Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 210
January 30, 2013
Back to the Grind
I think I'm mostly back to normal. There's still some coughing, but only minor, and I've spent this whole morning in a room without a tissue box in it, which is different. I haven't tried singing, so I don't know if choir will happen tonight, but I should be able to teach children's choir. Finding a sub and doing enough planning to coordinate for a sub would take more effort than just showing up. Even if I can sing, I may run out of steam after dealing with the kids. I think I'm going to try sleeping without the Nyquil tonight. Last night, I had strange dreams about having to go back to the place I used to work and then getting stuck in the visitors' parking lot because I couldn't find my parking ticket to have it validated. Strangely, the anxiety in the dream wasn't about having to go back to work there (going back to an office job has become almost as common an anxiety nightmare for me as finding out I have an exam in a class I've been forgetting to attend) but about not working there and clearing out the last of my stuff from my office. Mind you, I left that job about 18 years ago, though I did stop freelancing for them about this time last year, which could be what the dream was about.
Today's going to be rather busy now that I'm more coherent. I'm in the process of moving hosts for my web site as my old provider decided to stop offering the service. I got all that set up last week, but then haven't managed to actually upload stuff to the new server because that's not something you want to do while on cold medicine. There may be some down time associated with my web site and web site e-mail address until all the DNS pointers are straightened out. Those who have my personal e-mail shouldn't have any problems.
I also have to get ready for tomorrow morning's sexual abuse awareness training session for people who volunteer with children at church. It's supposed to be about avoiding doing anything that might make anyone suspicious while also learning how to recognize danger signs in other adults. Part of this also involves one-on-one interviews and paperwork for background checks. I don't know why that part makes me nervous because I know I have zero record or suspicion of anything untoward and just about everyone who knows me thinks I'm good with kids. My friends trust me with their children. I just get nervous about having to give references. I always feel like it's an imposition on the people I list as references, and then I worry what they'd say. I think I'll just ask the people I work with in choir to be my references tonight. I have no idea what the interview is supposed to be like, but I wonder if they'll consider the fact that I'm not married and have no kids of my own any kind of danger sign. Will I have to explain why I'm not married? I think I'll have to ask some of the other volunteers who've already been through this what they get asked so I won't have more anxiety nightmares.
Now I have to look up contact info for potential references and for the pastors at my former church.
Today's going to be rather busy now that I'm more coherent. I'm in the process of moving hosts for my web site as my old provider decided to stop offering the service. I got all that set up last week, but then haven't managed to actually upload stuff to the new server because that's not something you want to do while on cold medicine. There may be some down time associated with my web site and web site e-mail address until all the DNS pointers are straightened out. Those who have my personal e-mail shouldn't have any problems.
I also have to get ready for tomorrow morning's sexual abuse awareness training session for people who volunteer with children at church. It's supposed to be about avoiding doing anything that might make anyone suspicious while also learning how to recognize danger signs in other adults. Part of this also involves one-on-one interviews and paperwork for background checks. I don't know why that part makes me nervous because I know I have zero record or suspicion of anything untoward and just about everyone who knows me thinks I'm good with kids. My friends trust me with their children. I just get nervous about having to give references. I always feel like it's an imposition on the people I list as references, and then I worry what they'd say. I think I'll just ask the people I work with in choir to be my references tonight. I have no idea what the interview is supposed to be like, but I wonder if they'll consider the fact that I'm not married and have no kids of my own any kind of danger sign. Will I have to explain why I'm not married? I think I'll have to ask some of the other volunteers who've already been through this what they get asked so I won't have more anxiety nightmares.
Now I have to look up contact info for potential references and for the pastors at my former church.
January 29, 2013
Book Report: What I Read While Sick
The cold seems to be either winding down or moving into a new phase. If it's like the typical cold that fits the pattern, I'll either be almost totally well by tomorrow or I'll move into the bronchitis phase. I'm taking medication and resting and drinking plenty of fluids to try to prevent the bronchitis phase. I guess I'll have yet another dance class to make up because I don't see any way that I'll be dancing tonight.
But this has given me plenty of time to read, and before the cold medicine really kicks in and makes me less than coherent (or maybe less coherent than my current state of not being entirely coherent), here's a bit of a rundown:
Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst -- Sarah's a member of the Curly Mafia, and I've enjoyed her earlier children's/middle grade books. This one is more YA, but adult-safe YA in that while the characters are young it doesn't have the more annoying current YA tropes. The world-building in this book is excellent in that it permeates everything. It feels like a real culture that has its own myths and legends, and this book is another legend about these people. Certain young people are designated as vessels for the gods, so that the gods will inhabit their bodies and live among the people to help them with their magic. But something goes wrong and the gods don't show up. The would-be vessels go on a search for gods that have been misdirected into some other place, and they learn that the legends leave out a few key points about what's really going on. I liked the characters, and I liked how balanced it was in that we saw that an opponent might not actually be bad but instead might have a valid point of view that should be heard. That's something that seems to have been forgotten in the real world. I don't normally like the "having tea with the gods" kind of book, but that's not what's going on here, especially since that's the way this culture works.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce -- Although my library has a fantasy sticker on the spine and I read about this in some fantasy blogs, I wouldn't categorize this as a "fantasy" novel. It's more of a mainstream literary novel that uses fantasy elements. It's a fairy abduction story that's not so much about the abduction itself, but about the aftermath. Twenty years ago, 16-year-old Tara went for a walk in the woods and never came back. Now she's knocking on her parents' door on Christmas day, looking barely older. After some vague talk about having been "traveling," she tells her brother that she met a strange man in the woods, agreed to go home with him out of curiosity, then found herself in a strange place where she had to spend six months before it was possible for her to return home, and when she returned home after those six months, she found that twenty years had passed. Of course, her family can't possibly believe that, so they send her to a psychiatrist and have a bunch of tests done. The book goes between accounts of the present day from the viewpoint of her parents, brother, brother's family, and former boyfriend, the case notes from the psychiatrist, and her first-person account of what happened to her. I think to literary readers it was all meant to be ambiguous and probably a metaphor for something, but to fantasy readers it was kind of "well, duh, obviously she was abducted by the fairies." I think it was a good novel and an interesting take on the fairy abduction story, as it showed a realistic view of what would probably happen in the aftermath of that sort of thing, but I don't think it was a very good fantasy novel, if that makes sense. There wasn't really any attempt at worldbuilding for the depiction of the fairy world, and those parts are the weakest of the book (Worst. Fairyland. Ever.), and the weakness of that worldbuilding makes the psychiatrist's analysis of it make sense (which may be the point). It's worth reading, but I won't be nominating it for a fantasy award.
Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers -- Tim's a friend, but I've been sadly remiss in not reading his work. After this book, I have to rectify that. It's not subject matter I would usually enjoy, but he wrote it in a way that I did enjoy. This is sort of a Victorian ghost/vampire story centered around the Rossetti family (mostly poet Christina and poet/artist Dante Gabriel). It's almost impossible to describe the plot of the book in a way that makes sense (especially in my current condition), but the Rossettis are plagued/helped by the vampiric ghost of their uncle, John Polidori (who in reality is believed to be the creator of the genre of vampire fiction). This is what gives them the incredible inspiration behind their work, and they're willing to pay the price until they learn that the price extends beyond their family to others they come in contact with and that Polidori is teaming with another vampiric ghost to try to take corporeal form to destroy London. The Rossettis team with a veterinarian, a former fallen woman, some London street urchins and their leader to try to vanquish these spirits for good. I found myself unable to stop turning pages because I cared about these people. I once got into a convention discussion with Tim about the trend toward darkness in fiction, and I could see elements of his viewpoints here in that although the subject matter is pretty dark, it was handled in a "light" way without wallowing in the darkness and with all the main characters fighting against the darkness. There's a sense of optimism throughout, and in most cases the better part of human nature comes through (when it doesn't, it's shown as tragedy, not just the way the world works). This book sent me scurrying to Wikipedia to look up the various real-life characters. I was somewhat familiar with the Rossettis, but not their full circle.
There was an odd little personal link between these last two books. Some Kind of Fairy Tale first pinged my radar because I've been working on a book about a fairy abduction that I've been calling A Fairy Tale, though mine is about the rescue effort rather than the aftermath and there's no doubt that it's a real abduction. I've called mine a blend of the Tam Lin legend and "The Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti. It follows some of the beats of the Tam Lin story, but like "The Goblin Market" it's about sisters rather than lovers. Because of this, I'd done some further reading on Christina Rossetti. So, although these two books have nothing really in common, to me they're linked because they both relate to something I've been working on.
And now I think I've exhausted my ability to be moderately coherent for the day.
But this has given me plenty of time to read, and before the cold medicine really kicks in and makes me less than coherent (or maybe less coherent than my current state of not being entirely coherent), here's a bit of a rundown:
Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst -- Sarah's a member of the Curly Mafia, and I've enjoyed her earlier children's/middle grade books. This one is more YA, but adult-safe YA in that while the characters are young it doesn't have the more annoying current YA tropes. The world-building in this book is excellent in that it permeates everything. It feels like a real culture that has its own myths and legends, and this book is another legend about these people. Certain young people are designated as vessels for the gods, so that the gods will inhabit their bodies and live among the people to help them with their magic. But something goes wrong and the gods don't show up. The would-be vessels go on a search for gods that have been misdirected into some other place, and they learn that the legends leave out a few key points about what's really going on. I liked the characters, and I liked how balanced it was in that we saw that an opponent might not actually be bad but instead might have a valid point of view that should be heard. That's something that seems to have been forgotten in the real world. I don't normally like the "having tea with the gods" kind of book, but that's not what's going on here, especially since that's the way this culture works.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce -- Although my library has a fantasy sticker on the spine and I read about this in some fantasy blogs, I wouldn't categorize this as a "fantasy" novel. It's more of a mainstream literary novel that uses fantasy elements. It's a fairy abduction story that's not so much about the abduction itself, but about the aftermath. Twenty years ago, 16-year-old Tara went for a walk in the woods and never came back. Now she's knocking on her parents' door on Christmas day, looking barely older. After some vague talk about having been "traveling," she tells her brother that she met a strange man in the woods, agreed to go home with him out of curiosity, then found herself in a strange place where she had to spend six months before it was possible for her to return home, and when she returned home after those six months, she found that twenty years had passed. Of course, her family can't possibly believe that, so they send her to a psychiatrist and have a bunch of tests done. The book goes between accounts of the present day from the viewpoint of her parents, brother, brother's family, and former boyfriend, the case notes from the psychiatrist, and her first-person account of what happened to her. I think to literary readers it was all meant to be ambiguous and probably a metaphor for something, but to fantasy readers it was kind of "well, duh, obviously she was abducted by the fairies." I think it was a good novel and an interesting take on the fairy abduction story, as it showed a realistic view of what would probably happen in the aftermath of that sort of thing, but I don't think it was a very good fantasy novel, if that makes sense. There wasn't really any attempt at worldbuilding for the depiction of the fairy world, and those parts are the weakest of the book (Worst. Fairyland. Ever.), and the weakness of that worldbuilding makes the psychiatrist's analysis of it make sense (which may be the point). It's worth reading, but I won't be nominating it for a fantasy award.
Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers -- Tim's a friend, but I've been sadly remiss in not reading his work. After this book, I have to rectify that. It's not subject matter I would usually enjoy, but he wrote it in a way that I did enjoy. This is sort of a Victorian ghost/vampire story centered around the Rossetti family (mostly poet Christina and poet/artist Dante Gabriel). It's almost impossible to describe the plot of the book in a way that makes sense (especially in my current condition), but the Rossettis are plagued/helped by the vampiric ghost of their uncle, John Polidori (who in reality is believed to be the creator of the genre of vampire fiction). This is what gives them the incredible inspiration behind their work, and they're willing to pay the price until they learn that the price extends beyond their family to others they come in contact with and that Polidori is teaming with another vampiric ghost to try to take corporeal form to destroy London. The Rossettis team with a veterinarian, a former fallen woman, some London street urchins and their leader to try to vanquish these spirits for good. I found myself unable to stop turning pages because I cared about these people. I once got into a convention discussion with Tim about the trend toward darkness in fiction, and I could see elements of his viewpoints here in that although the subject matter is pretty dark, it was handled in a "light" way without wallowing in the darkness and with all the main characters fighting against the darkness. There's a sense of optimism throughout, and in most cases the better part of human nature comes through (when it doesn't, it's shown as tragedy, not just the way the world works). This book sent me scurrying to Wikipedia to look up the various real-life characters. I was somewhat familiar with the Rossettis, but not their full circle.
There was an odd little personal link between these last two books. Some Kind of Fairy Tale first pinged my radar because I've been working on a book about a fairy abduction that I've been calling A Fairy Tale, though mine is about the rescue effort rather than the aftermath and there's no doubt that it's a real abduction. I've called mine a blend of the Tam Lin legend and "The Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti. It follows some of the beats of the Tam Lin story, but like "The Goblin Market" it's about sisters rather than lovers. Because of this, I'd done some further reading on Christina Rossetti. So, although these two books have nothing really in common, to me they're linked because they both relate to something I've been working on.
And now I think I've exhausted my ability to be moderately coherent for the day.
January 28, 2013
Sick Day
It's a good thing I didn't have plans this weekend because I came down with a cold. It followed my usual pattern of starting with a scratchy throat Friday afternoon, turning into a sore throat by Saturday morning, with sneezing and sniffling by Saturday night, then waking up Sunday morning with the stuffy head and a cough, but still with the sniffling and sneezing. By Sunday afternoon, I pretty much had the symptoms list on the Nyquil bottle. I didn't get much rest last night because of the sneezing and stuffiness. So I think I'll give myself a sick day today. I can't really concentrate anyway.
I did a lot of reading over the weekend, but I don't think I'm quite coherent enough to discuss it right now. I'm at "Lifetime movies OnDemand" levels of critical thought. Did you know that they sometimes have romantic comedies that aren't about Christmas? I was surprised. I stumbled upon one yesterday called A Perfect Romance. Generally, anything on Lifetime labeled "perfect" is so, so very much not, so I figured A Perfect Romance would be about the guy who seemed perfect, until it turned out he was a crazed stalker who kept the last few women he'd dated chained up in his basement. But it turned out to be a cute romantic comedy about online dating. And, I think, possibly an infomercial for an online dating service I've never heard of but that got "promotional consideration" in the credits.
And now I'm realizing just how much trouble I'm having typing and having the words come out right, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and go back to bed.
I did a lot of reading over the weekend, but I don't think I'm quite coherent enough to discuss it right now. I'm at "Lifetime movies OnDemand" levels of critical thought. Did you know that they sometimes have romantic comedies that aren't about Christmas? I was surprised. I stumbled upon one yesterday called A Perfect Romance. Generally, anything on Lifetime labeled "perfect" is so, so very much not, so I figured A Perfect Romance would be about the guy who seemed perfect, until it turned out he was a crazed stalker who kept the last few women he'd dated chained up in his basement. But it turned out to be a cute romantic comedy about online dating. And, I think, possibly an infomercial for an online dating service I've never heard of but that got "promotional consideration" in the credits.
And now I'm realizing just how much trouble I'm having typing and having the words come out right, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and go back to bed.
January 25, 2013
A Justified Goof-Off Day
I finished the revisions yesterday. I'll still need to do another read-through, but I think it's close to done. Now I'll need to revise book 7 whenever I get those notes from my agent, and after that I'll do my read-through on this book. And then I'll start a new one!
For now, though, since I'll have to deal with an urgent project the moment I get it back, which needs to be soon, I can't really start anything new. That means reading time! We'll see how many books I can read this weekend. Even better, my water is currently off because they're having to do some pipe repairs nearby, which means I can't really do housework. I took a make-up ballet class last night (since I'm still making up for all the time I missed last fall), and my knees are very angry today, so that means no walking or exercise and limits the housework. I think what did it is that for the beginner class she's doing a center barre, which means doing the usual barre exercises without the support of the bar. That requires you to do everything very slowly, with a lot of precision, and all while having to work on balance. It's a good way to force people to focus on technique and develop balance, but it can put a lot of strain on your knees to support yourself all that time on one leg while working the other leg. It may also have something to do with the front that came through during class, and changes in atmospheric pressure tend to make my joints hurt.
At any rate, I will not be doing a lot of walking today. Fortunately, I have a huge pile of books, and there's tea in the thermos. I don't know what I'll do if the water isn't back on before I run out of tea. I may be scavenging from pitchers and water bottles, or melting any ice cubes I find in the freezer. I wonder what they'd do if I brought my teakettle out to the pipe they're working on and ask if they can fill it for me.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some very important goofing off to do.
For now, though, since I'll have to deal with an urgent project the moment I get it back, which needs to be soon, I can't really start anything new. That means reading time! We'll see how many books I can read this weekend. Even better, my water is currently off because they're having to do some pipe repairs nearby, which means I can't really do housework. I took a make-up ballet class last night (since I'm still making up for all the time I missed last fall), and my knees are very angry today, so that means no walking or exercise and limits the housework. I think what did it is that for the beginner class she's doing a center barre, which means doing the usual barre exercises without the support of the bar. That requires you to do everything very slowly, with a lot of precision, and all while having to work on balance. It's a good way to force people to focus on technique and develop balance, but it can put a lot of strain on your knees to support yourself all that time on one leg while working the other leg. It may also have something to do with the front that came through during class, and changes in atmospheric pressure tend to make my joints hurt.
At any rate, I will not be doing a lot of walking today. Fortunately, I have a huge pile of books, and there's tea in the thermos. I don't know what I'll do if the water isn't back on before I run out of tea. I may be scavenging from pitchers and water bottles, or melting any ice cubes I find in the freezer. I wonder what they'd do if I brought my teakettle out to the pipe they're working on and ask if they can fill it for me.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some very important goofing off to do.
January 24, 2013
The Benefits of Sloth
I got a reprieve on the early Saturday choir rehearsal, which means I suddenly have a free weekend. I guess none of us yet knew the music well enough for a combined choir rehearsal to be worthwhile, so it was moved to February. Note to my friends: this does not mean that I am now looking for something to do. I plan to dive into that pile of books I got from the library and maybe do some baking. Besides, the following weekend, which was going to my my "free" weekend, has now filled up. And that means February has now filled up.
I now have maybe ten more pages to go in the revisions. I think most of this will be tweaking and cutting because I believe I've handled the major issues. It turned out that the solution to one of my major problems was to go back to an earlier draft. There was an event that in the most recent draft I'd abruptly switched to have happen to a different character, but now I've realized that was the wrong thing to do. I'm still wavering a bit about where this event should go, since I just came up with a new idea for moving it, but that means tweaking some points of view around. I must ponder this.
Fortunately, I've already taken care of my errands for the day, so I have the whole afternoon for theoretically uninterrupted work. It's possible that I could even finish today. I'll still need to give it a good read-through, but I'll be ready for the next set of revision notes on another project I should be getting from my agent very soon. And then I've got another book I need to start working on. There are also a few other things I've back-burnered that I need to deal with.
In other news, I have a new favorite animal. We were talking about fast and slow tempos in children's choir last night, and there's a piece of music to use that goes back and forth between slow tempos and fast tempos. I turned it into a game of pretending you're a slow animal in the slow parts and a fast animal in the fast parts. My teen helper came up with the brilliant idea of being a sloth, and then all the kids wanted to be sloths, so they just sat there, quietly, for quite some time. We may play the sloth game more often. If I tell them to sit still and be quiet, they'll never do it, but if I tell them that they're sloths, it just might work.
I now have maybe ten more pages to go in the revisions. I think most of this will be tweaking and cutting because I believe I've handled the major issues. It turned out that the solution to one of my major problems was to go back to an earlier draft. There was an event that in the most recent draft I'd abruptly switched to have happen to a different character, but now I've realized that was the wrong thing to do. I'm still wavering a bit about where this event should go, since I just came up with a new idea for moving it, but that means tweaking some points of view around. I must ponder this.
Fortunately, I've already taken care of my errands for the day, so I have the whole afternoon for theoretically uninterrupted work. It's possible that I could even finish today. I'll still need to give it a good read-through, but I'll be ready for the next set of revision notes on another project I should be getting from my agent very soon. And then I've got another book I need to start working on. There are also a few other things I've back-burnered that I need to deal with.
In other news, I have a new favorite animal. We were talking about fast and slow tempos in children's choir last night, and there's a piece of music to use that goes back and forth between slow tempos and fast tempos. I turned it into a game of pretending you're a slow animal in the slow parts and a fast animal in the fast parts. My teen helper came up with the brilliant idea of being a sloth, and then all the kids wanted to be sloths, so they just sat there, quietly, for quite some time. We may play the sloth game more often. If I tell them to sit still and be quiet, they'll never do it, but if I tell them that they're sloths, it just might work.
January 23, 2013
Thickening Your Skin
I'm down to about 20 more pages to revise, but this is the part where I pretty much have to throw out what I have and come up with something new, so it's not going to be a quick and easy revision. I think I know what I need to do, but I suspect I'll find out when I get there.
After taking a bit of a holiday break, the writing posts are back. I had a reader question about what comes next after self-publishing a book. I'm publishing through my agent's platform, so I haven't really dealt with the logistics of submitting books to sales venues, etc., but one thing that comes to mind after a lot of Internet observation that I think self-published authors need to do is grow a thick skin.
This is important for traditionally published authors, as well, but the process of becoming published -- submitting work to agents and publishers, going through the editorial revision and copy edit phases -- tends to thicken one's skin a bit. By the time a book is published, you've probably already heard most of the criticism you're likely to get, so any reviews will only echo rejections or editorial suggestions. With a traditionally published work that's available in bookstores, your audience isn't limited to those who are active online. And most professional book review venues are still closed to self-published work, so a self-published book is more likely to be reviewed by amateur reviewers, for better or worse. It's far too easy for a self-published author to sabotage her own career by reacting the wrong way to a review and having a meltdown that goes viral.
Get used to the fact that not everyone will love your book. No matter how careful you are about editing, there will be some flaw that people will point out and pounce upon -- and they may or may not be correct about that flaw. Some people will miss the point entirely. Some people will blame your book for not being what they wanted it to be. Some people will give you a negative review based on the price or format. And you have to be very, very careful about responding to any of this. If you know you're going to have a strong emotional reaction to every review, don't set up a Google alert, go searching for reviews or read Amazon reviews. If you need a few good review quotes for promotion, get someone else to do the search for you. If there's something you absolutely must correct, like inaccurate information, do so in an e-mail to the reviewer, not in a public blog comment, and put what you write aside for a day to review before sending.
From what I've read in online discussions, it seems like most readers and reviewers would prefer that authors stay out of discussions in reviews of their books, even to say good things. Participation in other discussions is fine, as is responding to non-review discussions relating to your books. But it seems to totally stifle the discussion around a review the moment the author shows up and inserts herself into the conversation, and you really, really want people actively discussing your book. A negative or angry response will trigger a flame war and vows to never buy any of your books, ever, but even a "thank you for the review" tends to shut down the conversation entirely. There's not really any point in arguing with a review unless it contains a factual error like release date or available formats. You're not going to change anyone's mind. You're just going to make them mad.
Don't get your friends or family to gang up on negative reviewers, either, and don't create a fake identity for yourself so that you can disagree with reviews in stealth mode. It's painfully obvious when this is going on, you'll get busted, and then you'll look even worse. This is business, not junior high.
This is why I generally recommend that people at least try the traditional publishing route before publishing for themselves. That tends to thicken the skin and give you a more realistic impression of your place in the publishing sphere. Without that professional feedback, it's too easy to maintain the fantasy that your work is too brilliant for the old-school publishers to recognize, and then the moment someone bursts your bubble you have a meltdown. It is possible that your book is too different to be published traditionally but is still brilliant, but it's dangerous to buy into your own hype so deeply that hearing opposing viewpoints enrages you.
Having a good book, good editing, good cover art, good distribution and good publicity won't help if you have a public hissy fit that makes the core e-book audience shun you and warn others away.
After taking a bit of a holiday break, the writing posts are back. I had a reader question about what comes next after self-publishing a book. I'm publishing through my agent's platform, so I haven't really dealt with the logistics of submitting books to sales venues, etc., but one thing that comes to mind after a lot of Internet observation that I think self-published authors need to do is grow a thick skin.
This is important for traditionally published authors, as well, but the process of becoming published -- submitting work to agents and publishers, going through the editorial revision and copy edit phases -- tends to thicken one's skin a bit. By the time a book is published, you've probably already heard most of the criticism you're likely to get, so any reviews will only echo rejections or editorial suggestions. With a traditionally published work that's available in bookstores, your audience isn't limited to those who are active online. And most professional book review venues are still closed to self-published work, so a self-published book is more likely to be reviewed by amateur reviewers, for better or worse. It's far too easy for a self-published author to sabotage her own career by reacting the wrong way to a review and having a meltdown that goes viral.
Get used to the fact that not everyone will love your book. No matter how careful you are about editing, there will be some flaw that people will point out and pounce upon -- and they may or may not be correct about that flaw. Some people will miss the point entirely. Some people will blame your book for not being what they wanted it to be. Some people will give you a negative review based on the price or format. And you have to be very, very careful about responding to any of this. If you know you're going to have a strong emotional reaction to every review, don't set up a Google alert, go searching for reviews or read Amazon reviews. If you need a few good review quotes for promotion, get someone else to do the search for you. If there's something you absolutely must correct, like inaccurate information, do so in an e-mail to the reviewer, not in a public blog comment, and put what you write aside for a day to review before sending.
From what I've read in online discussions, it seems like most readers and reviewers would prefer that authors stay out of discussions in reviews of their books, even to say good things. Participation in other discussions is fine, as is responding to non-review discussions relating to your books. But it seems to totally stifle the discussion around a review the moment the author shows up and inserts herself into the conversation, and you really, really want people actively discussing your book. A negative or angry response will trigger a flame war and vows to never buy any of your books, ever, but even a "thank you for the review" tends to shut down the conversation entirely. There's not really any point in arguing with a review unless it contains a factual error like release date or available formats. You're not going to change anyone's mind. You're just going to make them mad.
Don't get your friends or family to gang up on negative reviewers, either, and don't create a fake identity for yourself so that you can disagree with reviews in stealth mode. It's painfully obvious when this is going on, you'll get busted, and then you'll look even worse. This is business, not junior high.
This is why I generally recommend that people at least try the traditional publishing route before publishing for themselves. That tends to thicken the skin and give you a more realistic impression of your place in the publishing sphere. Without that professional feedback, it's too easy to maintain the fantasy that your work is too brilliant for the old-school publishers to recognize, and then the moment someone bursts your bubble you have a meltdown. It is possible that your book is too different to be published traditionally but is still brilliant, but it's dangerous to buy into your own hype so deeply that hearing opposing viewpoints enrages you.
Having a good book, good editing, good cover art, good distribution and good publicity won't help if you have a public hissy fit that makes the core e-book audience shun you and warn others away.
January 22, 2013
Book Report: Dragons and Jerks
As I suspected, the changes I needed to make in the scene I'd been procrastinating on for days turned out to be minor. It was the next scene that I hadn't even been thinking about that was the critical one. But I think I've figured that out by just picking up on the end of the previous scene and asking myself what the character really would do next. And, you know, it was totally different from what she did in the existing draft. Some of that was because of the minor changes I'd made earlier, but some of it was the writer trying to force events instead of letting the characters be themselves. Bad writer! No cookies!
I've started making a good dent in the giant stash of books I got from the library. I have another book that would have made it to the "books of the year" list if I'd read it last year and that I may nominate for the Andre Norton award (the children's/YA award) with SFWA: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. This is what I'd call "adult-safe" YA in that I believe twenty or even ten years ago, before the YA boom, it likely would have been published as regular fantasy rather than young adult. The heroine is 16, but in her society that makes her essentially an adult. She lives on her own and has a job with some responsibility. She never really acts like a teenager.
Seraphina lives a dangerous existence trapped between two "worlds," where either side would consider her an abomination if they knew what she was. To keep her secret, she isolates herself, doing her job as the assistant music mistress at court but not forming close ties to anyone. In this Renaissance-like world, the humans and dragons have formed a truce. Dragons have learned to take human form and live among humans, but there's still a lot of prejudice and bigotry on both sides, and there are factions on both sides that would love to end the truce and get the conflict going again. When the heir to the throne is killed in a way that looks very dragon-like, Seraphina finds herself drawn into the investigation. Her teacher was a dragon and her father is the legal expert on the treaty with the dragons, so she knows more about dragons than most people and has a different perspective on them. The prince who heads the royal guard finds her insight useful. They have to solve the case to stop a potential war, but solving the case may bring her secret into the open. This is an intriguing murder mystery with magic and dragons and Renaissance music, with a really nice slow-build romance. It looks like there will be a sequel, and I'm looking forward to it.
And then I finally finished the Little Lady Agency trilogy by Hester Browne. I was starting to think that she'd be another one like Sophie Kinsella for me, where I love the standalone books but can't read the series she's best known for. I loved the first book but hated the ending. Then when I was in the mood for that sort of thing, I read the second book and pretty much disliked it entirely, especially the ending. It was very frustrating reading an entire book about an obviously, painfully unhealthy relationship. But the online reviews reassured me that the story wasn't over, so I picked up the third book because as much as I disliked the second, I didn't want to leave it that way, and I was certainly rewarded. This series is about a young woman who finds a business niche in being "the little lady" and doing for unmarried men the kinds of things a wife would do -- wardrobe consulting, reminding about or sending flowers or gifts to friends and family members, polishing off the rough edges, sometimes even posing as a fake girlfriend to fend off matchmaking attempts from friends and family members. In the first book, she ended up getting together with one of her clients, and the problem with the second book for me was that it took her away from the business that was a lot of the fun as she spends most of the book on vacation in New York, where her boyfriend has moved for business. And then there are all the issues with the boyfriend who manages to be both neglectful and controlling at the same time. He keeps putting her off and brushing her aside for his business while complaining if she tries to do any work at all. In the third book, she's making wedding plans (well, making plans to make plans) when her grandmother asks a huge favor on behalf of an old friend/former lover, a displaced European prince. They need someone to rehab the prince's playboy grandson so they can get their old realm back (having the royal family in the old castle would be good for tourism). That project brings up all kinds of issues with her fiance, her own business goals and her male best friend from childhood. And we finally get a satisfying ending that didn't make me want to hurl the book across the room. I guess this is a reason why romances are seldom written in series with the same main couple unless there's a lot more stuff going on because it does get frustrating when the wrong parts are dragged out to delay the inevitable.
The third book is as much fun as the first, with all of our heroine's crazy family members and with her finally really finding herself. I would almost say to skip the second book in this series because the ending just re-sets, but if you do read the second book, have the third handy to begin immediately or you'll just end up annoyed if you leave things that way for any length of time.
I've started making a good dent in the giant stash of books I got from the library. I have another book that would have made it to the "books of the year" list if I'd read it last year and that I may nominate for the Andre Norton award (the children's/YA award) with SFWA: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. This is what I'd call "adult-safe" YA in that I believe twenty or even ten years ago, before the YA boom, it likely would have been published as regular fantasy rather than young adult. The heroine is 16, but in her society that makes her essentially an adult. She lives on her own and has a job with some responsibility. She never really acts like a teenager.
Seraphina lives a dangerous existence trapped between two "worlds," where either side would consider her an abomination if they knew what she was. To keep her secret, she isolates herself, doing her job as the assistant music mistress at court but not forming close ties to anyone. In this Renaissance-like world, the humans and dragons have formed a truce. Dragons have learned to take human form and live among humans, but there's still a lot of prejudice and bigotry on both sides, and there are factions on both sides that would love to end the truce and get the conflict going again. When the heir to the throne is killed in a way that looks very dragon-like, Seraphina finds herself drawn into the investigation. Her teacher was a dragon and her father is the legal expert on the treaty with the dragons, so she knows more about dragons than most people and has a different perspective on them. The prince who heads the royal guard finds her insight useful. They have to solve the case to stop a potential war, but solving the case may bring her secret into the open. This is an intriguing murder mystery with magic and dragons and Renaissance music, with a really nice slow-build romance. It looks like there will be a sequel, and I'm looking forward to it.
And then I finally finished the Little Lady Agency trilogy by Hester Browne. I was starting to think that she'd be another one like Sophie Kinsella for me, where I love the standalone books but can't read the series she's best known for. I loved the first book but hated the ending. Then when I was in the mood for that sort of thing, I read the second book and pretty much disliked it entirely, especially the ending. It was very frustrating reading an entire book about an obviously, painfully unhealthy relationship. But the online reviews reassured me that the story wasn't over, so I picked up the third book because as much as I disliked the second, I didn't want to leave it that way, and I was certainly rewarded. This series is about a young woman who finds a business niche in being "the little lady" and doing for unmarried men the kinds of things a wife would do -- wardrobe consulting, reminding about or sending flowers or gifts to friends and family members, polishing off the rough edges, sometimes even posing as a fake girlfriend to fend off matchmaking attempts from friends and family members. In the first book, she ended up getting together with one of her clients, and the problem with the second book for me was that it took her away from the business that was a lot of the fun as she spends most of the book on vacation in New York, where her boyfriend has moved for business. And then there are all the issues with the boyfriend who manages to be both neglectful and controlling at the same time. He keeps putting her off and brushing her aside for his business while complaining if she tries to do any work at all. In the third book, she's making wedding plans (well, making plans to make plans) when her grandmother asks a huge favor on behalf of an old friend/former lover, a displaced European prince. They need someone to rehab the prince's playboy grandson so they can get their old realm back (having the royal family in the old castle would be good for tourism). That project brings up all kinds of issues with her fiance, her own business goals and her male best friend from childhood. And we finally get a satisfying ending that didn't make me want to hurl the book across the room. I guess this is a reason why romances are seldom written in series with the same main couple unless there's a lot more stuff going on because it does get frustrating when the wrong parts are dragged out to delay the inevitable.
The third book is as much fun as the first, with all of our heroine's crazy family members and with her finally really finding herself. I would almost say to skip the second book in this series because the ending just re-sets, but if you do read the second book, have the third handy to begin immediately or you'll just end up annoyed if you leave things that way for any length of time.
January 21, 2013
Real-World Monday
Ah, Monday, and for once I'm actually okay with it being Monday (you'd think that staying home and writing would take the Monday out of Mondays, but it's still part of the same mindset that makes me look forward to Fridays). It was a busy weekend, so now I have a day of quiet and solitude, and I'm ready to do some serious writing. I also got a bit of a recharge from lots of baby snuggles with a friend's little one on Saturday and then a lot of hugs from my choir kids when I led the singing in Sunday school. One little girl who's a real hugger ran in and hugged me, but then that meant the rest had to do so as they got competitive about it. Some people have pets. I have other people's kids. Less mess and expense.
I had a calendar whimper moment when I realized that it will be a couple of weeks before I have a weekend with no obligations. This coming Saturday, I have an 8 a.m. rehearsal for the Mozart Requiem about 40 minutes from home. There's obviously an early-bird sadist behind that. About the only way I'll manage that is if I sleep in my clothes, make a Thermos of tea the night before and have a bagel or other roll handy. Then if I roll out of bed, put the tea in a travel mug and bring the roll with me, I might be on time, though likely not fully conscious until after arrival.
I think I finally figured out the sticky problem with the book. I worked it out in a sort of flow chart. We'll see how it goes when I actually start writing. Watch it end up requiring about three sentences being changed. That's what always seems to happen when I'm up against something where I can't see the solution and I spend days brainstorming. I come up with the solution, then when it comes to implementing it, it turns out to be rather subtle.
But I also have business stuff to do today, like dealing with my web hosting and getting a Worldcon hotel reservation. I hate it when the real world infringes on my writing days.
I had a calendar whimper moment when I realized that it will be a couple of weeks before I have a weekend with no obligations. This coming Saturday, I have an 8 a.m. rehearsal for the Mozart Requiem about 40 minutes from home. There's obviously an early-bird sadist behind that. About the only way I'll manage that is if I sleep in my clothes, make a Thermos of tea the night before and have a bagel or other roll handy. Then if I roll out of bed, put the tea in a travel mug and bring the roll with me, I might be on time, though likely not fully conscious until after arrival.
I think I finally figured out the sticky problem with the book. I worked it out in a sort of flow chart. We'll see how it goes when I actually start writing. Watch it end up requiring about three sentences being changed. That's what always seems to happen when I'm up against something where I can't see the solution and I spend days brainstorming. I come up with the solution, then when it comes to implementing it, it turns out to be rather subtle.
But I also have business stuff to do today, like dealing with my web hosting and getting a Worldcon hotel reservation. I hate it when the real world infringes on my writing days.
January 18, 2013
Killing Darlings
So, looks like I'm going to need another Haven marathon before next fall because there were still more of those big revelations that change your entire perspective on everything that happened before. What's fun is that I can already think of a few clues that were planted in season one for what we learned in the season three finale. But my rewatch will have to wait for next fall, or maybe summer. I have other things to focus on now.
When I watched the pilot, I thought of it as a kind of "Northern Exposure meets The X-Files" thing because we had the outsider coming to the quirky, remote town, and then investigating crazy cases. But then it turned out to be almost as much Twin Peaks as Northern Exposure, with a darkness under the quirks. Then they threw in a bit of Buffy, where there's something about the town itself that causes it to have increased supernatural activity, and then we have a snarky blonde who's specially equipped to deal with it all. Not to mention a lot of Enchanted, Inc., what with the immunity to "magic" and the snarky chick and the shy guy working together. There's even a hint or two of Star Wars. Now they've thrown in elements of The Terminator and Doctor Who, which kind of makes it the Best Show Ever. We just need a little The Princess Bride for it to be perfect (though I'm not sure how they'll fit that in -- unless it involves someone being "mostly dead," which has already happened once and may be happening again). I understand there's also a lot of Stephen King mixed in, and not just the elements from the King novel that's the basis for the series, but I'm too big a weenie for most of King's work. Even the non-horror stuff can keep you awake at night. There's nothing horror in The Colorado Kid, the basis for this series, but it can still keep me awake if I start thinking about it because I keep trying to solve the unsolvable mystery. Strangely, they haven't (yet) actually used the really puzzling elements of the book in the series, even though the series is based on the case in the book.
Now, though, I have to get to work on my own writing. I still haven't thought of what needs to happen in this next scene. I know where I'm going with it, I know what the character arc is. I just can't tell exactly what the first step should be. I may be back to baking as brainstorming because I have to make something for a party tomorrow. I'm still experimenting with a recipe. It's good the way it is, but it isn't perfect yet. Or maybe some Mozart will help. Mozart is supposed to make you smarter, right? So maybe doing some Requiem work will stir up something in my head. I think part of my problem is that the original way makes total sense to me, even though I can see why it might not work for readers. I can think of ways to change it, but they all mean changing something that I love. I suppose this is what they mean by "kill your darlings." If it's in the way of the big picture being right, it needs to go, no matter how much you love it. It's not worth sacrificing the entire book for the sake of a single really good line.
Or so I keep telling myself. This may be one of those times when I need to quit revising and just start with a blank page, writing a new scene, so I don't see the stuff I love. I can then mix and match old and new.
When I watched the pilot, I thought of it as a kind of "Northern Exposure meets The X-Files" thing because we had the outsider coming to the quirky, remote town, and then investigating crazy cases. But then it turned out to be almost as much Twin Peaks as Northern Exposure, with a darkness under the quirks. Then they threw in a bit of Buffy, where there's something about the town itself that causes it to have increased supernatural activity, and then we have a snarky blonde who's specially equipped to deal with it all. Not to mention a lot of Enchanted, Inc., what with the immunity to "magic" and the snarky chick and the shy guy working together. There's even a hint or two of Star Wars. Now they've thrown in elements of The Terminator and Doctor Who, which kind of makes it the Best Show Ever. We just need a little The Princess Bride for it to be perfect (though I'm not sure how they'll fit that in -- unless it involves someone being "mostly dead," which has already happened once and may be happening again). I understand there's also a lot of Stephen King mixed in, and not just the elements from the King novel that's the basis for the series, but I'm too big a weenie for most of King's work. Even the non-horror stuff can keep you awake at night. There's nothing horror in The Colorado Kid, the basis for this series, but it can still keep me awake if I start thinking about it because I keep trying to solve the unsolvable mystery. Strangely, they haven't (yet) actually used the really puzzling elements of the book in the series, even though the series is based on the case in the book.
Now, though, I have to get to work on my own writing. I still haven't thought of what needs to happen in this next scene. I know where I'm going with it, I know what the character arc is. I just can't tell exactly what the first step should be. I may be back to baking as brainstorming because I have to make something for a party tomorrow. I'm still experimenting with a recipe. It's good the way it is, but it isn't perfect yet. Or maybe some Mozart will help. Mozart is supposed to make you smarter, right? So maybe doing some Requiem work will stir up something in my head. I think part of my problem is that the original way makes total sense to me, even though I can see why it might not work for readers. I can think of ways to change it, but they all mean changing something that I love. I suppose this is what they mean by "kill your darlings." If it's in the way of the big picture being right, it needs to go, no matter how much you love it. It's not worth sacrificing the entire book for the sake of a single really good line.
Or so I keep telling myself. This may be one of those times when I need to quit revising and just start with a blank page, writing a new scene, so I don't see the stuff I love. I can then mix and match old and new.
January 17, 2013
Buried Under Books
I now have a ton of reading to get through in the next few weeks. I stocked up at the library yesterday on books eligible for the Hugo and Nebula, so maybe I can make some nominations. But this means I'm going to have to devote a lot of my leisure time to reading. Less Internet and TV and more books is probably good for me.
Tonight, though, is a TV night. We finally get the last two episodes of Haven, which got postponed due to an eerie coincidence in subject matter relating to real-world events on the day one of the episodes was to air. A lot of my friends make Facebook posts before some big TV event, saying not to call unless you, personally, are on fire. To which I have to say: If you're on fire, call 911. Why would you call me? What do you expect me to do about it? I would say that unless there's a crisis that only I can deal with, and I must do something about it at that very moment, then don't call at that time, but I can't think of anything that would fit into that category, unless maybe one of my next-door neighbors needed a ride to the hospital, or something similar. That I would interrupt TV for (and have done so).
I took advantage of the lag in airings to marathon the entire series to-date, and I think one of the reasons I like this series is that it rewards repeat viewing. There are so many revelations that change how you see earlier episodes once you learn what's really going on or what happened in the past to set up those events. There's an event in the first season whose meaning has changed at least three times for me, each time we learn more. We still don't know exactly what's going on there, but there are now multiple possibilities in something that initially seemed pretty straightforward. And now they've introduced some time looping to complicate things further. I love this kind of writing and aspire to pulling it off someday. It's a lot like Connie Willis's Blackout/All Clear, where it's an entirely different book the second time through once you know the information revealed toward the end. So, anyway, I will not be answering the phone tonight. I would say that this should all free up some brain space devoted to speculation after being left with a cliffhanger, but I'm sure they'll just leave us with another big cliffhanger that won't be resolved for nearly eight months.
In other news, I tried out those Aveda curly hair samples yesterday, and it seemed to work pretty well when I air-dried my hair in the afternoon. I'll next test the way I'm more likely to do my hair -- wash at night, air dry a little while, then put in a bun to sleep and take it down in the morning to finish drying. However, I'm not sure it's significantly better than anything I've bought at Target, and at nearly $30 a bottle per product, and with at least two products required, it would have to be darn near magical, creating perfect ringlets with zero frizz. Still, I remain focused on the quest for the ideal curly hair care.
Now I have to get to work on figuring out this bit of plot I need to fix. I know where I need to end up, but I'm not quite sure how to get there. I may need to try some different brainstorming techniques, like interviewing the character or drawing a storyboard. I wonder if there's a way to brainstorm by cooking. I need to do some experimenting on my exploding cookies recipe.
Tonight, though, is a TV night. We finally get the last two episodes of Haven, which got postponed due to an eerie coincidence in subject matter relating to real-world events on the day one of the episodes was to air. A lot of my friends make Facebook posts before some big TV event, saying not to call unless you, personally, are on fire. To which I have to say: If you're on fire, call 911. Why would you call me? What do you expect me to do about it? I would say that unless there's a crisis that only I can deal with, and I must do something about it at that very moment, then don't call at that time, but I can't think of anything that would fit into that category, unless maybe one of my next-door neighbors needed a ride to the hospital, or something similar. That I would interrupt TV for (and have done so).
I took advantage of the lag in airings to marathon the entire series to-date, and I think one of the reasons I like this series is that it rewards repeat viewing. There are so many revelations that change how you see earlier episodes once you learn what's really going on or what happened in the past to set up those events. There's an event in the first season whose meaning has changed at least three times for me, each time we learn more. We still don't know exactly what's going on there, but there are now multiple possibilities in something that initially seemed pretty straightforward. And now they've introduced some time looping to complicate things further. I love this kind of writing and aspire to pulling it off someday. It's a lot like Connie Willis's Blackout/All Clear, where it's an entirely different book the second time through once you know the information revealed toward the end. So, anyway, I will not be answering the phone tonight. I would say that this should all free up some brain space devoted to speculation after being left with a cliffhanger, but I'm sure they'll just leave us with another big cliffhanger that won't be resolved for nearly eight months.
In other news, I tried out those Aveda curly hair samples yesterday, and it seemed to work pretty well when I air-dried my hair in the afternoon. I'll next test the way I'm more likely to do my hair -- wash at night, air dry a little while, then put in a bun to sleep and take it down in the morning to finish drying. However, I'm not sure it's significantly better than anything I've bought at Target, and at nearly $30 a bottle per product, and with at least two products required, it would have to be darn near magical, creating perfect ringlets with zero frizz. Still, I remain focused on the quest for the ideal curly hair care.
Now I have to get to work on figuring out this bit of plot I need to fix. I know where I need to end up, but I'm not quite sure how to get there. I may need to try some different brainstorming techniques, like interviewing the character or drawing a storyboard. I wonder if there's a way to brainstorm by cooking. I need to do some experimenting on my exploding cookies recipe.
