Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 190

Thankful for Crayons

I survived yet another night of the kids at their craziest. Just one more session this semester, but that has me worried because they're supposed to sing in church the Sunday after that, and based on what happened last night, it may end up being one little girl and me singing a duet (which could actually be kind of cute if had been planned that way). The rest really couldn't be bothered with singing or learning the words.

I resorted to my "fall back and punt" tactic of passing out paper and crayons, since that actually seems to engage Problem Child, and then I played the song we're supposed to sing on a loop to maybe seep into their brains as I told them to draw something they're thankful for. Most of the little girls drew pictures of their families, with little hearts over their heads. Problem Child drew a picture of his family in their flying car (he may drive me nuts, but this kid has the potential to be really cool). One girl drew something that I thought she said was for her grandma, but it turned out to be a picture of her grandma. I'm sure Grandma will be touched, even if she's not exactly flattered. My Queen Bee in the making drew a very lovely picture of herself. One boy colored the entire sheet of paper blue and said he'd drawn a picture of God. Some of the kids started doing handprint turkeys, where you draw around your hand and then make that into a turkey. One kid must not have been familiar with the concept because he followed the other kids in tracing his hand, but then instead of making a turkey he ended up doing a rather lifelike drawing of his hand, complete with fingernails and knuckles. I was impressed. One little boy turned his handprint turkey into a pretty realistic-looking turkey, as part of a detailed, farm-like landscape that covered the whole page. That one also impressed me.

It may not be the most detailed art/craft project ever, but I find it highly amusing to pass out paper and crayons and see what the kids come up with based on a simple prompt. It definitely reveals a lot about the kids. I need to think of a good Christmas-related topic for next time.

I think there may be baking this afternoon. I had planned to maybe do some shopping and possibly even get a haircut, but the fact that I changed into sweats after getting back from the grocery store this morning doesn't bode well for that.

Nightmare Scenarios

The book is back with the editor, and now I should be doing other things, like spending the day shopping for a winter coat, but I've got a bad case of homebodyitis at the moment. I think a lot of it is the residual effects from oversleeping, which was a residual effect of waking up in the middle of the night from a really intense nightmare, one of those where when I woke my heart was both racing and pounding. I guess I got an aerobic workout in my sleep. The nightmare had something to do with being a fugitive and knowing that people were tracking me. It started with me (in the dream) watching a TV show about someone being followed and doing nothing to hide or disguise herself, and me snarking about it, which is pretty much the way I watch Covert Affairs. Then suddenly I was that person and I had no idea what to do. The freaky thing was that I woke up before anything actually happened. It was the fear of what might happen that was causing the pounding heart and that made me take a long time to calm down and get back to sleep.

Hmm, story idea? Get sucked into the life of the character you're criticizing and see how well you deal with it?

The artist who does my book covers got back in touch with me about the idea of doing merchandise using the art. I know I mentioned this before. I'm pretty sure she means to re-purpose the art she's already done, like the various frogs from each book cover, not to draw new stuff, so sorry, no Sam the Gargoyle t-shirts. She wants to use Cafe Press, but I haven't been crazy about the quality of their stuff I've seen, and it's awfully pricey. It doesn't seem like a good place to go if you hope to sell in volume, though I suppose the benefit is no up-front costs to you to make things available. I haven't seen too many t-shirts or tote bags or the like based strictly on a book series. I don't recall there even being a lot of Harry Potter merchandise until the movies started coming out. Any thoughts, ideas or experiences with this sort of thing? My main problem is that I seem to have truly moved on from the series mentally and emotionally (sorry!), so it's hard for me to get back to a place of thinking about it.

Now I have to come up with a lesson plan for the kids tonight. I think we'll play another game on the xylophone. I've got a dad helping tonight because my usual co-teacher will be out. It'll be interesting to see how that affects Problem Child.

And I need to call my mom because it's her birthday. Happy birthday!

Attack of the Huge Shoulders

I managed some housework yesterday. I washed dishes, did some dusting and got through part of the "there was something in here I wanted to clip, I think" newspaper stack (my house would stay significantly cleaner if I could make myself get into the habit of clipping things when I see them). I made the tweaks I needed to make in the book. I think I'm going to send it to the editor today after I re-read the parts I tweaked. Otherwise, I did some reading.

I've realized that I'm behind on my reading for the year, and I can't blame writing because I haven't written an entire book, start to finish, this year. I started a book, and it's highly unlikely it will be finished before the end of the year. Otherwise, I've done revisions on three books. My writing time count is down a lot for the year. I may have to blame the new knitting obsession because it fills some time I used to devote to reading, since I used to read while I watched TV. That's less of an option these days because of my changing eyesight, which was one reason I got back into knitting.

Really, I don't have a lot to show for this year, work-wise. I got a book published and sold a book, and then I started writing a book. I would say that once I get this book off, I'm going to dive back into the one I've been working on, but I don't know if that will happen this week. After looking at the weather forecast, I think I'm really going to need a good coat this weekend, so a shopping trip is in order.

It's not just my winter coat that's a relic of the early 90s. I got a new hat that I'd like to wear at the convention this weekend, and I was trying on some things that would go with it. I dug out a really cute suit jacket from circa 1993-1994. I hadn't realized what linebacker shoulder pads it had. Yikes. The shoulders extend a good two inches beyond my actual shoulders. I would say it's a candidate for the donation bin, but it would be cruel to inflict this on someone else. I'd have to snip the lining seams to remove the shoulder pads, but then the shoulder seams would come practically to my elbows. I may just have to give up on this jacket, which is otherwise really cute. I thought the 80s were the era of big shoulders, but it doesn't seem to have abated until at least 1995. I think I need to spend a couple of days trying on everything in my closet and purging it because I don't seem to have an accurate image of my clothes when I just look at them on hangers. I would never have discarded this jacket, but now that I've put it on I know I wouldn't wear it in public again. In my neighborhood, it could get dangerous, as desperate as the Dallas Cowboys are for defensive linemen. I might find myself drafted while getting my oil changed (I always seem to run into coaches there).

Hilarious Hiking Moments

Well, the epic housecleaning didn't exactly happen this weekend. I got sidetracked by books, knitting, TV and the Internet, and that's okay. Watching old Doctor Who episodes actually counts as work this week. I may tackle the housework in stages during the week.

I did manage the hiking trip and experienced a Hilarious Hiking Moment. There's this spot on the lake near a park that's kind of a cliff-like point. We went out there to watch one of the summer firework shows because it's directly across the lake from where they set off the fireworks. It was kind of an ordeal to get there, involving walking along the shore, climbing some rocks and then making it down a pretty faint trail. Once we got there, we were surprised that there were other people there with a lot of gear or with baby strollers, so we figured there had to be an easier way. We did find another trail, and it was a little easier, but it still involved some rock climbing. When I went out there for lunch a few weeks ago, I started out trying to get to that spot, but decided it wasn't the smartest thing to do when I was by myself without my hiking boots on because if I turned an ankle, I'd be in trouble. We headed out there on Friday, properly equipped for some serious, strenuous hiking. As we parked, we noticed a trail heading into the woods and decided to give that a try. After about two minutes of easy walking down a very gentle trail, we ended up at the point that had required all that difficult rock climbing to get to. I thought I was going to need CPR from laughing so hard. It was so anticlimactic.

There were some hilly trails leading away from that point, so there was still some decent hiking around the lake, but I still crack up at the thought of how difficult getting there seemed and how I'd decided not to try to do it alone because it was too risky, and yet it was such an easy walk that we ran into some ladies who seemed to be taking a lunchtime stroll during their break at the office, in their work clothes with sneakers, while we were there in hiking gear.

I have a few spots in the book to check, and then I'll be able to send it back to the editor. Then I really do need to do some housework. I also have some shopping I need to do. I've decided that since I had income this year (yay!) that there are a couple of purchases I've been putting off that I need to make. One is a new pair of glasses. The other is a new winter dress coat. I bought the one I have now in 1990, and it looks it. It's got the big, puffy shoulders. It's also getting threadbare in a few places. I've been doing some shopping around online to see who might have what I want, and it doesn't seem like Nordstrom sells anything in stores in my area. Everything I like or want there, when I check to find it in a store, they say it's not available and offer to let me buy it online. So I guess I won't be shopping there. A coat is something I want to try on. Sizing gets really tricky because you have to plan for wearing bulky things underneath. Sometimes they account for this in the sizing, but sometimes you have to go up a size or two. I have a vivid mental image of what I want. The challenge will be finding it in a store in my size. This is one reason why I'm still using a threadbare coat from 1990.

Done! And Now for the Weekend

I finished the latest round of revisions yesterday, so I get a weekend off. There will be hiking today, and then I think a massive round of house cleaning over the weekend to start kind of getting ready for Christmas, the season for which will be on us before I know it. I spent the past couple of months either frantically knitting or working on revisions, so I kind of need an industrial-strength cleaning, as all those petty little tasks fell by the wayside.

I hope to fit in a little reading, some TV catchup (there's a Doctor Who convention next weekend where I'll be a panelist, so I need to do some reviewing to refresh my memory), and maybe some knitting.

Now, though, I need to do enough straightening of the living room to have space for a post-hiking television night. There's currently an edited manuscript filling my sofa.

See how glamorous a writer's life really is?

The good news about the book is that I had to keep going back and re-reading yesterday, as I kept getting so caught up in the story that I forgot to read critically and edit. I think that's a good sign, if I get involved enough that my editor brain shuts off, even though I wrote it and know what's going to happen.

Have a good weekend!

The Miracle of the Leaves

After a couple of weeks off, I had children's choir again last night, and boy, were they a handful. Problem Child was back and really amped up, and my helper for him wasn't there. This kid is so out of control that the other kids are starting to resent him and try to avoid him. It culminated in an incident in which he made two other boys cry. We were playing with the parachute, making mountains, the ocean or a storm, based on what the song said, and he suddenly rushed into the middle of it and started spinning around to wrap it around him, ripping it out of the hands of the other kids and flailing about so that he hit two of the other kids in the face hard enough that they were crying. Then that meant having to take the parachute away if we couldn't play safely with it and follow instructions. I sat with his parents at dinner, and they were talking about how he was a handful but it was okay because he has a good heart. I bit my tongue before saying that actually he's turning out to a self-centered jerk who only cares about what's fun for him and doesn't care how he's affecting others. I really don't know if there's a diplomatic way of saying that to parents, especially not with the kid there.

But I did have a minor miracle that kind of blew my mind. I'd come up with the clever idea of doing leaf rubbings for a craft project and had brought a little baggie of leaves I'd collected, but when I tried it out before class, it didn't seem to work right, so I decided to do something else instead. While we were untangling Problem Child from the parachute, calming the kids he'd hurt and making him apologize to them, the other kids asked if they could color. We got out the crayons and some paper, and then in the chaos my bag had been knocked over, so they found the baggie of leaves, got them out and started doing leaf rubbings. So all on their own, with no instruction or direction, they did the project I'd planned in the first place. And somehow, theirs came out much better than my attempts. That kept them occupied until the parents came to pick them up. Just two more sessions this semester …

In other news, I'm very close to being done with this round of revisions. I don't think I'll even need another full read-through. There are just a couple of parts where I want to give it another once-over. Then I'll find out what the editor thinks and probably do another round with her.

And as we build up to the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, they've released a mini-episode that explains a few things and that features a Doctor we never saw much of. I recently watched the special on the Eighth Doctor and found myself wishing he'd had more than the Fox TV movie (yes, he's in books and radio dramas, but that's not the same).

Fan Fiction and the Aspiring Author

I had a reader question about fan fiction and writing for publication. This is an area that's changed drastically in the past year or so, so it's hard to offer a lot of advice, as it may even change again. But I'll take a stab at it based on what I know at this point.

For those who aren't too familiar with the concept, fan fiction is stories written in other people's universes. It's technically a copyright violation, but most rights holders (authors, publishers, production companies) turn a blind eye to it because it's produced out of love and helps promote the original works. There are a lot of different kinds of fan fiction. It may be stories that continue the adventures of the original story -- the crew of the Enterprise explores more strange new worlds. It may cover scenes we're not likely to see in books or on TV because of the need for conflict or pacing but that fans might be curious about -- the crew of the Enterprise plays poker while talking about their feelings, with no crisis interrupting them. It may focus on a relationship that's different from the original -- Kirk and Spock are in love and romantically involved. It may add a new character who allows the author to play in that universe -- Lt. Swendson, an auburn-haired, green-eyed beauty with brains and a lovely singing voice, joins the crew of the Enterprise, and Will Riker falls in love with her when he hears her singing jazz on the holodeck. It may move the characters into an entirely different situation -- the crew of the Enterprise are on the police force in modern New York City. Or it may explore other areas of that fictional universe -- the adventures of another ship in Starfleet.

Before the Internet, people shared these stories with friends or exchanged mimeographed copies at conventions. Now, there are a variety of archives and other sites where you can post your stories and share them with fans all over the world. There are some fan fiction authors who have a larger readership than many professionally published authors. Once upon a time, fan fiction was kept relatively quiet. Many professional authors had fan fiction in their past, and some professionally published novels may have had their origins in fan fiction before the author adapted them to be original works, but it wasn't something they generally talked openly about. Now, fan fiction has really come to the forefront. There are a number of authors who got the attention of publishers or agents with their huge fan fiction followings, and some of their books originated as popular fan fiction works. I've heard a high-level editor talking about reading fan fiction archives and occasionally contacting an author whose work she liked. Amazon now has a program in which people can self-publish fan fiction written about certain authorized properties, with the author and the owner of the rights sharing in the profits. A bestselling author was interviewed in TV Guide about her basing the characters in her latest novel on characters in a TV show.

Does this mean that writing fan fiction is a good path to writing success? I would probably say no. There have only been a few writers who've translated fan fiction fame into commercial success, out of hundreds of thousands of people writing fan fiction. One or two of them have been able to sustain success, and the jury is still out on the rest of them because we haven't yet seen if they can create anything that didn't start that way. That doesn't mean you shouldn't write fan fiction. If it's true that you have to write a certain number of words before you're able to write something publishable, then some of those words may as well be fan fiction. If you're not likely to be able to publish it anyway, you might as well have fun writing it. A lot of authors I know have written fan fiction or started writing in fan fiction. I dabbled in it when I was in a bad slump after having some novels published. When I was waiting months to get rejections, it was nice to get instant, positive feedback. It allowed me to break out of some writing ruts I'd been in, and I used it as a way to experiment with new techniques. My first attempt at writing first-person narration came in fan fiction.

However, the chances are pretty slim that you'll be able to sell your fan fiction work. There is now the Kindle Worlds program (https://kindleworlds.amazon.com/) in which you can self-publish certain works about authorized properties. Otherwise, if you try to make money on fan fiction, you're likely to hear from a lawyer. Occasionally, an author or a publisher that does the tie-in works for a property may put together an anthology of fan-written works in their universe, with submissions coming through a contest. Unless you're submitting to one of these contests, you shouldn't submit a story set in someone else's universe to a publisher or agent. If it's fan fiction based on a book, no one is going to be interested. If it's a movie or TV series, only one publisher will be authorized to publish tie-in novels, and they usually hand-pick known authors rather than getting works out of the slushpile. An agent isn't going to be interested in a work that could only be considered by one publisher, if at all. The exception might be works based on properties that are out of copyright, like the various books based on Jane Austen's characters. If you're submitting a book that's the continuing adventures of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you'll just look unprofessional.

The authors who manage to sell their works that originated in fan fiction do so by doing what's often called "filing off the serial numbers." They change enough details that the work is no longer identified with its source -- character names, place names or any unique details. The further the story is from the source to start with, the easier this is. That's why I'm never going to bother reworking any of my fan fiction to sell. I wrote what I called "pseudo canon," so that it read like a lost episode, not doing anything they wouldn't have done on the series, aside from effects budgets and time constraints. It's easier to just write an original novel than to try to change enough to make one of those stories even marginally original. But if you've done something like the crew of the Enterprise as cops in modern-day New York, you may just have to change the names and a few details. Or if you've written about the other ship in Starfleet, you'd have to change enough about the universe to make it no longer the Federation we know. There does seem to be some backlash in the fan fiction community about people pulling stories from online archives, filing off the serial numbers and then getting them published, with some very vocal boycotts of some authors, but those authors are still bestsellers, so it doesn't seem to have hurt.

I suspect there are many more works out there inspired by some other work but that never went through the stage of being fan fiction -- like the author I mentioned who was interviewed in TV Guide. I doubt she ever wrote a story with those two TV characters. She merely wrote a novel whose main characters were inspired by TV characters. I don't know how many paranormal romances or urban fantasies I've read in which the main characters were clearly Buffy and Spike, but with a few details changed. I'm personally of the opinion that if people can tell who your characters are supposed to be, you're doing it wrong, but it these books were published and successful, so perhaps it's a positive if you find an editor who's into those characters.

In general, to sustain a career, you're going to have to make up your own worlds and your own characters rather than using someone else's work as a starting point, and I know of far more authors who, whether or not they'd ever written fan fiction, did start their professional writing careers by writing original works than I know of authors who got published on the basis of fan fiction. If you're getting good responses from your fan fiction, it might be a good idea to come up with something of your own. That way, you've got something you can submit if one of those editors who reads fan fiction archives sends you a message asking if you've got anything they might be able to publish.

Authors' Notes

I was right, I got a lot further along a lot faster when I wasn't arguing with someone who wasn't present, though there was some arguing with Word when it decided that the entire document had somehow become text that wasn't supposed to be checked in spell-check and I noticed that it wasn't catching it when I wasn't vigorous enough with the spacebar and let words run together. I won the argument, and not with a sledgehammer.

I've now written my first "author's note." I guess my earlier books didn't require one, though there might have been some people who needed it pointed out that magic may not exist in the real world, but in this version of the story, magic does exist, and that changes things somewhat.

When I went to the library late last week, I skimmed through a few books that would fall into the same category as this one to see how they handled it. There were some with no note whatsoever, but those seemed to be the ones where history wasn't really changed, just the level of technology that made it almost like an alternate-world fantasy (if you have clockwork automaton butlers, it's probably not our version of the Victorian era and I would hope most readers could figure that out). There was one series with no up-front note, but with a detailed note at the back, describing what in the book was real and what was changed for the story. There are some with brief notes in front and more detailed notes at the back. For now, I've decided on a brief note on the main thing that's different and the main thing that changed, then a kind of dateline page (New York, 1888). I may suggest a more detailed note at the end of the book, or maybe just an afterword note directing people to my web site if they want details about what's real, what's made-up and where to go to read more. Some of the craziest things in the book are actually based on real things or events.

Does anyone have a preference for this sort of thing in books? Would you rather figure it out yourself, or do you like to have the stage set for you? Do you like knowing what's real and what isn't?

Reading the book in closer detail is reminding me why I love it so much. I do so hope readers latch onto it. There's just something about this book that makes me happy. I would love it even if I hadn't written it.

In other news, we're supposed to get our first real freeze of the season tonight, so this is probably the end of my moonflower vine, unless being on my patio shelters it some. It was only supposed to bloom through "late summer," so I guess making it nearly halfway through November with nightly blooms is pretty good. I'll definitely have to plant another one next summer because I really loved having it. According to the seed packet and the newspaper article that inspired me to buy it, it's not the sort of thing that will propagate itself and come back on its own. The zinnia and basil are now living in my office. I've kept basil through the winter indoors before, but the zinnia is supposed to be an annual. We'll see how long it lasts. I like having the pink flowers.

Round Two

Over the weekend, I finished this phase of the revisions, going through the editor's notes. I realized that one problem is that although I'm very clear in my head exactly when this is taking place and am trying to make almost everything that isn't changed by the plot fit that time period, I don't actually say anywhere in the story what the year is supposed to be. That may be why she keeps questioning things. So, an author's note and maybe a page stating the place and year might be in order. I think I had something in there during one draft, but it was in a scene that probably ended up being cut because it was nothing but exposition.

Today, I start doing the heavy-duty tinkering on my own, without referring to the editor's notes, fixing stuff like not fully explaining how the magic works. In this world, magic works as a power supply, so even non-magical people can use magically powered devices. These devices are just very expensive because magic is expensive for people who don't have it, themselves, and that limits who can own them. I thought I left enough hints, but apparently it isn't clear. Sometimes, I'm too subtle for my own good. I'm hoping this phase will go more quickly because of less time spent arguing out loud with a person who isn't even there.

One thing I'm really appreciating about this editor and that I think I'll enjoy about working with a less commercial, more literary imprint is that she is in no way trying to Twilight my book by emphasizing romantic triangles or teen romantic angst. I just started reading another steampunky YA novel last night, and in the opening chapters of the book, the two main female characters have met three young men, all of whom are described in great detail to prove how devastatingly gorgeous they are, and they've all had an intense instant attraction, romance novel-style. One of them is, of course, a dark and dangerous bad boy who might actually turn out to be a villain (except he won't). I found myself rolling my eyes. My editor has deleted a lot of the stuff I thought I'd have to put in to sell a YA novel, so I'm being allowed to have much more subtle relationship development. There doesn't have to be an insta-crush with every hot guy who comes along, and not all the guys have to be instantly seen as hot. Sometimes, a person can grow on you.

I just realized I have nothing to eat for lunch. I have no leftovers and nothing for a quick meal like a sandwich. It may be a cheese-and-crackers kind of day. But I have a pork shoulder cooking in the Crock Pot, so this will not be a problem for the rest of the week.

Don't Know Much About History

I have a busy day and weekend ahead of me, and really, I just want to hibernate. In addition to working on these revisions, I need to make a library run. I have a party to go to tonight, and I have to bake something for that. Then I have a "meeting" that's really more like a party tomorrow, which also requires baking. The party tonight is an annual affair, a real "grown-up" party, but since I was away all last weekend, I kind of just want a nice Friday evening on my sofa. I know I'll have fun, though, when I make myself go. I may be home early on Saturday, though, once I run completely out of steam.

Next weekend, though, I have absolutely nothing on the calendar, for perhaps the last time this year. I may be working frantically because after I finish going through the editor's notes I'll need to do another pass to tinker with things (I'm keeping notes on things I might need to go back and fix), and then I'll need to do a read-through, and I need to get the book back to the editor by the 22nd. With any luck, that will give me most of December free while the editor goes back over it -- though the way things tend to go in this business, that means she'll send it back to me right before she goes on Christmas break, and she'll want a revised version back early in the new year. Editors like to leave for holidays with clean desks, but then they want to get right back into things when they return.

I've talked to my agent about the revisions, and not only will I include an author's note on the changes to history, but I'm also going to include a list of locations and what they correspond to in the real world, with a suggestion of maybe including a map, since I'm also getting a lot of questions about the geography, and I'm not even tinkering with that all that much, aside from changing place names that have to be different because of the timeline changes (if the American Revolution hasn't happened, there probably isn't going to be a Washington Square). When the book comes out, I'll probably put some more detailed information on the history and some suggestions for further reading on my web site. Maybe I'll spark or encourage an interest in history in some readers. I certainly learned a lot while doing the research for this book. I'm into history, but I realized how lacking my knowledge was. My school history classes were always taught by coaches, which meant that we mostly read the textbook chapters, then answered the questions at the end of the chapter while the coach sat at his desk and read the sports section of the newspaper. And somehow, we never managed to get to the end of the textbook, so there were portions of history we never even covered.