Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 186
January 28, 2014
Judging a Book by its Cover
I think I now have the second half of the next book plotted. I'm now starting to see "movies" of scenes in my head, which is a good sign. Before, it was rather blank. Even when I knew what would happen in a scene, I couldn't see what it looked like. I have to say that this is a case where giving myself a time quota for work helped. It was like the idea of forcing yourself to make a list of 20 things that can happen, so you can't just stop at the first idea that seems good. In this case, forcing myself to continue thinking until my time was up instead of stopping when I thought I was done resulted in coming up with an additional idea that pulled it all together.
I've been doing some strategizing with my agent, so look for some potential news in the near future. We've made some decisions about how to handle a "problem" (doesn't seem to fit into publishing niches) book, and I'm really excited about it, but it does mean having to make some other decisions that will require research.
Which brings up some questions: What kind of book cover is most likely to catch your eye? Are there any particular things you love/hate/are sick of seeing? Is there a cover you absolutely love, enough that it made you take a look at that book?
In other news, I've finally finished the last library run stash, and I didn't realize it at the time, but just about everything I picked up turned out to be some kind of family saga, usually quite serious and a little bit soap opera-like. There was some payoff, as some of those books sparked an idea that may lead to my Next Big Thing, but I think I need to find something a little lighter. I have two books on hold at the library that probably fit the "fun" quotient that I'll need to pick up this week, but it's very cold today (well, for Texas) and I still haven't entirely rid myself of that annoying cough, so I will not be venturing out today. I may have to force myself to start working through the To Be Read shelf. I think I still have some of the contemporary romantic comedies from the late 90s when that was a trend. If I start one of these books and can't get into it, I'm giving myself permission to get rid of it. Or, now that I think about it, I might even have some of those 70s-early 80s gothics from British publishers that I got from a former boss's wife.
Though the main thing I'll be reading today is my own book.
I've been doing some strategizing with my agent, so look for some potential news in the near future. We've made some decisions about how to handle a "problem" (doesn't seem to fit into publishing niches) book, and I'm really excited about it, but it does mean having to make some other decisions that will require research.
Which brings up some questions: What kind of book cover is most likely to catch your eye? Are there any particular things you love/hate/are sick of seeing? Is there a cover you absolutely love, enough that it made you take a look at that book?
In other news, I've finally finished the last library run stash, and I didn't realize it at the time, but just about everything I picked up turned out to be some kind of family saga, usually quite serious and a little bit soap opera-like. There was some payoff, as some of those books sparked an idea that may lead to my Next Big Thing, but I think I need to find something a little lighter. I have two books on hold at the library that probably fit the "fun" quotient that I'll need to pick up this week, but it's very cold today (well, for Texas) and I still haven't entirely rid myself of that annoying cough, so I will not be venturing out today. I may have to force myself to start working through the To Be Read shelf. I think I still have some of the contemporary romantic comedies from the late 90s when that was a trend. If I start one of these books and can't get into it, I'm giving myself permission to get rid of it. Or, now that I think about it, I might even have some of those 70s-early 80s gothics from British publishers that I got from a former boss's wife.
Though the main thing I'll be reading today is my own book.
January 27, 2014
Bad Boys vs. Nice Guys (again)
The weather has gone roller coaster on us again, which isn't helping the ongoing sniffles/cough. 70s yesterday, 30s today. I will spend much of the day burrowed under a blanket, trying to plot the rest of the book I've been working on.
I need to make a slight amendment to the post griping about the traditional gothic. If the heroines were real people, I should say that they shouldn't be obligated to go for the nice guys just because they're nice. Really, "reliable" and "not a potential abuser" should be a baseline for romantic partners. There's a lot of other stuff that goes into attraction, and not every nice guy is going to be someone who attracts every woman. I am alarmed, though, that these heroines always seem to go for guys who don't even meet that baseline. But since these heroines aren't real people and are written by authors, I do find it interesting that the authors aren't willing to pair their heroines up with men who meet a certain minimum standard of decency. I suppose it might be that old idea about the bad boys being more interesting, but then we've got a chicken-and-egg situation -- have writers always written things that way because that's what readers like, or have readers been programmed to like this because that's the way it always goes?
It comes back to some of the stuff I said last fall about a convention panel on bad boys: If your good guy is boring, it's not because he's good. It's because you haven't done a good job of writing him. Defaulting to the bad boy because he's more interesting is lazy writing. It's easy to make the bad boy complex and interesting. You've got real chops if you can do that for someone who isn't always crossing the line and who's trying to do the right thing.
Now to go plot the rest of a book involving a cop who's such a nice-guy straight arrow that his nickname is "Rev" (as in "the reverend") and whose colleagues at the precinct instituted a fine for anyone who swears in his presence. He's given up protesting, since the fine jar is used to buy lunch every so often.
I need to make a slight amendment to the post griping about the traditional gothic. If the heroines were real people, I should say that they shouldn't be obligated to go for the nice guys just because they're nice. Really, "reliable" and "not a potential abuser" should be a baseline for romantic partners. There's a lot of other stuff that goes into attraction, and not every nice guy is going to be someone who attracts every woman. I am alarmed, though, that these heroines always seem to go for guys who don't even meet that baseline. But since these heroines aren't real people and are written by authors, I do find it interesting that the authors aren't willing to pair their heroines up with men who meet a certain minimum standard of decency. I suppose it might be that old idea about the bad boys being more interesting, but then we've got a chicken-and-egg situation -- have writers always written things that way because that's what readers like, or have readers been programmed to like this because that's the way it always goes?
It comes back to some of the stuff I said last fall about a convention panel on bad boys: If your good guy is boring, it's not because he's good. It's because you haven't done a good job of writing him. Defaulting to the bad boy because he's more interesting is lazy writing. It's easy to make the bad boy complex and interesting. You've got real chops if you can do that for someone who isn't always crossing the line and who's trying to do the right thing.
Now to go plot the rest of a book involving a cop who's such a nice-guy straight arrow that his nickname is "Rev" (as in "the reverend") and whose colleagues at the precinct instituted a fine for anyone who swears in his presence. He's given up protesting, since the fine jar is used to buy lunch every so often.
January 24, 2014
Liking the Idea of It
Of course I'd have to get one of those "ooh!" ideas for a project that will take a lot of research and world building before I can even start writing just as I'm at the point in a project where I need to be totally focused. But I should finish this round of revision today. I could have probably finished yesterday, but I'd done my time for the day and caught myself starting to drift, so I figured I could do the last two chapters today. Then it will rest and I may send to Mom for a sanity check, and then I'll do a quick read-through before sending back to the editor and moving on to the next book. The "resting" time falls on the weekend, and I've got a convention meeting and kick-off party. Meanwhile, I think I need to muck out the living room. It's looking rather tragic.
I was thinking more about those old gothic books, the ones from the 60s and 70s that always seemed to have the woman in a white nightgown fleeing the spooky old house/castle at night during a storm, and I've realized that what I mainly liked was the idea of that kind of book, the potential of it. I love the idea of the atmosphere, the old houses, the secrets and lies and having to figure out who to trust, the romance amidst the danger. The books themselves, however, usually drove me nuts.
For one thing, it seemed to be practically a rule that the heroine had to be a complete ninny with absolutely no common sense and zero self-preservation instinct. The villain could be twirling a mustache and cackling, and the heroine would be convinced that no one so well-placed in the community and so well-dressed could possibly be wicked. Actually, she wouldn't even suspect enough to go through that thought process. She'd completely miss all signs of villainy without having to rationalize it. The fleeing in a nightgown scene on the cover was probably never in the books because fleeing in a nightgown during a storm would be too sensible an action for these idiots to take. That would mean they figured out that there was a danger and fled, even if it was a poorly planned departure. Nope, these chicks usually bumbled right into the danger and had to be rescued.
I also didn't like the romantic heroes, the guys the ninnies ended up with. They were all dark and brooding and behaved in such a way that they were the first suspects. When a man's previous four wives have all died mysteriously and he loses his cool whenever anyone dares challenge him about anything, you do start to wonder about him. But after the heroine's gotten herself in terrible danger by hanging around even after suspecting him, it's all okay once it turns out that the jealous housekeeper has been killing his wives. The brooding and anger is no longer a problem, and it never seems to occur to anyone that maybe he should have started looking into things after the first couple of mysterious deaths. Meanwhile, there's usually the nice "safety net" guy who helps the heroine out of terrible danger, is levelheaded enough to figure out that something's wrong and alerts someone in time to save her and who she trusts absolutely when she doesn't know where else to turn. Although he always seemed like far better boyfriend material, this guy never gets the girl.
There were a few authors who could deliver the kind of book I hoped for. Mary Stewart's heroines usually had a few functioning brain cells, although they did have an alarming tendency to fall for the guys with all the potential abuser red flags while ignoring the trustworthy, reliable guys. Madeleine Brent played with the genre by keeping the spooky house of secrets while turning the whole thing into an adventure and giving the heroine mad skills. She (he, really -- pen name) also played with that good guy/bad guy thing by sometimes making the dark, brooding guy actually be under cover and playing a role, while the seemingly nice guy wasn't that reliable. Or sometimes the nice best-friend type would get the girl. At any rate, I was always satisfied with the outcome.
Maybe that's why I've always wanted to write this kind of book, to write the book I wanted to read but seldom found. My steampunk book (the one I'm currently editing) initially started out as this kind of thing, but all the gothic trappings fell by the wayside once the story developed. There are only a few remnants left.
Now, though, I need to get a few things written even as I start the research reading.
I was thinking more about those old gothic books, the ones from the 60s and 70s that always seemed to have the woman in a white nightgown fleeing the spooky old house/castle at night during a storm, and I've realized that what I mainly liked was the idea of that kind of book, the potential of it. I love the idea of the atmosphere, the old houses, the secrets and lies and having to figure out who to trust, the romance amidst the danger. The books themselves, however, usually drove me nuts.
For one thing, it seemed to be practically a rule that the heroine had to be a complete ninny with absolutely no common sense and zero self-preservation instinct. The villain could be twirling a mustache and cackling, and the heroine would be convinced that no one so well-placed in the community and so well-dressed could possibly be wicked. Actually, she wouldn't even suspect enough to go through that thought process. She'd completely miss all signs of villainy without having to rationalize it. The fleeing in a nightgown scene on the cover was probably never in the books because fleeing in a nightgown during a storm would be too sensible an action for these idiots to take. That would mean they figured out that there was a danger and fled, even if it was a poorly planned departure. Nope, these chicks usually bumbled right into the danger and had to be rescued.
I also didn't like the romantic heroes, the guys the ninnies ended up with. They were all dark and brooding and behaved in such a way that they were the first suspects. When a man's previous four wives have all died mysteriously and he loses his cool whenever anyone dares challenge him about anything, you do start to wonder about him. But after the heroine's gotten herself in terrible danger by hanging around even after suspecting him, it's all okay once it turns out that the jealous housekeeper has been killing his wives. The brooding and anger is no longer a problem, and it never seems to occur to anyone that maybe he should have started looking into things after the first couple of mysterious deaths. Meanwhile, there's usually the nice "safety net" guy who helps the heroine out of terrible danger, is levelheaded enough to figure out that something's wrong and alerts someone in time to save her and who she trusts absolutely when she doesn't know where else to turn. Although he always seemed like far better boyfriend material, this guy never gets the girl.
There were a few authors who could deliver the kind of book I hoped for. Mary Stewart's heroines usually had a few functioning brain cells, although they did have an alarming tendency to fall for the guys with all the potential abuser red flags while ignoring the trustworthy, reliable guys. Madeleine Brent played with the genre by keeping the spooky house of secrets while turning the whole thing into an adventure and giving the heroine mad skills. She (he, really -- pen name) also played with that good guy/bad guy thing by sometimes making the dark, brooding guy actually be under cover and playing a role, while the seemingly nice guy wasn't that reliable. Or sometimes the nice best-friend type would get the girl. At any rate, I was always satisfied with the outcome.
Maybe that's why I've always wanted to write this kind of book, to write the book I wanted to read but seldom found. My steampunk book (the one I'm currently editing) initially started out as this kind of thing, but all the gothic trappings fell by the wayside once the story developed. There are only a few remnants left.
Now, though, I need to get a few things written even as I start the research reading.
January 23, 2014
When Ideas Collide
I had to resort to my stand-by desperation move with the kids last night: musical chairs, the one activity that keeps them occupied for ten whole minutes. We had three adults, since the other teacher made her husband join us, and two teens, since the usual teen helper brought her stepsister, and we still had a hard time keeping them corralled. The new teen wants to be Abby from NCIS when she grows up, so I'm thinking she'd know good ways to make a body disappear …
Problem Child was back, and there has to be a Jekyll/Hyde thing going on with that kid because when he's good, he's the most adorable thing, so sweet and so smart, and then he can turn on a dime and be nasty. When he showed up at class, he came straight to me and stood at attention, so I saluted him and said he was reporting to duty. He saluted back, then he handed me a love note he'd written for one of the girls in the class. Then in an instant it was like his eyes flipped around and turned black and suddenly he was talking about poop at every opportunity. And then he did something really clever that actually fit the assignment and took it a step further, and then he was demonstrating with pipe cleaners what naked people look like.
Yesterday I was flipping through my business notebook, looking at the stories in various stages of development to decide what I should be working on this year, and I had one of those fun moments where two different ideas collide to create a new idea that gets me excited. I guess this was sort of brought up by talking about maybe making a trip to England. One of my justifications is research for a story idea I've been playing with, a classic gothic with a twist or two. At one point last summer, I found myself thinking about the traditional cheesy gothic novel cover -- the woman in a white nightgown fleeing from a spooky house or castle as a storm rages. I started making up a story behind that image. What was she running from and why was she out in a nightgown during a storm? What happens next? In spite of that image being on the covers of dozens of books during the heyday of that kind of story, I don't think that actual scene was ever really in any of the books. Next thing I knew, I had this whole thing in my head of a secret magical security/investigative service, like the MI-5 of magic, keeping tabs on possible evil wizards, and the woman was one of these agents, sent undercover to work as a governess for a suspected evil wizard and spy on him, and her contact/handler was the neighboring landowner. She's running in her nightgown because she's just been snooping, discovered the incriminating evidence, almost got caught, and the only way out was to climb out the window and down the wall, and now she's running to the neighbor to tell him what she's found. It grew and expanded from there.
Then after talking about those books that have a framing story in which someone in the present researches a story in the past, yesterday I had the brainstorm that this would be an ideal story to do that with -- someone inherits an estate, or possibly is a museum worker in one of these old estates that's being turned into a museum, and finds something odd while going through the old house. That then turns into a research project that uncovers what happened in the past and reveals the secret magical agency that still exists. It does lack the WWII angle, but I suppose I could get really complicated with it and have part of the research involve interviewing an old person who spent the war in that house as a child and finding out what that person discovered, so there's the story within the story within the story. At any rate, it might make a nice bridge between my contemporary fantasy work and my steampunk, since the framing story would be contemporary fantasy and the story within the story would be Victorian.
Now I've got a lot of research to do in preparation for writing something like this. There's probably a year of reading and development before I write a word. And it definitely will require some travel (yay, tax write-off!). Oh dear, visiting great houses turned into museums. What a terrible ordeal that will be.
Problem Child was back, and there has to be a Jekyll/Hyde thing going on with that kid because when he's good, he's the most adorable thing, so sweet and so smart, and then he can turn on a dime and be nasty. When he showed up at class, he came straight to me and stood at attention, so I saluted him and said he was reporting to duty. He saluted back, then he handed me a love note he'd written for one of the girls in the class. Then in an instant it was like his eyes flipped around and turned black and suddenly he was talking about poop at every opportunity. And then he did something really clever that actually fit the assignment and took it a step further, and then he was demonstrating with pipe cleaners what naked people look like.
Yesterday I was flipping through my business notebook, looking at the stories in various stages of development to decide what I should be working on this year, and I had one of those fun moments where two different ideas collide to create a new idea that gets me excited. I guess this was sort of brought up by talking about maybe making a trip to England. One of my justifications is research for a story idea I've been playing with, a classic gothic with a twist or two. At one point last summer, I found myself thinking about the traditional cheesy gothic novel cover -- the woman in a white nightgown fleeing from a spooky house or castle as a storm rages. I started making up a story behind that image. What was she running from and why was she out in a nightgown during a storm? What happens next? In spite of that image being on the covers of dozens of books during the heyday of that kind of story, I don't think that actual scene was ever really in any of the books. Next thing I knew, I had this whole thing in my head of a secret magical security/investigative service, like the MI-5 of magic, keeping tabs on possible evil wizards, and the woman was one of these agents, sent undercover to work as a governess for a suspected evil wizard and spy on him, and her contact/handler was the neighboring landowner. She's running in her nightgown because she's just been snooping, discovered the incriminating evidence, almost got caught, and the only way out was to climb out the window and down the wall, and now she's running to the neighbor to tell him what she's found. It grew and expanded from there.
Then after talking about those books that have a framing story in which someone in the present researches a story in the past, yesterday I had the brainstorm that this would be an ideal story to do that with -- someone inherits an estate, or possibly is a museum worker in one of these old estates that's being turned into a museum, and finds something odd while going through the old house. That then turns into a research project that uncovers what happened in the past and reveals the secret magical agency that still exists. It does lack the WWII angle, but I suppose I could get really complicated with it and have part of the research involve interviewing an old person who spent the war in that house as a child and finding out what that person discovered, so there's the story within the story within the story. At any rate, it might make a nice bridge between my contemporary fantasy work and my steampunk, since the framing story would be contemporary fantasy and the story within the story would be Victorian.
Now I've got a lot of research to do in preparation for writing something like this. There's probably a year of reading and development before I write a word. And it definitely will require some travel (yay, tax write-off!). Oh dear, visiting great houses turned into museums. What a terrible ordeal that will be.
January 22, 2014
Planning the Year
It would be easier to get over the cough/cold/sniffles if the weather would pick a climate and stick to it for more than one day. The constant roller coaster of temperatures and the constant shift in wind direction is not helping. Today's a "warm" day after yesterday's "chilly" day and before tomorrow's "cold" day. I was well enough yesterday to get through about seven chapters. I want to do as much today, but I have choir this evening. I'll do the children's choir because that's an obligation, but then I may not manage the adult choir rehearsal because singing isn't my strong suit at the moment. It tends to set off the coughing, especially as it gets later into the evening.
If I'm really good, I'll finish this round of revisions this week. I'm re-reading without the editor's notes so that I don't know what was her suggestion and what was my change, and then I'm polishing to make sure it all still flows and that the wording isn't awkward. Then next week I may do one more read-through. And then I can get back to the book I was working on in the fall. After that, I have a number of possible options to play with and I'll have to decide which project to tackle first. A lot may happen between now and then that will determine that.
One thing I also need to think about is my convention schedule for the year. I'm still wavering on WorldCon in London. I want to go to London, but I'm not sure I want to go there at the peak (and most expensive) travel season and then spend most of the time I'm there sitting in a convention center. It might be better to do several domestic conventions instead, and then I can travel to England on my own. I have several things to research there, if I'm at that point in my writing. I like being in England in October, and it's much less expensive and less crowded then.
So I'm thinking of going to the Nebula awards weekend for networking purposes, since most of the attendees are published writers and editors. The World Fantasy Convention is near Washington, DC, this year, and that's one of my favorite places, which I haven't visited in forever. That's also a good networking event where I may or may not be able to get on the program. Since WorldCon is abroad, there's a North American convention instead, which is in Detroit this year. That may or may not be something I do. I haven't decided on any regional conventions outside my close radius that allows me to stay at home instead of in a hotel. It seems like all the conventions in the general area draw the same people, more or less, so there's not a lot of advantage to going to Austin or Houston in addition to the Dallas events. I have a release next year, so I need to start building some buzz, but I haven't yet decided if doing a lot of travel in the summer will help toward that, since people may forget by the time the book is out.
I guess I should throw this out there. What events do you know of where I'm likely to meet lots of cool people who will then want to buy my books, where there will either be existing fans or people likely to become fans? Where do you go to meet authors or learn about books you want to read? Bonus if you're on a convention committee and can make sure I'd be able to get on the program. I'm generally fairly amusing on panels, and I do pretty good readings.
Of course, a lot of this depends on the budget for the year, and a lot of that depends on some decisions in the next couple of months that will be made by me and by other people.
If I'm really good, I'll finish this round of revisions this week. I'm re-reading without the editor's notes so that I don't know what was her suggestion and what was my change, and then I'm polishing to make sure it all still flows and that the wording isn't awkward. Then next week I may do one more read-through. And then I can get back to the book I was working on in the fall. After that, I have a number of possible options to play with and I'll have to decide which project to tackle first. A lot may happen between now and then that will determine that.
One thing I also need to think about is my convention schedule for the year. I'm still wavering on WorldCon in London. I want to go to London, but I'm not sure I want to go there at the peak (and most expensive) travel season and then spend most of the time I'm there sitting in a convention center. It might be better to do several domestic conventions instead, and then I can travel to England on my own. I have several things to research there, if I'm at that point in my writing. I like being in England in October, and it's much less expensive and less crowded then.
So I'm thinking of going to the Nebula awards weekend for networking purposes, since most of the attendees are published writers and editors. The World Fantasy Convention is near Washington, DC, this year, and that's one of my favorite places, which I haven't visited in forever. That's also a good networking event where I may or may not be able to get on the program. Since WorldCon is abroad, there's a North American convention instead, which is in Detroit this year. That may or may not be something I do. I haven't decided on any regional conventions outside my close radius that allows me to stay at home instead of in a hotel. It seems like all the conventions in the general area draw the same people, more or less, so there's not a lot of advantage to going to Austin or Houston in addition to the Dallas events. I have a release next year, so I need to start building some buzz, but I haven't yet decided if doing a lot of travel in the summer will help toward that, since people may forget by the time the book is out.
I guess I should throw this out there. What events do you know of where I'm likely to meet lots of cool people who will then want to buy my books, where there will either be existing fans or people likely to become fans? Where do you go to meet authors or learn about books you want to read? Bonus if you're on a convention committee and can make sure I'd be able to get on the program. I'm generally fairly amusing on panels, and I do pretty good readings.
Of course, a lot of this depends on the budget for the year, and a lot of that depends on some decisions in the next couple of months that will be made by me and by other people.
January 21, 2014
Book Report: Family Secrets
After a two-hour nap yesterday afternoon, I feel tons better. I even caught myself singing as I cooked dinner, though I didn't quite have full control of my voice and wasn't right on pitch, so I had to stop before I annoyed myself. I'm wavering on dance class tonight. The remaining symptoms are below the neck (a sporadic cough), which usually means exercise isn't a good idea, and it's rather cold out. It might be a good night to stay inside and watch the next installment of Klondike on the Discovery Channel -- a miniseries about the gold rush, filmed on location, so the scenery is wonderful. I did an emergency yarn run this morning (the yarn I need for the bedspread I just started was half off) and returned my library books, so I'm set for the day. I do think I'll dive back into work today, since I feel rested and non-groggy. The next project is starting to stir in my subconscious, so I want to finish these revisions and move on.
In the last week or so, I've found a new-to-me author who writes one of my brands of literary crack -- there's some framing story of someone learning about a family secret related to WWII and starting to research it, and then the narrative also tells the story of what was happening during the war. It cuts back and forth between the two storylines as the present-day character comes closer to learning the truth. So, yeah, throw in a ghost or some magic and do a little more romance and you've basically got the perfect book. Except the writing is more literary, which is both good and bad. On the plus side, it feels more like An Important Book than like literary crack, so there's a slight sense that maybe this is even good for me, but on the minus side, it does sometimes slow things to the point that I find myself skipping ahead to find the next big twist.
The author is Kate Morton, and the first I read of hers was The Distant Hours, which is about a young woman in the early 90s who learns that her mother was evacuated from London during the war to a castle that was the home of the author of her favorite book from childhood. Now the three sisters her mother lived with are still living in the castle that's crumbling around them, one of them having descended into madness decades ago, as they all suffer from a terrible family secret that's touched many lives. The next one I read was The Secret Keeper, in which a woman finds a photo of her 90-year-old mother as a young woman, next to a friend -- and the friend turns out to be connected to a strange incident that happened when the heroine was a teen. She starts researching her mother's history and that of the friend so she can find out what really happened.
I liked The Secret Keeper best of the two because it was more fun, less warped and more hopeful, though I did figure out the big twist less than halfway through the book. I would call these rainy-day books, the kind of thing it's fun to read when it's cold and gray and the winds are howling around you. Curl up under a blanket and dive in. Though you may need chocolate near the end because while there's a positive ending, to a large extent, it's not what I'd call a happy ending. I would also not recommend reading multiple books by this author back-to-back because her patterns and quirks become pretty obvious that way. I'm going to have to take a break before I dig up more of these, but I will be digging them up.
And now I kind of want to write my version of this sort of thing, the one that includes a wizard, a ghost and a happy love story.
In the last week or so, I've found a new-to-me author who writes one of my brands of literary crack -- there's some framing story of someone learning about a family secret related to WWII and starting to research it, and then the narrative also tells the story of what was happening during the war. It cuts back and forth between the two storylines as the present-day character comes closer to learning the truth. So, yeah, throw in a ghost or some magic and do a little more romance and you've basically got the perfect book. Except the writing is more literary, which is both good and bad. On the plus side, it feels more like An Important Book than like literary crack, so there's a slight sense that maybe this is even good for me, but on the minus side, it does sometimes slow things to the point that I find myself skipping ahead to find the next big twist.
The author is Kate Morton, and the first I read of hers was The Distant Hours, which is about a young woman in the early 90s who learns that her mother was evacuated from London during the war to a castle that was the home of the author of her favorite book from childhood. Now the three sisters her mother lived with are still living in the castle that's crumbling around them, one of them having descended into madness decades ago, as they all suffer from a terrible family secret that's touched many lives. The next one I read was The Secret Keeper, in which a woman finds a photo of her 90-year-old mother as a young woman, next to a friend -- and the friend turns out to be connected to a strange incident that happened when the heroine was a teen. She starts researching her mother's history and that of the friend so she can find out what really happened.
I liked The Secret Keeper best of the two because it was more fun, less warped and more hopeful, though I did figure out the big twist less than halfway through the book. I would call these rainy-day books, the kind of thing it's fun to read when it's cold and gray and the winds are howling around you. Curl up under a blanket and dive in. Though you may need chocolate near the end because while there's a positive ending, to a large extent, it's not what I'd call a happy ending. I would also not recommend reading multiple books by this author back-to-back because her patterns and quirks become pretty obvious that way. I'm going to have to take a break before I dig up more of these, but I will be digging them up.
And now I kind of want to write my version of this sort of thing, the one that includes a wizard, a ghost and a happy love story.
January 20, 2014
Raising the Game
I had one of those weekends that felt more like work, so that I feel like I need a weekend to recover. The workshop I went to was incredible, but a little draining. It was a workshop for church musicians of all sorts. The nice thing was that they repeated the entire program from Friday on Saturday, so you got a chance to do other things that were scheduled opposite each other. Friday I went to the sessions on preschool music, and I got a ton of ideas of games to play and some classroom management techniques. I'd planned to try some of the elementary sessions on Saturday, although I wanted to go to the main adult choir stuff out of pure selfishness because they were presented by the director of the choir at St. Olaf's College (known for their PBS Christmas specials) and I thought they'd benefit me as a singer. Then the children's music director for my church (the one who signed me up for the workshop) said his sessions were phenomenal and encouraged me to go, so that's what I did Saturday. While I did learn a lot I can use as a singer, he also addressed a lot of stuff that applies to children's choirs, and I learned some things I might be able to use with my kids, so it worked out.
The one problem was that I managed to get sick at a very bad time. The sniffles and sneezes from earlier in the week had migrated so that I had a sore throat. I completely lost my voice on Friday, which was frustrating because between class sessions, they had what they called reading sessions, where they passed out a booklet of music to everyone, and then we all sang it while various directors conducted. Most of the people in the group were professionals with music degrees, so the sound was amazing, and I wanted to participate so much, but I couldn't sing at all without pain. I was better on Saturday, and by sheer willpower I managed to sing in the demonstration rehearsal conducted by the St. Olaf's director. I learned so much there as a singer, and it was fun to sing in that kind of choir, doing that kind of music. I was a little outclassed, as a moderately gifted and slightly trained amateur surrounded by highly trained professionals, but that's the sort of thing that raises your game. It's like the way I dance better when adults who used to dance professionally attend my ballet class.
And then I lost my voice again as the cough moved lower still. Since there's so much worry about flu right now, I kept mentally running through the checklist, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the flu. It came on gradually, unlike the flu, which hits hard and fast. I didn't feel all that bad, and if I'd had the flu, I wouldn't have been able to drive across town in rush hour and sit through a whole day of workshops. When I've had the flu, I've sometimes had to stop in the bedroom and rest when going from the living room to the bathroom. I also never ran fever. So either it was a head cold that migrated or it's all just allergies. Now I've still got the cough, but strangely, only at night and first thing in the morning. As long as I'm mostly vertical, I'm fine. The coughing at night was making me tired, so last night I resorted to the good cough syrup (prescription, from my last bout with bronchitis), which meant I slept all night, but I woke up groggy. I wouldn't try singing or talking today, and I'm going to try to take it easy, but I don't feel too bad.
Today is technically a federal holiday, and I'm wavering on whether to allow myself to take the day off to fully rest. Most of today's tiredness has to do with forcing myself to stay awake to finish the book I was reading because I had to know how it ended, even after I'd taken the good cough syrup and was barely awake. I may just deal with some other business stuff, as focusing isn't my strong suit at the moment. It may be a thinky day to mull on some decisions about the book I'm revising.
The one problem was that I managed to get sick at a very bad time. The sniffles and sneezes from earlier in the week had migrated so that I had a sore throat. I completely lost my voice on Friday, which was frustrating because between class sessions, they had what they called reading sessions, where they passed out a booklet of music to everyone, and then we all sang it while various directors conducted. Most of the people in the group were professionals with music degrees, so the sound was amazing, and I wanted to participate so much, but I couldn't sing at all without pain. I was better on Saturday, and by sheer willpower I managed to sing in the demonstration rehearsal conducted by the St. Olaf's director. I learned so much there as a singer, and it was fun to sing in that kind of choir, doing that kind of music. I was a little outclassed, as a moderately gifted and slightly trained amateur surrounded by highly trained professionals, but that's the sort of thing that raises your game. It's like the way I dance better when adults who used to dance professionally attend my ballet class.
And then I lost my voice again as the cough moved lower still. Since there's so much worry about flu right now, I kept mentally running through the checklist, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the flu. It came on gradually, unlike the flu, which hits hard and fast. I didn't feel all that bad, and if I'd had the flu, I wouldn't have been able to drive across town in rush hour and sit through a whole day of workshops. When I've had the flu, I've sometimes had to stop in the bedroom and rest when going from the living room to the bathroom. I also never ran fever. So either it was a head cold that migrated or it's all just allergies. Now I've still got the cough, but strangely, only at night and first thing in the morning. As long as I'm mostly vertical, I'm fine. The coughing at night was making me tired, so last night I resorted to the good cough syrup (prescription, from my last bout with bronchitis), which meant I slept all night, but I woke up groggy. I wouldn't try singing or talking today, and I'm going to try to take it easy, but I don't feel too bad.
Today is technically a federal holiday, and I'm wavering on whether to allow myself to take the day off to fully rest. Most of today's tiredness has to do with forcing myself to stay awake to finish the book I was reading because I had to know how it ended, even after I'd taken the good cough syrup and was barely awake. I may just deal with some other business stuff, as focusing isn't my strong suit at the moment. It may be a thinky day to mull on some decisions about the book I'm revising.
January 16, 2014
Sanity Check
I had to give myself a sanity check scolding yesterday. I finished going through my editor's suggestions on the manuscript in a much shorter time than I had allocated for my writing time of the day, and then I started fretting about meeting my goal for the week. I need to let the manuscript rest before I take another pass at it because I'd like to be able to forget what in the current version is the editor's suggestion and what I wrote, so I can polish it without bias. That generally means putting it aside until next week, since the deadline isn't that tight. But I hadn't put in my time! And I'm going to be out Friday, so I was supposed to be working more each day! Did I need to find something else to work on?
And then I realized how silly I was being. One of the things I hated about the day job was that I was stuck at the office even if I was really efficient and finished my work. Why was I doing that to myself? This whole goal/quota system is in place for times when I'm not on a deadline and don't feel pressured to work, or when I do have a deadline but it's so far off that it doesn't feel like a deadline. It's for overcoming procrastination and the don't wannas. It's not for adding stress when I'm being good and am ahead of schedule. The whole benefit of working for myself is that I can treat these things with common sense. So, I'll take care of some business stuff this morning and then let myself play this afternoon, and I won't worry about being out for the choir workshop tomorrow. The idea of giving myself "vacation" days is to make myself take the occasional day when I don't even try to work (or feel like I should be working), to step away for a while.
I don't really have any funny choir stories from last night. There was an even number of boys and girls, and one of the boys started making crude noises and jokes (as boys do), which the other boys then picked up on because they thought it was hilarious. I think it was easier when I just had a room full of girls who wanted to dance instead of doing anything else. Then there was the kid who came into the room singing that song about what the fox says (I know of it, but have avoided actually being exposed to the song itself). And there was the one I had to stop from head-butting me and everyone else (the way he was doing it, I was terrified he'd break his neck or do some sort of spinal damage). Somehow I doubt the choir workshop will be of much help in dealing with that sort of thing, but maybe I'll learn some new activity ideas to keep them distracted.
And then I realized how silly I was being. One of the things I hated about the day job was that I was stuck at the office even if I was really efficient and finished my work. Why was I doing that to myself? This whole goal/quota system is in place for times when I'm not on a deadline and don't feel pressured to work, or when I do have a deadline but it's so far off that it doesn't feel like a deadline. It's for overcoming procrastination and the don't wannas. It's not for adding stress when I'm being good and am ahead of schedule. The whole benefit of working for myself is that I can treat these things with common sense. So, I'll take care of some business stuff this morning and then let myself play this afternoon, and I won't worry about being out for the choir workshop tomorrow. The idea of giving myself "vacation" days is to make myself take the occasional day when I don't even try to work (or feel like I should be working), to step away for a while.
I don't really have any funny choir stories from last night. There was an even number of boys and girls, and one of the boys started making crude noises and jokes (as boys do), which the other boys then picked up on because they thought it was hilarious. I think it was easier when I just had a room full of girls who wanted to dance instead of doing anything else. Then there was the kid who came into the room singing that song about what the fox says (I know of it, but have avoided actually being exposed to the song itself). And there was the one I had to stop from head-butting me and everyone else (the way he was doing it, I was terrified he'd break his neck or do some sort of spinal damage). Somehow I doubt the choir workshop will be of much help in dealing with that sort of thing, but maybe I'll learn some new activity ideas to keep them distracted.
January 15, 2014
Your Writing Resolution
First, some news. I'd been waiting to announce this until I knew more, but these people don't mess around and it turns out it's already happened without me knowing. Last fall, I signed a deal with Audible to do audiobooks of the Enchanted, Inc. series, and it looks like the first three books are already available. The rest will be coming. I could swear it was just before Christmas that they e-mailed to ask how my name is pronounced. So, if you've been looking for something to listen to on your commute or if you have a friend who only listens to audiobooks that you can now hook on the series, then there you go! They show up in the listing at Amazon, and you should also be able to get them via the Audible subscription service. I know there's a lot of worry about Amazon and its subsidiaries in the publishing world, but as I said, they don't mess around. They move at Internet speed, while the rest of the publishing world makes glaciers impatient.
I'm kicking off my writing posts for the year. In case you're new, I do posts about writing every other Wednesday (aside from holidays, travel, etc.). You can read them on my blog, or subscribe to get them via e-mail at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writewithshanna/. I'm always open to suggestions or questions, as long as I think I can contribute something on the topic. Since this is the start of a new year, when we're all full of enthusiasm and trying to live up to resolutions, I thought I'd first tackle the topic of setting writing goals.
The tricky thing about writing a book is that it's a big project, a long-range goal. It's something you can work on for months without finishing. If you resolve to write a book this year, that gives you a lot of leeway, which means it's easy to give up. As with most big projects, it helps to break it down into chunks so that you can feel a sense of achievement and completion along the way, and that then motivates you to do the next part. Whether you set daily or weekly goals depends on your life. I see a lot of advice to writers about how you have to write every day or you're not a real writer, but that always seems to come from bestsellers whose job is writing. I write full-time, and I still sometimes have trouble writing every day because life gets in the way. If you can only write on weekends, then set goals for each weekend. Take into consideration your other obligations and schedule when setting goals. If your life is sporadic and you don't know when you can write, set weekly goals so that you don't have to worry about any particular day as long as you get it done eventually.
Writing is also a lot like exercise, in that it requires some preparation and development before you can go all-out. You don't run a marathon or compete in the Olympics the first time you decide to do something physical. It requires training and practice. There are some people who can just plunge into a novel with no idea of where they're going, but for most of us, we're a lot more successful and a lot less likely to fizzle out in the middle if we have even the slightest blueprint of where we're going, so it's worth it to take some time at the beginning to think about your book -- who are the characters, what is their conflict, etc. Once you start writing, start with smaller goals you're sure you can achieve, and then you can build from there. Whether your goal is an amount of time spent working or an amount of work produced is up to you. Starting with time might be a good idea until you get a better sense of what you can produce, since you can control how much time you devote, but it's harder to produce a certain number of words on command. Once you have a deadline, you may have to set productivity goals, but until then, committing time is the important thing.
Set rewards for yourself, even if it's just allowing yourself to goof off once you've met your goal. Allow yourself to celebrate when you've met a milestone. It sometimes helps to make your progress visual -- something like one of those fundraising thermometer graphs that shows how many hours you've spent working, or sticking gold stars on your calendar for each day you meet your goal.
It can sometimes be difficult to get other people in your life to buy in to your commitment. If writing is something you do in your spare time, it looks like a hobby, and others may feel that should take a lower priority or is something you can just drop if something more fun comes along. Even with writing being my job, I do sometimes have to deal with people who think I have tons of free time and can take off whenever I want. That's because it's such a solitary process and other people only see the results, not the hours of work it really takes. You have to take your work seriously before you can expect others to take it seriously, so you may have to be firm or set particular hours that you treat like an appointment.
I have to say, there's nothing like the feeling of hitting "the end" on a novel, so keep at it until you do.
I'm kicking off my writing posts for the year. In case you're new, I do posts about writing every other Wednesday (aside from holidays, travel, etc.). You can read them on my blog, or subscribe to get them via e-mail at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writewithshanna/. I'm always open to suggestions or questions, as long as I think I can contribute something on the topic. Since this is the start of a new year, when we're all full of enthusiasm and trying to live up to resolutions, I thought I'd first tackle the topic of setting writing goals.
The tricky thing about writing a book is that it's a big project, a long-range goal. It's something you can work on for months without finishing. If you resolve to write a book this year, that gives you a lot of leeway, which means it's easy to give up. As with most big projects, it helps to break it down into chunks so that you can feel a sense of achievement and completion along the way, and that then motivates you to do the next part. Whether you set daily or weekly goals depends on your life. I see a lot of advice to writers about how you have to write every day or you're not a real writer, but that always seems to come from bestsellers whose job is writing. I write full-time, and I still sometimes have trouble writing every day because life gets in the way. If you can only write on weekends, then set goals for each weekend. Take into consideration your other obligations and schedule when setting goals. If your life is sporadic and you don't know when you can write, set weekly goals so that you don't have to worry about any particular day as long as you get it done eventually.
Writing is also a lot like exercise, in that it requires some preparation and development before you can go all-out. You don't run a marathon or compete in the Olympics the first time you decide to do something physical. It requires training and practice. There are some people who can just plunge into a novel with no idea of where they're going, but for most of us, we're a lot more successful and a lot less likely to fizzle out in the middle if we have even the slightest blueprint of where we're going, so it's worth it to take some time at the beginning to think about your book -- who are the characters, what is their conflict, etc. Once you start writing, start with smaller goals you're sure you can achieve, and then you can build from there. Whether your goal is an amount of time spent working or an amount of work produced is up to you. Starting with time might be a good idea until you get a better sense of what you can produce, since you can control how much time you devote, but it's harder to produce a certain number of words on command. Once you have a deadline, you may have to set productivity goals, but until then, committing time is the important thing.
Set rewards for yourself, even if it's just allowing yourself to goof off once you've met your goal. Allow yourself to celebrate when you've met a milestone. It sometimes helps to make your progress visual -- something like one of those fundraising thermometer graphs that shows how many hours you've spent working, or sticking gold stars on your calendar for each day you meet your goal.
It can sometimes be difficult to get other people in your life to buy in to your commitment. If writing is something you do in your spare time, it looks like a hobby, and others may feel that should take a lower priority or is something you can just drop if something more fun comes along. Even with writing being my job, I do sometimes have to deal with people who think I have tons of free time and can take off whenever I want. That's because it's such a solitary process and other people only see the results, not the hours of work it really takes. You have to take your work seriously before you can expect others to take it seriously, so you may have to be firm or set particular hours that you treat like an appointment.
I have to say, there's nothing like the feeling of hitting "the end" on a novel, so keep at it until you do.
January 14, 2014
Downstairs from Pride and Prejudice
They said on the news last night that mountain cedar pollen levels were high, which explains everything. If it had been a cold, the symptoms would have progressed to stuffiness by this point, but instead, the sniffling and sneezing has eased up a bit and Allegra seems to be taking care of it during the day, with Benadryl at night (which means I'm having really fun dreams). In spite of the sniffling, I managed to meet my usual daily writing time goal, plus some extra time to try to make up for being out on Friday.
My reading last week was an interesting book that kind of falls into the category of "published Pride and Prejudice fan fiction." There's practically an entire industry of books spinning off from the classic -- sequels in which the remaining sisters find love, mystery series in which Mr. and Mrs. Darcy are the sleuths, additions of zombies or vampires, etc. Longbourn is a more serious, literary approach, focusing on the servants of the Bennet household. The original story serves mostly as the setting and situation, happening in the background while a story about the servants unfolds. A few of them are named in the original book, while others exist without even being given names. This book attempts to flesh them all out and give them their own stories. It all kicks off at about the same time as the original, with the announcement of a new rich, single man as neighbor that sends the household into a tizzy. Meanwhile, a new footman has been hired under what seems to the housemaid to be mysterious circumstances. She sets out to learn about him, and that gets her started thinking about a lot of things that make her question her lot in life.
To be honest, I'm not sure how much I liked this book. I found it interesting more than anything else, but a lot of detail is spent on describing just how difficult it was to be a servant in that era and how even "good" employers could be pretty thoughtless toward them. I would caution P&P superfans who absolutely love the original book (or the 1995 TV miniseries) because this book doesn't look so lovingly upon the characters. Lizzie and Jane come off pretty well, being mostly kind to the maid, but they're still pretty oblivious to the fact that she's a human being with her own hopes and dreams. Some of the others get some character assassination, with story elements and character traits that are pulled from thin air. And I got the feeling this author didn't find the relationship between Lizzie and Darcy to be all that romantic.
I guess I'm mostly just alerting people to the fact that the book exists. If you're into history and want the gritty realism about the era, you might find it interesting. If Pride and Prejudice is your favorite romantic story ever, you may or may not want to read it.
My reading last week was an interesting book that kind of falls into the category of "published Pride and Prejudice fan fiction." There's practically an entire industry of books spinning off from the classic -- sequels in which the remaining sisters find love, mystery series in which Mr. and Mrs. Darcy are the sleuths, additions of zombies or vampires, etc. Longbourn is a more serious, literary approach, focusing on the servants of the Bennet household. The original story serves mostly as the setting and situation, happening in the background while a story about the servants unfolds. A few of them are named in the original book, while others exist without even being given names. This book attempts to flesh them all out and give them their own stories. It all kicks off at about the same time as the original, with the announcement of a new rich, single man as neighbor that sends the household into a tizzy. Meanwhile, a new footman has been hired under what seems to the housemaid to be mysterious circumstances. She sets out to learn about him, and that gets her started thinking about a lot of things that make her question her lot in life.
To be honest, I'm not sure how much I liked this book. I found it interesting more than anything else, but a lot of detail is spent on describing just how difficult it was to be a servant in that era and how even "good" employers could be pretty thoughtless toward them. I would caution P&P superfans who absolutely love the original book (or the 1995 TV miniseries) because this book doesn't look so lovingly upon the characters. Lizzie and Jane come off pretty well, being mostly kind to the maid, but they're still pretty oblivious to the fact that she's a human being with her own hopes and dreams. Some of the others get some character assassination, with story elements and character traits that are pulled from thin air. And I got the feeling this author didn't find the relationship between Lizzie and Darcy to be all that romantic.
I guess I'm mostly just alerting people to the fact that the book exists. If you're into history and want the gritty realism about the era, you might find it interesting. If Pride and Prejudice is your favorite romantic story ever, you may or may not want to read it.
