flowers since I was in both services. We recognize all women for their role in the church (which actually was supposed to be the original idea of what became Mother's Day in the US), not just people who are literal mothers.
And then I had way too much fun with the season finale of Once Upon a Time. It worked like a nearly self-contained two-hour movie, and will be going on my swashbuckling fantasy romance shelf next to Stardust. How could I not love a fairy tale version of Back to the Future, starring Princess Leia?
I really need to write something like that.
But first, to finish the book I'm working on.
May 9, 2014
Storm Warnings
I discovered yesterday that doing work that requires a lot of concentration, like proofreading, is very difficult when the weather radio keeps going off. I had four warnings yesterday -- flash flood, severe thunderstorm, tornado, another flash flood. None of them directly affected my area, but they were in my county, so the radio went off with an earsplitting shriek and then an eerie disembodied robotic voice describing the situation. That then led to me going online or turning on the TV to find out what the situation really was. The afternoon was almost a total wash for work, so I ended up working in the evening and a little bit late at night.
Today seems nicer, so I'm hoping to make more progress. I want to get this book to my agent on Monday so I can get back into writing the sequel and get this one ready for publication. Then I'll only have a couple of urgent projects in the works, since I'm also working to get the first four books in the Enchanted Inc. series released digitally outside North America. They've been translated in some places, but the way the rights were granted to Random House kept the English editions from being available as e-books worldwide. Since I have those rights, I'm rectifying that, but that means getting the text ready, licensing the art directly from the artist, and getting new covers designed and new cover copy written (since all that was done by Random House and I can't steal their work). Getting the text ready has been a bit of a challenge because I wrote the earlier books in something closer to true manuscript format, so there's underlining instead of italics, and there's some Word formatting stuff that has to be stripped. I also put in the copy editor's changes in track changes mode so I could more easily check the proof pages, and so I have to go in and accept changes and then make sure that doesn't introduce new errors.
For those still hoping for more books in this series, I'm afraid that even rereading them isn't sparking new ideas. I still love those books and the characters, but I can now read them almost like a reader and not like the writer. That door really seems to have closed for now. I know readers want more, and I understand that as a reader, but as a writer, I'm okay with it. I told the story I wanted to tell, and it actually went on for two more books beyond what I planned. I thought I was done with #5, but the Japanese publisher asked for more, so I came up with something else, and then that gave me an idea for book 7. While writing that one, though, I think I knew all along it was probably the end. But you never know what may one day strike me, so I'm not going to say it's definitely over. Just don't hold your breath. I have a lot of other ideas begging to be written.
Which means I probably ought to get to work, huh? Oh, and there's that map I need to finish.
Today seems nicer, so I'm hoping to make more progress. I want to get this book to my agent on Monday so I can get back into writing the sequel and get this one ready for publication. Then I'll only have a couple of urgent projects in the works, since I'm also working to get the first four books in the Enchanted Inc. series released digitally outside North America. They've been translated in some places, but the way the rights were granted to Random House kept the English editions from being available as e-books worldwide. Since I have those rights, I'm rectifying that, but that means getting the text ready, licensing the art directly from the artist, and getting new covers designed and new cover copy written (since all that was done by Random House and I can't steal their work). Getting the text ready has been a bit of a challenge because I wrote the earlier books in something closer to true manuscript format, so there's underlining instead of italics, and there's some Word formatting stuff that has to be stripped. I also put in the copy editor's changes in track changes mode so I could more easily check the proof pages, and so I have to go in and accept changes and then make sure that doesn't introduce new errors.
For those still hoping for more books in this series, I'm afraid that even rereading them isn't sparking new ideas. I still love those books and the characters, but I can now read them almost like a reader and not like the writer. That door really seems to have closed for now. I know readers want more, and I understand that as a reader, but as a writer, I'm okay with it. I told the story I wanted to tell, and it actually went on for two more books beyond what I planned. I thought I was done with #5, but the Japanese publisher asked for more, so I came up with something else, and then that gave me an idea for book 7. While writing that one, though, I think I knew all along it was probably the end. But you never know what may one day strike me, so I'm not going to say it's definitely over. Just don't hold your breath. I have a lot of other ideas begging to be written.
Which means I probably ought to get to work, huh? Oh, and there's that map I need to finish.
May 8, 2014
Farewell to the Kids
I am now officially done with children's choir for the summer. And there was much rejoicing. I did get a reminder of why I do this when I had one of my problem children sitting snuggled up against me while we waited for our turn to sing last night "because this is our last time together." Aww. The kids from last year were very excited to see me. And then there was the little girl from this year's class who kept coming up to me during dinner to tell me important things that, according to her mother, she'd been waiting all day to tell me. I'm not entirely sure what they were because she got suddenly quiet and shy when coming up to talk to me, and she has a couple of front teeth missing. I just know that she was coming up to me and very intently telling me things that I couldn't hear or understand. It was a smile and nod moment. I did catch that her class's baby chicks were about to hatch, and they can watch them on a webcam from home. Kindergarten has changed since my day.
Meanwhile, it looks like the choir director isn't going to let me slide back into a comfort zone because he assigned me to the small group singing this Sunday's choir anthem in the early service. This won't be too scary because it's a group and I'm singing the second soprano part, so no high-pitched shrieking. I don't think it even gets to the top of the staff. Still, I'll be the only second soprano, which is a slight challenge because it means finding the harmony instead of just resting on top. I think I mostly got picked because I'm going to be there and I'm the only second soprano who can sing outside a choir setting who isn't a grandmother who's likely to be busy with Mother's Day stuff that morning. But since my church recognizes all women in the church as "church moms," that means I'll get twice the Mother's Day attention, and possibly some very small children fighting over who gets to give me the flower or whatever they decide to pass out.
Meanwhile, I've made it through the copy edits on my upcoming contemporary fantasy book and now just need to do a read-through to make sure things are still consistent. I'm using the same copy editor who did the Enchanted, Inc. series, and I love her so very much. She keeps a light hand, maintaining my style, while breaking my bad habits (like overuse of "then"), she leaves funny comments about stuff she likes, and she seems to get my writing and my characters. That's why I keep using her for my self-published stuff, even though she's a little more expensive. And in this case, it didn't look like she'd be available, but she moved stuff around because she didn't want to miss the opportunity of being first to read my next book, so the love is mutual. If I get enough career clout to demand that any future publishers use the copy editor of my choice, I will demand her. She's declared herself the official Jewish mother of my books because she makes sure all my characters are properly fed and taken care of. There are actual notes on the manuscript asking when these people have had a chance to eat.
After I get this book proofread, I'll be ready to dive into finishing the next one.
Meanwhile, it looks like the choir director isn't going to let me slide back into a comfort zone because he assigned me to the small group singing this Sunday's choir anthem in the early service. This won't be too scary because it's a group and I'm singing the second soprano part, so no high-pitched shrieking. I don't think it even gets to the top of the staff. Still, I'll be the only second soprano, which is a slight challenge because it means finding the harmony instead of just resting on top. I think I mostly got picked because I'm going to be there and I'm the only second soprano who can sing outside a choir setting who isn't a grandmother who's likely to be busy with Mother's Day stuff that morning. But since my church recognizes all women in the church as "church moms," that means I'll get twice the Mother's Day attention, and possibly some very small children fighting over who gets to give me the flower or whatever they decide to pass out.
Meanwhile, I've made it through the copy edits on my upcoming contemporary fantasy book and now just need to do a read-through to make sure things are still consistent. I'm using the same copy editor who did the Enchanted, Inc. series, and I love her so very much. She keeps a light hand, maintaining my style, while breaking my bad habits (like overuse of "then"), she leaves funny comments about stuff she likes, and she seems to get my writing and my characters. That's why I keep using her for my self-published stuff, even though she's a little more expensive. And in this case, it didn't look like she'd be available, but she moved stuff around because she didn't want to miss the opportunity of being first to read my next book, so the love is mutual. If I get enough career clout to demand that any future publishers use the copy editor of my choice, I will demand her. She's declared herself the official Jewish mother of my books because she makes sure all my characters are properly fed and taken care of. There are actual notes on the manuscript asking when these people have had a chance to eat.
After I get this book proofread, I'll be ready to dive into finishing the next one.
May 7, 2014
Staying Motivated
Here's another writing question posed by readers at Facebook: How do you motivate yourself to write and stay motivated?
It gets easier when you're writing with a contract because you've signed a document saying you'll have the book turned in and money is involved. Even then, staying on track when the deadline seems far away and there are other things you'd love to do can be challenging.
Staying motivated can be really difficult if you're trying to break in, have no deadline and have no guarantee that what you're writing will ever be seen.
One thing that helps is to have a deadline. If you do have a deadline and it seems far away, set earlier deadlines for particular parts of the project -- say, for a rough draft, for the second draft, for proofreading, etc. If you don't have a publisher's deadline, give yourself one, and it's best if you attach it to something you can't easily change so you force yourself to be honest. Say you're going to finish the book in time to enter it in a contest, before you go to a conference where you'll pitch it to someone, before a vacation or holiday where you want to have the book done so you can enjoy yourself. Write down your deadline.
I think it also helps to set smaller goals and give yourself little rewards along the way. It can be as simple as letting yourself eat a piece of candy when you've written a page or allowing yourself to watch your favorite TV show when you've met your goal for the day. Tracking your progress is a good way to keep yourself going. Record your word or page count for the day or make a chart showing how far you've come and how much more you have to go. I sometimes like to set a daily page or word goal based on the deadline and how much I have to write, and then if I've gone over that significantly for a while, I recalculate to see how much less I now have to write per day -- and then I still try to stick with the original goal.
Come up with a big reward for finishing the book. If it helps, find a way to visualize that and put it someplace where you can see it -- a picture of the shoes you'll buy, the meal out you'll enjoy, the place you'll go for your day out. I find it also helps to put into words the reason you're writing this book -- not just for publication or money, but why you need to tell this story. That's a good thing to go back to when you're feeling stuck.
It may help to have some kind of accountability partner, whether it's just someone you tell your deadline and goals and keep posted of your word count or someone who reads the book as you're writing it. I seem to make my fastest progress when I send a chapter at a time to someone else while I'm writing. That gives me some instant feedback (not a full critique, just a comment or two) and if I'm doing it right, it leaves them eager to read more so I get nagged to keep writing and get the next chapter done. I've heard of groups that create writing challenges and post their daily word counts to each other.
When it's not necessarily a particular project and more writing in general that has me needing motivation, I'll visit a bookstore. That reminds me of what I'm doing and why, and it makes me even more eager to get my act together and get more books in the store. It can help to create some kind of encouragement file -- positive comments from critiques or contests, reader mail, book covers, etc. -- to remind you why you're doing this. I've known of artistically inclined writers who create mock-ups of a possible cover for the book so they can visualize it on store shelves.
These are some of the ways I keep myself going. Any other suggestions?
It gets easier when you're writing with a contract because you've signed a document saying you'll have the book turned in and money is involved. Even then, staying on track when the deadline seems far away and there are other things you'd love to do can be challenging.
Staying motivated can be really difficult if you're trying to break in, have no deadline and have no guarantee that what you're writing will ever be seen.
One thing that helps is to have a deadline. If you do have a deadline and it seems far away, set earlier deadlines for particular parts of the project -- say, for a rough draft, for the second draft, for proofreading, etc. If you don't have a publisher's deadline, give yourself one, and it's best if you attach it to something you can't easily change so you force yourself to be honest. Say you're going to finish the book in time to enter it in a contest, before you go to a conference where you'll pitch it to someone, before a vacation or holiday where you want to have the book done so you can enjoy yourself. Write down your deadline.
I think it also helps to set smaller goals and give yourself little rewards along the way. It can be as simple as letting yourself eat a piece of candy when you've written a page or allowing yourself to watch your favorite TV show when you've met your goal for the day. Tracking your progress is a good way to keep yourself going. Record your word or page count for the day or make a chart showing how far you've come and how much more you have to go. I sometimes like to set a daily page or word goal based on the deadline and how much I have to write, and then if I've gone over that significantly for a while, I recalculate to see how much less I now have to write per day -- and then I still try to stick with the original goal.
Come up with a big reward for finishing the book. If it helps, find a way to visualize that and put it someplace where you can see it -- a picture of the shoes you'll buy, the meal out you'll enjoy, the place you'll go for your day out. I find it also helps to put into words the reason you're writing this book -- not just for publication or money, but why you need to tell this story. That's a good thing to go back to when you're feeling stuck.
It may help to have some kind of accountability partner, whether it's just someone you tell your deadline and goals and keep posted of your word count or someone who reads the book as you're writing it. I seem to make my fastest progress when I send a chapter at a time to someone else while I'm writing. That gives me some instant feedback (not a full critique, just a comment or two) and if I'm doing it right, it leaves them eager to read more so I get nagged to keep writing and get the next chapter done. I've heard of groups that create writing challenges and post their daily word counts to each other.
When it's not necessarily a particular project and more writing in general that has me needing motivation, I'll visit a bookstore. That reminds me of what I'm doing and why, and it makes me even more eager to get my act together and get more books in the store. It can help to create some kind of encouragement file -- positive comments from critiques or contests, reader mail, book covers, etc. -- to remind you why you're doing this. I've known of artistically inclined writers who create mock-ups of a possible cover for the book so they can visualize it on store shelves.
These are some of the ways I keep myself going. Any other suggestions?
