Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 222
August 1, 2012
Pre-order Book 5!
Wow, it's been a busy morning, and my day hasn't really even started yet. First, the big news: You can now pre-order book 5 for Kindle at Amazon. Or if you're in the UK, here's the link. It will be available at most of the other major e-bookstores, but this is the one that's currently allowing pre-orders that will guarantee that the book downloads right away on release day (supposedly at midnight). It should be available at B&N on release day, but possibly not quite at the stroke of midnight because of the lack of the pre-order option.
I celebrated by going to the dentist for a teeth cleaning. Woo hoo! And then I enrolled for my fall ballet class and went grocery shopping. Now I have to actually get work done.
I think I may have a limited number of words in me per day. Yesterday I wrote 5,500, which is good and better than normal, but although I had some time left, I just fizzled out at that point. It was a rather productive day, as I did more in less time, but still, I think I could produce even more if I made good use of the time. I hear all the time from writer friends who talk about spending eight hours a day writing. I manage about three hours of actual writing time and get about 5,000 words done in that. If I wrote for eight hours at my usual pace, I could write a book in a week, though I think there's a diminishing returns issue, since I accomplish most in the first couple of hours and by the eighth I'd be getting about a word a minute. Still, if I even spent five hours a day writing at my usual pace, I could write a draft in a couple of weeks. Maybe I need to work up to it. Part of the issue right now is that I'm getting ready to have a book published while I'm doing this, so there are business decisions and publicity activities I have to take care of, and that means I can't spend a full workday writing and I can't just stay off the Internet all day because there are e-mails I need to deal with.
I did take some time for Olympics viewing last night. I'd deliberately spoiled myself on the gymnastics, so I was able to watch it without having a heart attack, and I'm very proud of our girls. Boy, that sport has changed a lot since I was a kid. I was in gymnastics during the heyday of Nadia (and funny, I was taking gymnastics classes in Oklahoma while she was competing for Romania, and now she's coaching gymnastics in Oklahoma), and the desired body type was that willowy waif who just sort of floated in the air. Today's gymnasts are about thirty pounds heavier and muscle-bound so they can do a lot more powerful stunts. My joints never would have held up to the pounding it takes today, though I do think today's gymnasts need to take more ballet. They were corkscrewing on their pirouettes instead of keeping form. They need to find more of a happy medium between power and grace.
Now to get my day started after the initial excitement and the oral health interlude.
I celebrated by going to the dentist for a teeth cleaning. Woo hoo! And then I enrolled for my fall ballet class and went grocery shopping. Now I have to actually get work done.
I think I may have a limited number of words in me per day. Yesterday I wrote 5,500, which is good and better than normal, but although I had some time left, I just fizzled out at that point. It was a rather productive day, as I did more in less time, but still, I think I could produce even more if I made good use of the time. I hear all the time from writer friends who talk about spending eight hours a day writing. I manage about three hours of actual writing time and get about 5,000 words done in that. If I wrote for eight hours at my usual pace, I could write a book in a week, though I think there's a diminishing returns issue, since I accomplish most in the first couple of hours and by the eighth I'd be getting about a word a minute. Still, if I even spent five hours a day writing at my usual pace, I could write a draft in a couple of weeks. Maybe I need to work up to it. Part of the issue right now is that I'm getting ready to have a book published while I'm doing this, so there are business decisions and publicity activities I have to take care of, and that means I can't spend a full workday writing and I can't just stay off the Internet all day because there are e-mails I need to deal with.
I did take some time for Olympics viewing last night. I'd deliberately spoiled myself on the gymnastics, so I was able to watch it without having a heart attack, and I'm very proud of our girls. Boy, that sport has changed a lot since I was a kid. I was in gymnastics during the heyday of Nadia (and funny, I was taking gymnastics classes in Oklahoma while she was competing for Romania, and now she's coaching gymnastics in Oklahoma), and the desired body type was that willowy waif who just sort of floated in the air. Today's gymnasts are about thirty pounds heavier and muscle-bound so they can do a lot more powerful stunts. My joints never would have held up to the pounding it takes today, though I do think today's gymnasts need to take more ballet. They were corkscrewing on their pirouettes instead of keeping form. They need to find more of a happy medium between power and grace.
Now to get my day started after the initial excitement and the oral health interlude.
July 31, 2012
Short and Bleak
It's fun living in the future. I was talking to the guy who's going to fix that hole in the bathroom wall, and instead of him having to come out to look at it to determine the scope of the job, he just had me snap a photo with my cell phone and send it to him. Now we just need to set up a time for him to fix it. And then I need to decide on what color to repaint that room. I never did like the color I used when I did it about eleven years ago. The blue that looked perfect on a small sample was too intense and bright for an entire wall. I'm learning that with paint, it's going to be darker than you think, so go a shade or two lighter than you think you want. The last time I was at Home Depot, I picked up some sample chips of colors that I thought would work, and then one paint company had a brochure with tiny swatches of every color they do. I'd thought I was picking out the light blues, but it turned out that they were on the slightly darker end and I need to go a few shades lighter. The "light" blue items in my bedroom that I was trying to match are darker than I realized. I grew up in houses with white walls (military quarters), so color was a big switch for me and I've only done it in that one room. I think it needs color, just a different one than I have. The painting will have to come after I finish the book, though. It will be a good between-drafts break.
Over the last week or so, I've read my way through all the Hugo nominees for short story, novella and novelette, and now I think I want to slit my wrists. Most of those stories were so very depressing. I can see why fantasy is eclipsing science fiction in the publishing world because most of these finalists were science fiction, and they were incredibly bleak. I suppose it's also possible that the idea that dark=good and "serious" is what merits awards kicked in, so maybe the whole field of short science fiction isn't quite that depressing, but I think the Hugos are pretty much a popularity contest. The same familiar names seem to end up on the ballot every year, and while some of them definitely have merit, with some of them I had to wonder if this really was the best of the best for the year or merely the most familiar names. The number of nominations for these categories was low enough that it wouldn't take much for someone with a good fan base to rally enough people to get them on the ballot. There were a few stories that were really engrossing and moving and that are haunting me, and those will get my votes. There were a few that I stopped reading midway through because I knew I wouldn't vote for them and I didn't want any more of that in my head. Even some of the ones with hopeful endings still took place in a really bleak world. Apparently, there's not a lot of optimism about the future.
Then again, fantasy isn't all that different. I would think that having magical powers would be cool, but it seems to mostly land people in the gritty underbelly of life. I shouldn't be surprised that the future is more bleak dystopia than adventures on spaceships. I'm so glad the FenCon theme this year is "The Future's So Bright" as an attempt to fend off the dystopia depression.
I keep saying I need to try to write short stories, since that seems to be the route to credibility in the fantasy/science fiction field, but I'm not sure how well the kinds of things I might write would be accepted. And then there's that problem that everything I write turns into a novel.
But for now, novels it is. I didn't quite pull a marathon yesterday because I had to adjust some things in the previous chapters before I could move forward. I surpassed my word count goal, but not by as much as I would have liked. Today, though, I get to dive into the fun part of the story, the part I've been looking forward to writing since I first came up with this idea. It's a little weird and experimental, so we'll see if I can pull it off, but I think it'll be a blast to write. Stay tuned to see if I still think that way after starting it.
Over the last week or so, I've read my way through all the Hugo nominees for short story, novella and novelette, and now I think I want to slit my wrists. Most of those stories were so very depressing. I can see why fantasy is eclipsing science fiction in the publishing world because most of these finalists were science fiction, and they were incredibly bleak. I suppose it's also possible that the idea that dark=good and "serious" is what merits awards kicked in, so maybe the whole field of short science fiction isn't quite that depressing, but I think the Hugos are pretty much a popularity contest. The same familiar names seem to end up on the ballot every year, and while some of them definitely have merit, with some of them I had to wonder if this really was the best of the best for the year or merely the most familiar names. The number of nominations for these categories was low enough that it wouldn't take much for someone with a good fan base to rally enough people to get them on the ballot. There were a few stories that were really engrossing and moving and that are haunting me, and those will get my votes. There were a few that I stopped reading midway through because I knew I wouldn't vote for them and I didn't want any more of that in my head. Even some of the ones with hopeful endings still took place in a really bleak world. Apparently, there's not a lot of optimism about the future.
Then again, fantasy isn't all that different. I would think that having magical powers would be cool, but it seems to mostly land people in the gritty underbelly of life. I shouldn't be surprised that the future is more bleak dystopia than adventures on spaceships. I'm so glad the FenCon theme this year is "The Future's So Bright" as an attempt to fend off the dystopia depression.
I keep saying I need to try to write short stories, since that seems to be the route to credibility in the fantasy/science fiction field, but I'm not sure how well the kinds of things I might write would be accepted. And then there's that problem that everything I write turns into a novel.
But for now, novels it is. I didn't quite pull a marathon yesterday because I had to adjust some things in the previous chapters before I could move forward. I surpassed my word count goal, but not by as much as I would have liked. Today, though, I get to dive into the fun part of the story, the part I've been looking forward to writing since I first came up with this idea. It's a little weird and experimental, so we'll see if I can pull it off, but I think it'll be a blast to write. Stay tuned to see if I still think that way after starting it.
July 30, 2012
The Weary Weekend
I'd planned a big writing marathon on Saturday, but was unaccountably weary, and I've found that when I can't keep my eyes open it generally means my subconscious needs more time. So, I figured it was a sign I needed to rest and catch up on some romantic comedies (which actually counts as research). When I woke up with a cough on Sunday and remembered that I'd been coughing in all my dreams (which likely means I was coughing in my sleep), I figured out why I'd been so tired. A suitable application of allergy medicine and cough syrup and a weekend of rest seems to have done the trick.
I rewatched You've Got Mail, and I think I've finally crystallized my problems with that movie. The concept is cute, the supporting cast is fun, the settings are delightful, but unfortunately the core of it is about two unpleasant people being unpleasant to each other. There were times in this rewatch when I wanted to turn it off or mute the sound. Part of the problem is that it hits two of my pet peeves in romantic comedies: the hero and heroine are living with other people through much of the movie, and the other people are so wrong for them that they only exist to serve as temporary roadblocks -- and worse, they don't really even serve as roadblocks.
Having Mr./Miss Wrong around can serve to show why Mr./Miss Right is right, but it's something that has to be handled very delicately if you don't want to ruin the hero and heroine. Mr. (or Miss, but let's stick to one gender for the moment for simplicity's sake) Wrong is generally the person the heroine thinks she should like, the person who's the right fit for the person she thinks she is or the person she's trying to be. He usually represents unfulfilling safety and security. She wouldn't have a bad life with him, but it's not the life she has the potential to live. He's the right person for the false front she shows the world (and maybe even herself) to protect her inner vulnerabilities. Mr. Right is the person who sees the real person under her exterior, but being with him will require her to take the risk and shed that false front. She must choose between taking the risk to have a truly amazing love and life and staying in her comfort zone but remaining unfulfilled. If Mr. Wrong is just plain wrong, like you can't even imagine why she's with that person, then she looks like an idiot for being with him in the first place. For it to work, you need to at least get a glimpse or two of why she's with Mr. Wrong, some connection even if he's only connecting to the fake part of herself. In this movie, both of them are with other people, and there's hardly any sense of connection with those people. They even seem to see their significant others with a bit of contempt, or forget entirely that they exist. The fact that they exist doesn't even really have any bearing on the plot, since it doesn't slow down the hero and heroine's relationship. They even agree to their first face-to-face meeting, before which he talks about how this is likely a woman he'd want to marry, while they're still living with their significant others.
And then there's the living with issue. On film, living together looks exactly like being married, and that puts things into a different headspace. It makes me feel like it's wrong if the characters are behaving in ways that would be wrong for married people, and I feel like it would take something on the level of what would break up a marriage for them to end it. Meeting someone you like better doesn't do it. If they're growing apart, they should work on it. I'd even like the hero or heroine to be the victim if there's cruelty or infidelity because I want the main characters to be people I can pull for. In this film, when it opens they look like two married couples as they get up in the morning and get ready for work, have breakfast, etc. In fact, the first time I saw this movie, until the subsequent scenes in which there are dialogue cues that they aren't married, I thought they were married, which made it even creepier when they jumped online as soon as their significant others were out the door and then read the flowery, romantic e-mails they sent to each other, and then headed to work with their heads in the clouds and had to be reminded of their significant others by their colleagues. That got the main characters off on the wrong foot with me because they were acting like they were having an affair.
I'm not sure why they even gave them significant others, unless they were trying not to go with the stereotype of meeting on the Internet being something for pathetically lonely singles or if they needed an excuse for them not to meet. The real conflict was between them, anyway, with the chain store vs. independent fight that brought on all that nastiness, and it rather boggles me that once he figured out she was his pen pal, he wooed her by being even nastier to her and denigrating her pen pal. This ended up being a lot like Four Weddings and a Funeral, where I loved the scenes of the main characters and their friends but wanted to fast forward past the scenes of the hero and heroine together because they were so unpleasant.
I wonder if the pen pals who don't realize they know each other in real life thing is a common enough trope to be able to steal it and do it right. It might be fun to do a Stealth Geeks in Love story, where hero and heroine work at some uptight, buttoned-down place where anything that might be considered less than serious or professional would be frowned upon, so they can't reveal their true personalities, but then away from work they're both on the same Doctor Who message board and spend hours chatting, and they have no idea it's their co-worker they're chatting with.
I also watched What's Your Number? on HBO, and that was a real Jekyll and Hyde of a movie. On the one hand, it's extremely raunchy and coarse -- something I'd be embarrassed to see on a date -- and the comedy is so broad that at times I thought I was watching a Scary Movie-style spoof because some of the situations, behaviors and characters were too over-the-top to represent anything even semi-realistic. On the other hand, in the midst of all that raunch, the core relationship was surprisingly sweet and romantic.
The gist of the story is that a young woman reads a magazine article about how women who've had more than twenty sexual partners are less likely to end up happily married. When she hits twenty, she panics because she fears that if she ever sleeps with anyone else, she'll never be happily married. Then when she runs into an ex who has improved significantly since they broke up, she realizes that she won't add to her number if she gets back together with an ex. With the help of her hound-dog neighbor who hides out in her apartment when he's trying to escape from the latest woman he's brought home, she sets out to track down all the men she's ever been with to see if there's a chance, but she starts to see that she was the real problem because she was never really being herself with any of them. If you've ever seen a movie before, you know where this is going, but it was still fun to watch it happen. I liked the hero and heroine when they were together. They really seemed to connect, and I could imagine it being a lasting relationship. The fact that they got along so well was part of the conflict, so they skipped the usual romantic comedy bickering, and because she wasn't letting herself sleep with anyone new, that forced the relationship to develop in a way that was about more than just lust.
However, once I started putting any thought into it, some of the messages of the film disturbed me and I had more doubts about their potential future happiness (and I know I'm giving this movie way more thought than it deserves). They were so hung up on that number that they barely touched on the reasons behind her number, which involved her apparently having such low self esteem that she'd practically twist herself in knots to get a man to want to sleep with her, even if she wasn't all that into him. When you're faking an accent through an entire relationship so that you'll be what you think the man will want, you have the kind of problems that probably can't be resolved with a simple "I need to be myself" epiphany. And they never even dealt with his behavior and the problems it implied.
There is the standard "rom com dash" at the end, though I will give this one points for being utterly hilarious (this was one of the elements that seemed to come from a spoof rather than from a real movie) and for acknowledging the silliness of it (at one point, she wonders why she didn't just wait for him at his place). Still, though, it had the common element that bugs me about those things, which is that the other person is supposed to put whatever he's doing on hold to deal with you, just because you're suddenly made a decision. Plus, I guess the mad dash reflects a recurring nightmare I have about rushing to get somewhere, with obstacles popping up along the way, so it's doubly disturbing to me.
I wouldn't say I recommend the movie, but if you've got HBO and some spare time, it might be worth watching, though probably not in mixed company or with your parents. I'd love to watch it with a psychologist and get a professional opinion on the pathology.
I rewatched You've Got Mail, and I think I've finally crystallized my problems with that movie. The concept is cute, the supporting cast is fun, the settings are delightful, but unfortunately the core of it is about two unpleasant people being unpleasant to each other. There were times in this rewatch when I wanted to turn it off or mute the sound. Part of the problem is that it hits two of my pet peeves in romantic comedies: the hero and heroine are living with other people through much of the movie, and the other people are so wrong for them that they only exist to serve as temporary roadblocks -- and worse, they don't really even serve as roadblocks.
Having Mr./Miss Wrong around can serve to show why Mr./Miss Right is right, but it's something that has to be handled very delicately if you don't want to ruin the hero and heroine. Mr. (or Miss, but let's stick to one gender for the moment for simplicity's sake) Wrong is generally the person the heroine thinks she should like, the person who's the right fit for the person she thinks she is or the person she's trying to be. He usually represents unfulfilling safety and security. She wouldn't have a bad life with him, but it's not the life she has the potential to live. He's the right person for the false front she shows the world (and maybe even herself) to protect her inner vulnerabilities. Mr. Right is the person who sees the real person under her exterior, but being with him will require her to take the risk and shed that false front. She must choose between taking the risk to have a truly amazing love and life and staying in her comfort zone but remaining unfulfilled. If Mr. Wrong is just plain wrong, like you can't even imagine why she's with that person, then she looks like an idiot for being with him in the first place. For it to work, you need to at least get a glimpse or two of why she's with Mr. Wrong, some connection even if he's only connecting to the fake part of herself. In this movie, both of them are with other people, and there's hardly any sense of connection with those people. They even seem to see their significant others with a bit of contempt, or forget entirely that they exist. The fact that they exist doesn't even really have any bearing on the plot, since it doesn't slow down the hero and heroine's relationship. They even agree to their first face-to-face meeting, before which he talks about how this is likely a woman he'd want to marry, while they're still living with their significant others.
And then there's the living with issue. On film, living together looks exactly like being married, and that puts things into a different headspace. It makes me feel like it's wrong if the characters are behaving in ways that would be wrong for married people, and I feel like it would take something on the level of what would break up a marriage for them to end it. Meeting someone you like better doesn't do it. If they're growing apart, they should work on it. I'd even like the hero or heroine to be the victim if there's cruelty or infidelity because I want the main characters to be people I can pull for. In this film, when it opens they look like two married couples as they get up in the morning and get ready for work, have breakfast, etc. In fact, the first time I saw this movie, until the subsequent scenes in which there are dialogue cues that they aren't married, I thought they were married, which made it even creepier when they jumped online as soon as their significant others were out the door and then read the flowery, romantic e-mails they sent to each other, and then headed to work with their heads in the clouds and had to be reminded of their significant others by their colleagues. That got the main characters off on the wrong foot with me because they were acting like they were having an affair.
I'm not sure why they even gave them significant others, unless they were trying not to go with the stereotype of meeting on the Internet being something for pathetically lonely singles or if they needed an excuse for them not to meet. The real conflict was between them, anyway, with the chain store vs. independent fight that brought on all that nastiness, and it rather boggles me that once he figured out she was his pen pal, he wooed her by being even nastier to her and denigrating her pen pal. This ended up being a lot like Four Weddings and a Funeral, where I loved the scenes of the main characters and their friends but wanted to fast forward past the scenes of the hero and heroine together because they were so unpleasant.
I wonder if the pen pals who don't realize they know each other in real life thing is a common enough trope to be able to steal it and do it right. It might be fun to do a Stealth Geeks in Love story, where hero and heroine work at some uptight, buttoned-down place where anything that might be considered less than serious or professional would be frowned upon, so they can't reveal their true personalities, but then away from work they're both on the same Doctor Who message board and spend hours chatting, and they have no idea it's their co-worker they're chatting with.
I also watched What's Your Number? on HBO, and that was a real Jekyll and Hyde of a movie. On the one hand, it's extremely raunchy and coarse -- something I'd be embarrassed to see on a date -- and the comedy is so broad that at times I thought I was watching a Scary Movie-style spoof because some of the situations, behaviors and characters were too over-the-top to represent anything even semi-realistic. On the other hand, in the midst of all that raunch, the core relationship was surprisingly sweet and romantic.
The gist of the story is that a young woman reads a magazine article about how women who've had more than twenty sexual partners are less likely to end up happily married. When she hits twenty, she panics because she fears that if she ever sleeps with anyone else, she'll never be happily married. Then when she runs into an ex who has improved significantly since they broke up, she realizes that she won't add to her number if she gets back together with an ex. With the help of her hound-dog neighbor who hides out in her apartment when he's trying to escape from the latest woman he's brought home, she sets out to track down all the men she's ever been with to see if there's a chance, but she starts to see that she was the real problem because she was never really being herself with any of them. If you've ever seen a movie before, you know where this is going, but it was still fun to watch it happen. I liked the hero and heroine when they were together. They really seemed to connect, and I could imagine it being a lasting relationship. The fact that they got along so well was part of the conflict, so they skipped the usual romantic comedy bickering, and because she wasn't letting herself sleep with anyone new, that forced the relationship to develop in a way that was about more than just lust.
However, once I started putting any thought into it, some of the messages of the film disturbed me and I had more doubts about their potential future happiness (and I know I'm giving this movie way more thought than it deserves). They were so hung up on that number that they barely touched on the reasons behind her number, which involved her apparently having such low self esteem that she'd practically twist herself in knots to get a man to want to sleep with her, even if she wasn't all that into him. When you're faking an accent through an entire relationship so that you'll be what you think the man will want, you have the kind of problems that probably can't be resolved with a simple "I need to be myself" epiphany. And they never even dealt with his behavior and the problems it implied.
There is the standard "rom com dash" at the end, though I will give this one points for being utterly hilarious (this was one of the elements that seemed to come from a spoof rather than from a real movie) and for acknowledging the silliness of it (at one point, she wonders why she didn't just wait for him at his place). Still, though, it had the common element that bugs me about those things, which is that the other person is supposed to put whatever he's doing on hold to deal with you, just because you're suddenly made a decision. Plus, I guess the mad dash reflects a recurring nightmare I have about rushing to get somewhere, with obstacles popping up along the way, so it's doubly disturbing to me.
I wouldn't say I recommend the movie, but if you've got HBO and some spare time, it might be worth watching, though probably not in mixed company or with your parents. I'd love to watch it with a psychologist and get a professional opinion on the pathology.
July 28, 2012
Cake Update
I tried baking the Magical Microwave Cake in a pot-pie tin at 350 degrees in the toaster oven for about 12-15 minutes, and it worked. I liked the texture better than the microwave version (I'm not crazy about baked goods made in the microwave). It was much closer to real cake. I wouldn't serve it to guests -- if I were having guests, I could make a real cake, anyway -- but when nothing but cake will do, this is a good option. It does mean you can't make a cake during a commercial break, but you can mix up the cake and put it in the oven during one commercial break and then get it out of the oven during the next commercial break -- unless, of course, you're watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, in which case you put it in the oven during one commercial break and it bakes during two segments of programming and two commercial breaks.
I decided that I only need a heaping half teaspoon of cocoa powder per cake when I'm baking it. Since the microwave version doesn't brown and stays really moist, it seems to need the extra to get a little oomph and color to it. Actually baking seems to intensify the flavors.
Now I think I need to find some mini baking pans. I need something about the size of the pans used for the Easy-Bake oven. I have some mini loaf pans, but those may be too deep.
There was a suggestion in the comments for a cookbook called Small Batch Baking, and it turns out my library has a copy (currently checked out). I shall have to investigate and then if it pans out (no pun intended), I may buy a keeper copy. There's also an edition for chocolate lovers. I've gotten pretty good at reducing most recipes, and you can freeze cookie dough and bake only what you need, but cakes are tricky, so that's where I need recipes.
Reasons when CAKE is essential:
1) I've had a rejection on a book
2) I've had good news on a book
3) I've had a frustrating day/week
4) I've had a particularly good day/week
5) Something really good is on TV and it deserves an appropriate snack to celebrate the occasion
6) I've made a good meal and it needs a good dessert
7) It's a rainy day
8) It's my birthday, or some other special occasion
9) It's cake or prison after a long, sordid murder trial
10) I've been really good all week, eating properly, and I just can't take it anymore
This sounds like I'm an emotional eater, but I'm really not. This sort of thing hits only a few times a year, unless icky stuff has been happening to me. I've also learned that when a need like this hits, if I indulge it immediately, I'm fine and don't eat that much. If I don't indulge it, it builds and things get ugly. Just knowing I have this cake mix in the house and can have cake whenever I want will actually probably reduce the amount of cake I eat. I had to force myself to make it last night in order to continue my experimentation (it was a dirty job, but I just had to do it as a service to my blog readers).
I decided that I only need a heaping half teaspoon of cocoa powder per cake when I'm baking it. Since the microwave version doesn't brown and stays really moist, it seems to need the extra to get a little oomph and color to it. Actually baking seems to intensify the flavors.
Now I think I need to find some mini baking pans. I need something about the size of the pans used for the Easy-Bake oven. I have some mini loaf pans, but those may be too deep.
There was a suggestion in the comments for a cookbook called Small Batch Baking, and it turns out my library has a copy (currently checked out). I shall have to investigate and then if it pans out (no pun intended), I may buy a keeper copy. There's also an edition for chocolate lovers. I've gotten pretty good at reducing most recipes, and you can freeze cookie dough and bake only what you need, but cakes are tricky, so that's where I need recipes.
Reasons when CAKE is essential:
1) I've had a rejection on a book
2) I've had good news on a book
3) I've had a frustrating day/week
4) I've had a particularly good day/week
5) Something really good is on TV and it deserves an appropriate snack to celebrate the occasion
6) I've made a good meal and it needs a good dessert
7) It's a rainy day
8) It's my birthday, or some other special occasion
9) It's cake or prison after a long, sordid murder trial
10) I've been really good all week, eating properly, and I just can't take it anymore
This sounds like I'm an emotional eater, but I'm really not. This sort of thing hits only a few times a year, unless icky stuff has been happening to me. I've also learned that when a need like this hits, if I indulge it immediately, I'm fine and don't eat that much. If I don't indulge it, it builds and things get ugly. Just knowing I have this cake mix in the house and can have cake whenever I want will actually probably reduce the amount of cake I eat. I had to force myself to make it last night in order to continue my experimentation (it was a dirty job, but I just had to do it as a service to my blog readers).
July 27, 2012
Magical Microwave Cake
After another NetGalley session with my agent's digital publishing expert, I have to add another tip: If you want to be taken seriously as a reviewer, learn to write. I don't mean that you have to have perfectly polished prose or that blog reviews need to be as formal as a newspaper review, but for heaven's sake, show some understanding of the basic rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. For instance, you don't form a plural by using an apostrophe. Once or twice, and it may be a typo, but when every single review on your site reads like "This book had lot's of interesting character's. I like book's like that. Their problem's were realistic," then my inner grammar nazi has a hissy fit and I'm going to reject your galley request. I don't see how anyone can read a lot and consider themselves a reviewer and still make that mistake. I know I as a reader wouldn't be able to trust someone who writes like that to know a good book when it smacks her in the face, so I doubt that reviewer would be much of an influencer.
Just looking at the above paragraph is making me itch to edit it, even though I did that on purpose for effect. But all those apostrophes are so very, very wrong.
Anyway, in addition to dealing with more business stuff, I got about 4,000 more words written. I'm remembering how tired and hungry intense writing makes me. I was in bed with the lights out by 9:30 last night, and I spent much of the past two days feeling like I could eat a small farm. There was also an intense need for cake, to the point that it can only be referred to as CAKE . When I get that CAKE need, nothing else will do, and cake is more difficult to keep around than candy or even cookies. It's hard to make in really small quantities, and sometimes in a severe CAKE mood I could easily eat half a cake, which is bad, but if I don't eat it all at once, it doesn't keep well, and even freezing it isn't entirely satisfactory. I can get individual slices of cake or single cupcakes at the grocery store or at the coffee shop next to the library, but that requires knowing my CAKE needs in advance, which doesn't always happen.
But then I read something in the newspaper that is so brilliant and that may fulfill most of my future CAKE needs. They call it "3-2-1" cake, but I'm already thinking of it as Magical Microwave Cake. I don't know who came up with this -- the article was from a wire service and uncredited -- but that person deserves a Nobel Prize. You take a box of angel food cake mix and a box of any flavor of regular cake mix and combine them in some sealable container (like a gallon-size Ziploc freezer bag or a Tupperware dish). When CAKE comes calling, you combine three tablespoons of this mix with two tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe mug and microwave on high for a minute. The result is a cupcake-sized bit of cake. I tried this last night, and it really does work. You can make a cake during a TV commercial break. It's a miracle!
It's not entirely perfect, though. The angel food mix is what makes this work, probably because it contains all the egg whites, but adding the box of angel food means that whatever regular mix you use is severely diluted. I used devil's food, and the result was too sweet and not nearly chocolatey enough to satisfy the CAKE need. I tried adding about a teaspoon of dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder to the mix in the mug, and that was much better. It also had the texture you get from "baked" goods cooked in the microwave, so it's foamier and more moist than usual, without any kind of outer crust. I may experiment with baking in a foil pot pie dish in the toaster oven. That will take longer, but I can deal with an extra five minutes or so if the result is more cake-like. I suspect that the microwaved cake is too delicate to really frost it, unless you use a pastry bag or other squirtable frosting. I may experiment with sprinkling chocolate chips on top of the batter before microwaving and see if they melt into something frosting-like, or you could use a dollop of hot-fudge sauce on top.
And, hey, even if it's not perfect cake, it is nice to have something on hand for when the CAKE urges hit. Generally, nothing else hits the spot, and that means I tend to eat a bunch of other stuff, only to eventually give in and bake a cake, and then I eat too much of it. If I can have a single cupcake when CAKE strikes, then I'm happy with that cupcake. Supposedly, a single batch of this mix will make about 48 cupcakes, and the mix keeps for months if you seal it well.
Just looking at the above paragraph is making me itch to edit it, even though I did that on purpose for effect. But all those apostrophes are so very, very wrong.
Anyway, in addition to dealing with more business stuff, I got about 4,000 more words written. I'm remembering how tired and hungry intense writing makes me. I was in bed with the lights out by 9:30 last night, and I spent much of the past two days feeling like I could eat a small farm. There was also an intense need for cake, to the point that it can only be referred to as CAKE . When I get that CAKE need, nothing else will do, and cake is more difficult to keep around than candy or even cookies. It's hard to make in really small quantities, and sometimes in a severe CAKE mood I could easily eat half a cake, which is bad, but if I don't eat it all at once, it doesn't keep well, and even freezing it isn't entirely satisfactory. I can get individual slices of cake or single cupcakes at the grocery store or at the coffee shop next to the library, but that requires knowing my CAKE needs in advance, which doesn't always happen.
But then I read something in the newspaper that is so brilliant and that may fulfill most of my future CAKE needs. They call it "3-2-1" cake, but I'm already thinking of it as Magical Microwave Cake. I don't know who came up with this -- the article was from a wire service and uncredited -- but that person deserves a Nobel Prize. You take a box of angel food cake mix and a box of any flavor of regular cake mix and combine them in some sealable container (like a gallon-size Ziploc freezer bag or a Tupperware dish). When CAKE comes calling, you combine three tablespoons of this mix with two tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe mug and microwave on high for a minute. The result is a cupcake-sized bit of cake. I tried this last night, and it really does work. You can make a cake during a TV commercial break. It's a miracle!
It's not entirely perfect, though. The angel food mix is what makes this work, probably because it contains all the egg whites, but adding the box of angel food means that whatever regular mix you use is severely diluted. I used devil's food, and the result was too sweet and not nearly chocolatey enough to satisfy the CAKE need. I tried adding about a teaspoon of dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder to the mix in the mug, and that was much better. It also had the texture you get from "baked" goods cooked in the microwave, so it's foamier and more moist than usual, without any kind of outer crust. I may experiment with baking in a foil pot pie dish in the toaster oven. That will take longer, but I can deal with an extra five minutes or so if the result is more cake-like. I suspect that the microwaved cake is too delicate to really frost it, unless you use a pastry bag or other squirtable frosting. I may experiment with sprinkling chocolate chips on top of the batter before microwaving and see if they melt into something frosting-like, or you could use a dollop of hot-fudge sauce on top.
And, hey, even if it's not perfect cake, it is nice to have something on hand for when the CAKE urges hit. Generally, nothing else hits the spot, and that means I tend to eat a bunch of other stuff, only to eventually give in and bake a cake, and then I eat too much of it. If I can have a single cupcake when CAKE strikes, then I'm happy with that cupcake. Supposedly, a single batch of this mix will make about 48 cupcakes, and the mix keeps for months if you seal it well.
July 26, 2012
The Changing World -- and Winning at NetGalley
I got a good start yesterday, more than 5,000 words. Of course, I realized at nearly the 4,000 word mark that I'd skipped some things and was doing scenes out of order. I tried to convince myself that the new way was better than the synopsis, then realized it really wasn't. So then I went back and started filling in the missing stuff. As a result, I have chapter one done and the back end of chapter two. I still need to write most of chapter two leading up to the part that's already written, which may or may not actually end up being part of chapter three. To tell how critical that book soundtrack concept can be, I ran some errands this morning, but I hadn't yet burned the soundtrack onto CD, so I still had the soundtrack for the last book playing in my car -- and it really bothered me. At the next red light, I had to remove that CD and replace it with a generic "driving around" CD. I'll have to burn the new CD before the next time I drive.
While going through the process of getting book 5 published, I'm seeing how much and how rapidly the publishing world is changing. Granted, some of that may be the difference between doing it myself and going through a publisher, as I'm involved in a lot of things that were previously kept hidden from me, but even so, a lot has happened in this business since the last time I had a book published in the US, four years ago. A big one is NetGalley.
Back in the Ye Olden Days of 2008, the way publishers put books out for review was to mail a physical copy of the book. For long-lead publications (where they need the book months in advance to review it around the release date), they'd print up review copies that weren't the final proof and that didn't have the real cover. These were more expensive than the real book because they were printed in smaller quantities. Then they might do a second mailing of the actual book to places like blogs or web sites that had a faster turnaround time. Because of the cost of the physical book and the postage, they were pretty selective about where they sent review copies. At the same time, though, bloggers started being a lot more influential in spreading word of mouth while newspapers and magazines were decreasing their book coverage. That meant the publisher mailings were focusing on the places least likely to actually cover the book.
Now there's NetGalley, where publishers can offer electronic copies to reviewers. A lot of the time, the reviewers find the books instead of the publishers having to push them. The trick is that anyone can sign up as a reviewer on NetGalley, and then the publicist has to decide which of the "reviewers" requesting a book actually gets one. I spent about an hour going through review requests on Tuesday and will probably spend another hour today. In case you are on NetGalley, I thought I'd share what I'm looking for when I decide whether to grant a review request.
The main thing is to beef up your profile. I want to know what venues your reviews appear in and what your reach is -- how many subscribers, followers, etc., you've got. I need a link to your blog or site so I can get a sense of how professional you are, what your target audience is and how well my books would fit in. Without that information, you just look like you're trying to get a free book (if the only thing on your profile is "I love to read," you're not going to get a lot of review copies). I'm generally evaluating the profiles on the basis of how well it will get the word out -- is this person an expert, connector or influencer, in the terms of word-of-mouth marketing. An expert is the person you know has done the research already, so you can rely on their suggestions -- that friend you know follows the latest in tech gear, reads the reviews and magazines, so when you're ready to buy, you can ask him what to get. Or, in books, the person you know follows the industry and reads everything. A connector is the person with a network who can either reach a lot of people or who can reach the key people you need to reach. That could be someone with 50,000 Twitter followers or the hermit whose only friend is Oprah, but who is one of Oprah's most trusted friends (or is Oprah that influential anymore?). An influencer is someone people either trust or want to follow, whether or not they're an expert. This is why companies like putting things in the hands of celebrities. If people see a celebrity with something, they want it, whether or not they think the celebrity knows anything about it. You've hit the jackpot if you find an expert who has influence and who has a huge network, and that's generally what I'm looking for in evaluating review requests.
So, does it look like the blog or site has any readers other than the blogger's mom and sister? Do the readers interact or comment? Is there a friends list that shows a following? Are the other books reviewed on the site the kinds of things that readers of my books are likely to be into, and vice versa? I'm probably going to decide you're not a great fit if all the other books you review are things like erotica about threesomes or books on gardening. Is there some degree of professionalism involved? Are the reviews reasonably well written and avoiding major spoilers? I'm not looking for entirely positive reviews, but how predominant are the negative reviews and how nasty are they? Unless there's an audience so massive that any exposure is good exposure, I'm probably not going to grant a review copy to someone who seems to try to make herself look smart by gleefully trashing every book she reads.
What I've found interesting is that in the first batch of requests, none of them have been blogs I'm familiar with. That means I'm reaching places I wouldn't have known to target. I can go after the sites I know, but it's harder to target places I don't know about. However, the big question is whether this will add up to sales.
Now, since I spent the morning running errands, I'm off to get some writing done.
While going through the process of getting book 5 published, I'm seeing how much and how rapidly the publishing world is changing. Granted, some of that may be the difference between doing it myself and going through a publisher, as I'm involved in a lot of things that were previously kept hidden from me, but even so, a lot has happened in this business since the last time I had a book published in the US, four years ago. A big one is NetGalley.
Back in the Ye Olden Days of 2008, the way publishers put books out for review was to mail a physical copy of the book. For long-lead publications (where they need the book months in advance to review it around the release date), they'd print up review copies that weren't the final proof and that didn't have the real cover. These were more expensive than the real book because they were printed in smaller quantities. Then they might do a second mailing of the actual book to places like blogs or web sites that had a faster turnaround time. Because of the cost of the physical book and the postage, they were pretty selective about where they sent review copies. At the same time, though, bloggers started being a lot more influential in spreading word of mouth while newspapers and magazines were decreasing their book coverage. That meant the publisher mailings were focusing on the places least likely to actually cover the book.
Now there's NetGalley, where publishers can offer electronic copies to reviewers. A lot of the time, the reviewers find the books instead of the publishers having to push them. The trick is that anyone can sign up as a reviewer on NetGalley, and then the publicist has to decide which of the "reviewers" requesting a book actually gets one. I spent about an hour going through review requests on Tuesday and will probably spend another hour today. In case you are on NetGalley, I thought I'd share what I'm looking for when I decide whether to grant a review request.
The main thing is to beef up your profile. I want to know what venues your reviews appear in and what your reach is -- how many subscribers, followers, etc., you've got. I need a link to your blog or site so I can get a sense of how professional you are, what your target audience is and how well my books would fit in. Without that information, you just look like you're trying to get a free book (if the only thing on your profile is "I love to read," you're not going to get a lot of review copies). I'm generally evaluating the profiles on the basis of how well it will get the word out -- is this person an expert, connector or influencer, in the terms of word-of-mouth marketing. An expert is the person you know has done the research already, so you can rely on their suggestions -- that friend you know follows the latest in tech gear, reads the reviews and magazines, so when you're ready to buy, you can ask him what to get. Or, in books, the person you know follows the industry and reads everything. A connector is the person with a network who can either reach a lot of people or who can reach the key people you need to reach. That could be someone with 50,000 Twitter followers or the hermit whose only friend is Oprah, but who is one of Oprah's most trusted friends (or is Oprah that influential anymore?). An influencer is someone people either trust or want to follow, whether or not they're an expert. This is why companies like putting things in the hands of celebrities. If people see a celebrity with something, they want it, whether or not they think the celebrity knows anything about it. You've hit the jackpot if you find an expert who has influence and who has a huge network, and that's generally what I'm looking for in evaluating review requests.
So, does it look like the blog or site has any readers other than the blogger's mom and sister? Do the readers interact or comment? Is there a friends list that shows a following? Are the other books reviewed on the site the kinds of things that readers of my books are likely to be into, and vice versa? I'm probably going to decide you're not a great fit if all the other books you review are things like erotica about threesomes or books on gardening. Is there some degree of professionalism involved? Are the reviews reasonably well written and avoiding major spoilers? I'm not looking for entirely positive reviews, but how predominant are the negative reviews and how nasty are they? Unless there's an audience so massive that any exposure is good exposure, I'm probably not going to grant a review copy to someone who seems to try to make herself look smart by gleefully trashing every book she reads.
What I've found interesting is that in the first batch of requests, none of them have been blogs I'm familiar with. That means I'm reaching places I wouldn't have known to target. I can go after the sites I know, but it's harder to target places I don't know about. However, the big question is whether this will add up to sales.
Now, since I spent the morning running errands, I'm off to get some writing done.
July 25, 2012
What Goes on the Cover
I think I'm actually going to write the first words of book 7 today. I also proved that the time I put into making my book soundtrack isn't at all wasted. I thought I had the first scene planned, but then a song popped up on iTunes that suddenly gave me an entirely different image of what the opening scene could be, and I realized my plans were all wrong. Adjusting that changed the flow of the first third of the book in a way that I think will make it a hundred times better. That's what I call good procrastination, when it forces you to take time to think and consider. If I had just started writing yesterday based on my initial idea instead of spending much of the day listening to music, the book would have been wrong.
For my writing post this week, I'm addressing a reader question (and if you have questions, let me know!). This gets into some behind-the-scenes stuff about what goes on in publishing, but it may also be helpful to you as you submit books to editors or agents or if you decide to publish on your own. The question was about the stuff that goes on the book cover -- the information about the book and the quotes from reviewers and other authors.
How this works varies by publisher and also varies within the publisher based on the editor's working style, the editor's relationship with the author, the author's clout at the publisher and possibly even the phases of the moon. I once worked with a publisher where I found out what the text on the book cover would be when I got a copy of the printed cover flat -- the actual cover that would be bound around the book (and then I had to change the spelling of the heroine's name in the manuscript to match that text). And I've worked with a publisher that let me entirely rewrite their text.
They generally refer to that text on the cover that describes the book as the "cover copy." in a paperback book where it's printed on the back cover it may be called "back cover copy." In a hardcover book where it's on the inside flap of the paper jacket that's wrapped around the book they may call it "flap copy" or "jacket copy." Usually, the editor writes this, or the editor may take a stab at it before turning it over to someone in the marketing department. I also know of former editors who now work freelance writing cover/jacket copy, so it does sometimes get outsourced. The author may or may not get to see, approve, edit, make suggestions or rewrite this copy. My latest publisher was pretty good about giving me input, since they knew that in real life I'm a professional marketing communications writer, so this is an area of expertise. Often, this copy is written before the book is complete. It may be written based on the synopsis used to sell the book, and that's why the book that seems to be described on the cover sometimes doesn't seem to match what's inside. In those cases, the final book may have veered from the synopsis. That's also why I had to change the spelling of the character's name. Between the time I sent out the initial synopsis and the time they bought the book (and I'd already finished a draft), I'd changed my mind about the character's name, but the cover was based on the synopsis.
Even if you're dealing with a publisher that gives you no input, it's good for an author to learn to write this kind of copy. I find it useful during the creative process to force me to narrow in on what the book's about. If I can't describe the story in a way that makes it sound interesting in a couple of short paragraphs, then I need to work on drilling down into the story to find the core of it and what makes it compelling. You'll also need this kind of text for a pitch paragraph in a query letter -- and if your pitch paragraph is good enough, an editor may use it in writing the cover copy. If you self-publish, you'll have to do this for yourself, unless you hire a marketing writer to help you. This is a learn-by-doing skill. Try to write cover copy for your favorite books -- without looking at what's on the cover. Then compare it to what's on the cover. Browse a bookstore or Amazon and see what kind of copy catches your eye. It may take a lot of drafts to distill your book into a couple of punchy paragraphs, since writing shorter is a lot harder than writing long.
Those short statements on the cover from other authors or reviewers are generally referred to as "blurbs" or "cover quotes." Generally, the publisher sends out advance copies to other authors who write in the same general area and asks if those authors are willing to provide blurbs. Sometimes the author and agent may get involved, depending on their contacts and network. There will generally be some brainstorming among author, editor and agent about who to approach. This is really nervewracking for authors because you never know what you'll get, and putting your book in front of one of your literary heroes can be terrifying. Sometimes they don't respond at all. Sometimes you get something nice. Usually if they hate the book, they don't say anything or they give the "I was too busy to get around to reading it, sorry" excuse. If you're lucky, you may get unsolicited feedback. That's how I got a quote from MaryJo Putney on one of my books. She wrote for the same publisher, happened to read the previous book and e-mailed her editor about how much she loved it. That got forwarded to my editor, who then asked her if she'd like to read the next book for a blurb.
I've heard of unpublished authors soliciting blurbs before submission -- if they have published friends who've read the manuscript, they may be willing to provide a quote that the author can then use in the submission. I would say that if you can do that, it can't hurt, but be sure you have explicit permission to do so. I've heard of cases where published authors judged a contest entry and signed their judging forms, and the aspiring author then used the judges' comments as endorsement blurbs when they submitted the book. The judges were irate because there's a big difference between the kind of encouraging remarks you might make on a contest entry -- probably taken out of context among a lot of critical comments -- and endorsing a book. That sort of thing does get back to authors because editors and agents are savvy enough not to take an endorsement like that at face value and will check back with the authors via their networks (because just about everyone in publishing is only a degree or two of separation away from just about everyone else) to verify. Then it will backfire if the author says, "Yeah, I said the story was a lot of fun, but that was the only nice thing I could think of to say to ease the blow before I went into what a mess it was." So, contest judging remarks or critique group or beta reader feedback doesn't count as an endorsement. You can say you won the contest, but don't quote your judges.
For my writing post this week, I'm addressing a reader question (and if you have questions, let me know!). This gets into some behind-the-scenes stuff about what goes on in publishing, but it may also be helpful to you as you submit books to editors or agents or if you decide to publish on your own. The question was about the stuff that goes on the book cover -- the information about the book and the quotes from reviewers and other authors.
How this works varies by publisher and also varies within the publisher based on the editor's working style, the editor's relationship with the author, the author's clout at the publisher and possibly even the phases of the moon. I once worked with a publisher where I found out what the text on the book cover would be when I got a copy of the printed cover flat -- the actual cover that would be bound around the book (and then I had to change the spelling of the heroine's name in the manuscript to match that text). And I've worked with a publisher that let me entirely rewrite their text.
They generally refer to that text on the cover that describes the book as the "cover copy." in a paperback book where it's printed on the back cover it may be called "back cover copy." In a hardcover book where it's on the inside flap of the paper jacket that's wrapped around the book they may call it "flap copy" or "jacket copy." Usually, the editor writes this, or the editor may take a stab at it before turning it over to someone in the marketing department. I also know of former editors who now work freelance writing cover/jacket copy, so it does sometimes get outsourced. The author may or may not get to see, approve, edit, make suggestions or rewrite this copy. My latest publisher was pretty good about giving me input, since they knew that in real life I'm a professional marketing communications writer, so this is an area of expertise. Often, this copy is written before the book is complete. It may be written based on the synopsis used to sell the book, and that's why the book that seems to be described on the cover sometimes doesn't seem to match what's inside. In those cases, the final book may have veered from the synopsis. That's also why I had to change the spelling of the character's name. Between the time I sent out the initial synopsis and the time they bought the book (and I'd already finished a draft), I'd changed my mind about the character's name, but the cover was based on the synopsis.
Even if you're dealing with a publisher that gives you no input, it's good for an author to learn to write this kind of copy. I find it useful during the creative process to force me to narrow in on what the book's about. If I can't describe the story in a way that makes it sound interesting in a couple of short paragraphs, then I need to work on drilling down into the story to find the core of it and what makes it compelling. You'll also need this kind of text for a pitch paragraph in a query letter -- and if your pitch paragraph is good enough, an editor may use it in writing the cover copy. If you self-publish, you'll have to do this for yourself, unless you hire a marketing writer to help you. This is a learn-by-doing skill. Try to write cover copy for your favorite books -- without looking at what's on the cover. Then compare it to what's on the cover. Browse a bookstore or Amazon and see what kind of copy catches your eye. It may take a lot of drafts to distill your book into a couple of punchy paragraphs, since writing shorter is a lot harder than writing long.
Those short statements on the cover from other authors or reviewers are generally referred to as "blurbs" or "cover quotes." Generally, the publisher sends out advance copies to other authors who write in the same general area and asks if those authors are willing to provide blurbs. Sometimes the author and agent may get involved, depending on their contacts and network. There will generally be some brainstorming among author, editor and agent about who to approach. This is really nervewracking for authors because you never know what you'll get, and putting your book in front of one of your literary heroes can be terrifying. Sometimes they don't respond at all. Sometimes you get something nice. Usually if they hate the book, they don't say anything or they give the "I was too busy to get around to reading it, sorry" excuse. If you're lucky, you may get unsolicited feedback. That's how I got a quote from MaryJo Putney on one of my books. She wrote for the same publisher, happened to read the previous book and e-mailed her editor about how much she loved it. That got forwarded to my editor, who then asked her if she'd like to read the next book for a blurb.
I've heard of unpublished authors soliciting blurbs before submission -- if they have published friends who've read the manuscript, they may be willing to provide a quote that the author can then use in the submission. I would say that if you can do that, it can't hurt, but be sure you have explicit permission to do so. I've heard of cases where published authors judged a contest entry and signed their judging forms, and the aspiring author then used the judges' comments as endorsement blurbs when they submitted the book. The judges were irate because there's a big difference between the kind of encouraging remarks you might make on a contest entry -- probably taken out of context among a lot of critical comments -- and endorsing a book. That sort of thing does get back to authors because editors and agents are savvy enough not to take an endorsement like that at face value and will check back with the authors via their networks (because just about everyone in publishing is only a degree or two of separation away from just about everyone else) to verify. Then it will backfire if the author says, "Yeah, I said the story was a lot of fun, but that was the only nice thing I could think of to say to ease the blow before I went into what a mess it was." So, contest judging remarks or critique group or beta reader feedback doesn't count as an endorsement. You can say you won the contest, but don't quote your judges.
July 24, 2012
Obvious Villains
I started really digging into book 7 yesterday. When I write a synopsis, it's generally all about plot. Now I have to figure out what's going on with the characters, what the emotional arcs are, etc. That's where creating my book "soundtrack" really seems to help, even if it does look a lot like procrastination. I'd say it's the good kind of procrastination because it buys time for the subconscious to be ready. I guess you could consider it an audio collage. Jennifer Crusie writes a lot about the elaborate (and sometimes 3-D) collages she makes to get her thoughts straight on a book. I do it with music. I set iTunes on shuffle and see what comes up, then think about how it might apply to the story or characters. Sometimes that gives me ideas for scenes or even plot twists I hadn't considered or planned. Sometimes it reminds me of an emotion that needs to be present. After making a list of songs and how I think they apply to the story, I put them in more or less chronological order in a playlist, and then I'll burn an MP3 CD to keep in my car while I'm working on the book. That way, I can keep my head in the book even while running errands.
I think there are some new people around, and I've started posting some of my book commentary on Goodreads, where it looks like I give only four or five stars, so I thought it might be a good time to reiterate my "review" policy. I don't consider myself a book reviewer. I'm more of a book recommender, so I only talk publicly about books that I want to recommend. I'm not giving four or five stars to everything. I'm just ignoring anything I'd give a lower rating than that to. I'm not playing "nicey-nice" and giving high ratings to everything, regardless of what I really thought -- that's actually one of the many reasons I dropped out of those blog tour groups. While I liked and would recommend a number of books from those groups, being in the group and having that reciprocal arrangement meant endorsing some things I really wouldn't want to recommend. With my discussion of books, I consider it kind of like doing a bookstore browse with a friend, where you go through the store pointing out things you liked, telling enough about it that your friend can decide if it sounds interesting, and then telling a little about why you liked it. You're not going to bother talking about the books you hated, unless maybe your friend picks up a book that you want to warn her about. I read so many books that I wouldn't have the time to write reviews for all of them, and besides, I don't want to give the publicity to the books I hated. I'm more willing to go negative on movies because I see so few that I'd almost never get to talk about movies if I didn't include the ones I hated.
I'll admit that there is a bit of a political element here because, let's be honest, I have to work with a lot of these people. I may end up with an author on a convention panel, or my editor or agent may ask an author for a blurb on one of my books, or one of my projects may be submitted to an editor who edited a book, and that can get really awkward if I've savaged a book they were involved with. It's awkward enough when I hated the author's book and haven't said anything (there's a lot of mental cringing going on). Until someone gets to be a mega bestseller where they're either bombarded with results or have people who deal with that sort of thing, most authors have Google alerts set for their names and book titles, so they'll know if you've been nasty. Since I have additional reasons for not going negative, it seems a lot fairer and easier to just stick to that policy rather than picking and choosing when to go negative based on whether I know the author or editor, how likely I am to ever have to deal with either, whether it's close enough to my work for it to look like I'm tearing down the competition, etc.
Some of the critics of positive-only review policies say you need to know what a reviewer dislikes and why in order to know if you trust that reviewer. Again, I would say I'm more of a recommender, and I figure that if you read my books, you probably know something about what I like and you might like the same things (or maybe if you read my reviews and like the same things, you might decide to read my books). But there's another problem with mentioning negatives in reviews: Sometimes it's really hard to do that without spoiling the book. If I hate a book because I hate the ending, it can be difficult to get into why without giving away the ending. It's easier to say positive things without spoiling the book.
For instance, I read a book this weekend that I was loving. I thought the premise was brilliant -- one of those "why didn't I think of that?" situations -- and the author gleefully busted a number of tropes and cliches. I was mentally composing my rave recommendation. And then I got to the last couple of chapters and would have hurled the book across the room if it hadn't been a library book. There's no way I could have written about why I hated the book without spoiling the ending.
But it brought up a potentially valuable writing lesson, so I'm going to discuss it in vague terms without getting into specifics about the plot, characters, title or author. It's all about how to handle a villain and/or the "mystery" element of a plot, because you can get into a lot of trouble if your readers are more intelligent than your hero -- especially if your hero is characterized as being brilliant and able to see things from a unique perspective.
In this book, the villain (though the heroine didn't know yet that he was the villain) is shown being a jerk to the heroine in the opening scene. In the next scene, he's a threatening jerk even hinting at rape, but she stands her ground, calls his bluff and more or less intimidates him into leaving her alone. Soon afterward, she finds herself in a very dangerous situation that she only escapes because of her presence of mind and that of another person involved, and the villain was the person responsible for making sure that kind of situation didn't occur. That event is what kicks off the story, sending the heroine into a new situation (crossing Joseph Campbell's Threshold), where she finds herself dealing with a person in need of help -- the victim, more or less. The villain works for the victim, and that means she has to spend time with him. She gets to know him and learns that he has motive for the wrong done to the victim -- he pretty much spells out exactly what his resentments are and why and how he's benefitted from what happened to the victim -- and there's evidence as to how he might have the means. His position means he has opportunity. There's nobody else around to suspect of being the villain. And yet when the villain shows up to foil things by waving a weapon and monologuing after the heroine and the victim share their plans with him, the heroine is utterly shocked that the villain is the villain. At which point I say, "Duh, lady, I've been there since the first scene," and remind myself that this is a library book, so I'm not allowed to damage it. To make matters worse, there are some serious consequences to them not realizing who the villain was in time that make the "happy" ending not very satisfying for me. Though I'm not sure any ending would have been happy at that point because this supposedly brilliant heroine had proved to be Too Stupid To Live. I thought the villain was so painfully obvious that I kept waiting for a huge twist to show how wrong I was, so I was incredibly disappointed to find out that I was right.
And it's so easy to avoid that "Well, duh, I've been there since the first scene" situation. You either have to have enough solid red-herring suspects that there's some doubt as to who the villain really is, with the villain being good at hiding his true nature -- the "seemingly good guy who turns out to be bad/seemingly bad guy who turns out to be good" scenario -- or you have to let the heroine figure it out but be up against opposition. In this case, there were good reasons for the victim not to be able/willing to see the villain as a threat, but the heroine with her outside perspective should have been able to see it. That would have complicated her relationship with the victim because she couldn't have relied on him to help with the investigation, and he wouldn't have believed the villain was a villain unless he heard him give his evil scheme monologue while waving a weapon. Then you've got all kinds of tension as she has to play nice with the villain while being aware he's the villain and has to hide what she's up to from her ally, all while finding either evidence or a way to trick the villain into revealing himself.
It was so frustrating because I was on the verge of finding myself a keeper copy of that book, and I was planning to buy the one book in that series that my library doesn't have. Now I may see if I can find a copy of the missing book at a used bookstore because I have enjoyed the other books, but now I'm leery of trusting that author. Even more frustrating is the fact that the situation was unique enough that I can't steal it and do it right without it being obvious -- though I've already written something involving an obvious villain where the heroine spots it but the victim refuses to see it. Maybe that's why I was so annoyed, since I've dealt with that.
I think there are some new people around, and I've started posting some of my book commentary on Goodreads, where it looks like I give only four or five stars, so I thought it might be a good time to reiterate my "review" policy. I don't consider myself a book reviewer. I'm more of a book recommender, so I only talk publicly about books that I want to recommend. I'm not giving four or five stars to everything. I'm just ignoring anything I'd give a lower rating than that to. I'm not playing "nicey-nice" and giving high ratings to everything, regardless of what I really thought -- that's actually one of the many reasons I dropped out of those blog tour groups. While I liked and would recommend a number of books from those groups, being in the group and having that reciprocal arrangement meant endorsing some things I really wouldn't want to recommend. With my discussion of books, I consider it kind of like doing a bookstore browse with a friend, where you go through the store pointing out things you liked, telling enough about it that your friend can decide if it sounds interesting, and then telling a little about why you liked it. You're not going to bother talking about the books you hated, unless maybe your friend picks up a book that you want to warn her about. I read so many books that I wouldn't have the time to write reviews for all of them, and besides, I don't want to give the publicity to the books I hated. I'm more willing to go negative on movies because I see so few that I'd almost never get to talk about movies if I didn't include the ones I hated.
I'll admit that there is a bit of a political element here because, let's be honest, I have to work with a lot of these people. I may end up with an author on a convention panel, or my editor or agent may ask an author for a blurb on one of my books, or one of my projects may be submitted to an editor who edited a book, and that can get really awkward if I've savaged a book they were involved with. It's awkward enough when I hated the author's book and haven't said anything (there's a lot of mental cringing going on). Until someone gets to be a mega bestseller where they're either bombarded with results or have people who deal with that sort of thing, most authors have Google alerts set for their names and book titles, so they'll know if you've been nasty. Since I have additional reasons for not going negative, it seems a lot fairer and easier to just stick to that policy rather than picking and choosing when to go negative based on whether I know the author or editor, how likely I am to ever have to deal with either, whether it's close enough to my work for it to look like I'm tearing down the competition, etc.
Some of the critics of positive-only review policies say you need to know what a reviewer dislikes and why in order to know if you trust that reviewer. Again, I would say I'm more of a recommender, and I figure that if you read my books, you probably know something about what I like and you might like the same things (or maybe if you read my reviews and like the same things, you might decide to read my books). But there's another problem with mentioning negatives in reviews: Sometimes it's really hard to do that without spoiling the book. If I hate a book because I hate the ending, it can be difficult to get into why without giving away the ending. It's easier to say positive things without spoiling the book.
For instance, I read a book this weekend that I was loving. I thought the premise was brilliant -- one of those "why didn't I think of that?" situations -- and the author gleefully busted a number of tropes and cliches. I was mentally composing my rave recommendation. And then I got to the last couple of chapters and would have hurled the book across the room if it hadn't been a library book. There's no way I could have written about why I hated the book without spoiling the ending.
But it brought up a potentially valuable writing lesson, so I'm going to discuss it in vague terms without getting into specifics about the plot, characters, title or author. It's all about how to handle a villain and/or the "mystery" element of a plot, because you can get into a lot of trouble if your readers are more intelligent than your hero -- especially if your hero is characterized as being brilliant and able to see things from a unique perspective.
In this book, the villain (though the heroine didn't know yet that he was the villain) is shown being a jerk to the heroine in the opening scene. In the next scene, he's a threatening jerk even hinting at rape, but she stands her ground, calls his bluff and more or less intimidates him into leaving her alone. Soon afterward, she finds herself in a very dangerous situation that she only escapes because of her presence of mind and that of another person involved, and the villain was the person responsible for making sure that kind of situation didn't occur. That event is what kicks off the story, sending the heroine into a new situation (crossing Joseph Campbell's Threshold), where she finds herself dealing with a person in need of help -- the victim, more or less. The villain works for the victim, and that means she has to spend time with him. She gets to know him and learns that he has motive for the wrong done to the victim -- he pretty much spells out exactly what his resentments are and why and how he's benefitted from what happened to the victim -- and there's evidence as to how he might have the means. His position means he has opportunity. There's nobody else around to suspect of being the villain. And yet when the villain shows up to foil things by waving a weapon and monologuing after the heroine and the victim share their plans with him, the heroine is utterly shocked that the villain is the villain. At which point I say, "Duh, lady, I've been there since the first scene," and remind myself that this is a library book, so I'm not allowed to damage it. To make matters worse, there are some serious consequences to them not realizing who the villain was in time that make the "happy" ending not very satisfying for me. Though I'm not sure any ending would have been happy at that point because this supposedly brilliant heroine had proved to be Too Stupid To Live. I thought the villain was so painfully obvious that I kept waiting for a huge twist to show how wrong I was, so I was incredibly disappointed to find out that I was right.
And it's so easy to avoid that "Well, duh, I've been there since the first scene" situation. You either have to have enough solid red-herring suspects that there's some doubt as to who the villain really is, with the villain being good at hiding his true nature -- the "seemingly good guy who turns out to be bad/seemingly bad guy who turns out to be good" scenario -- or you have to let the heroine figure it out but be up against opposition. In this case, there were good reasons for the victim not to be able/willing to see the villain as a threat, but the heroine with her outside perspective should have been able to see it. That would have complicated her relationship with the victim because she couldn't have relied on him to help with the investigation, and he wouldn't have believed the villain was a villain unless he heard him give his evil scheme monologue while waving a weapon. Then you've got all kinds of tension as she has to play nice with the villain while being aware he's the villain and has to hide what she's up to from her ally, all while finding either evidence or a way to trick the villain into revealing himself.
It was so frustrating because I was on the verge of finding myself a keeper copy of that book, and I was planning to buy the one book in that series that my library doesn't have. Now I may see if I can find a copy of the missing book at a used bookstore because I have enjoyed the other books, but now I'm leery of trusting that author. Even more frustrating is the fact that the situation was unique enough that I can't steal it and do it right without it being obvious -- though I've already written something involving an obvious villain where the heroine spots it but the victim refuses to see it. Maybe that's why I was so annoyed, since I've dealt with that.
July 23, 2012
Change of Plans
My weekend really didn't go as planned. First, the shrimp creole didn't happen because that's pretty labor-intensive and I wanted to finish proofreading, and I had some country-style boneless ribs that were sounding pretty good. So I marinated those in a little liquid smoke seasoning, cooked them on the George Foreman grill (I can't use a real grill where I live), then added the sauce and broiled briefly in the toaster oven. They were almost as good as if I'd really grilled them. I'll have to do the shrimp creole tonight, though.
Saturday ended up being really busy and turned into Support the Second Sopranos Day. It takes a certain personality to sing second soprano. These are generally people who could sing first soprano (or sometimes they're altos with a higher range), and they're also people who can read music and find offbeat notes in strange chords, but they're content not to play the diva. They find more pleasure in finding those odd harmonies than in getting the big glory notes. And they have to really pull together to help each other work out those odd parts. As a result, our section is really tight-knit. The funeral the choir sang for on Saturday was for the husband of one of the second sopranos. It was a very sudden and shocking loss, so we'll have to continue being close and supportive. I did find that when social skills fail, listening and hugging work pretty well. I'm not a big hugger. It never occurs to me to initiate a hug, and I'm not overly keen on receiving them (I'm not a touchy-feely person). My personal space bubble is about the size of my house. But there are times when the thing to do is let myself be hugged (while fighting not to go stiff and rigid) and remember to hug back, and that's all the person really needs at that time.
On a happier note, one of the other second sopranos and her husband were celebrating their anniversary that weekend, and at the funeral they invited me to join them that evening for a gathering at a place in the next town over. That turned out to be a fun night at a place I'll have to go back to. It's in an old building on the very quaint town square. At lunchtime, it's a sandwich/salad deli kind of place. On Friday and Saturday nights, it becomes a wine and tapas bar with live jazz. It was nice to spend the evening hanging out with choir friends, drinking a glass of wine and listening to a really good jazz band. Now I know a nearby place I can go when I get the rare inclination to just go out. It's not even a really late night because it closes at ten.
Sunday turned into my resting/relaxing day. I mostly just watched TV, read and worked crossword puzzles, then went to bed pretty early.
Today brings two things I've been looking forward to. For one thing, the new season of Warehouse 13 starts tonight. For another, I'm starting to do the prep work for book 7. It's been a while since I wrote that proposal, so I need to get back in that mindset. I'm doing something fun and kind of experimental with that plot, so we'll see if I can pull it off. The idea seemed great in a synopsis, but writing it may turn out to be tricky. I'm developing my soundtrack for helping keep my head in the story today, as well as reviewing all my notes and plans. Tomorrow I may start actually writing, unless something happens today that triggers a good first line. Plus, I'm going to finally send my agent that other project I've been working on for ages.
Saturday ended up being really busy and turned into Support the Second Sopranos Day. It takes a certain personality to sing second soprano. These are generally people who could sing first soprano (or sometimes they're altos with a higher range), and they're also people who can read music and find offbeat notes in strange chords, but they're content not to play the diva. They find more pleasure in finding those odd harmonies than in getting the big glory notes. And they have to really pull together to help each other work out those odd parts. As a result, our section is really tight-knit. The funeral the choir sang for on Saturday was for the husband of one of the second sopranos. It was a very sudden and shocking loss, so we'll have to continue being close and supportive. I did find that when social skills fail, listening and hugging work pretty well. I'm not a big hugger. It never occurs to me to initiate a hug, and I'm not overly keen on receiving them (I'm not a touchy-feely person). My personal space bubble is about the size of my house. But there are times when the thing to do is let myself be hugged (while fighting not to go stiff and rigid) and remember to hug back, and that's all the person really needs at that time.
On a happier note, one of the other second sopranos and her husband were celebrating their anniversary that weekend, and at the funeral they invited me to join them that evening for a gathering at a place in the next town over. That turned out to be a fun night at a place I'll have to go back to. It's in an old building on the very quaint town square. At lunchtime, it's a sandwich/salad deli kind of place. On Friday and Saturday nights, it becomes a wine and tapas bar with live jazz. It was nice to spend the evening hanging out with choir friends, drinking a glass of wine and listening to a really good jazz band. Now I know a nearby place I can go when I get the rare inclination to just go out. It's not even a really late night because it closes at ten.
Sunday turned into my resting/relaxing day. I mostly just watched TV, read and worked crossword puzzles, then went to bed pretty early.
Today brings two things I've been looking forward to. For one thing, the new season of Warehouse 13 starts tonight. For another, I'm starting to do the prep work for book 7. It's been a while since I wrote that proposal, so I need to get back in that mindset. I'm doing something fun and kind of experimental with that plot, so we'll see if I can pull it off. The idea seemed great in a synopsis, but writing it may turn out to be tricky. I'm developing my soundtrack for helping keep my head in the story today, as well as reviewing all my notes and plans. Tomorrow I may start actually writing, unless something happens today that triggers a good first line. Plus, I'm going to finally send my agent that other project I've been working on for ages.
July 20, 2012
Listening to the Spidey Sense
Yesterday also turned out to be pretty good. I guess I'm on a roll. I did get a little bad news, but it was balanced by some additional not-bad news that included some really nice and encouraging comments about my work. I'm still loving the book I'm proofreading. I'm reading a book I'm really enjoying. My house is cool. Life is good.
I'm also starting to really look forward to WorldCon next month. I bought my plane ticket this week when my Spidey Sense suddenly told me to go check airfares, and they were more than a hundred dollars cheaper than the last time I checked (my Spidey Sense has been right about both the AC and the airfares, so I think I'd better continue listening to it). Normally as I get closer to a trip like this, I start wondering if I really want to go and have a bad case of "don't want to leave the house" kick in. Now not only am I excited about going to Chicago, but I'm catching myself mentally planning other trips. Depending on how money stuff works out (if I sell the book currently on submission, if book 5 sells well enough that I make decent money on it), I may even take a real vacation this fall, or at least a work-related trip that has some fun or down-time built into it. I haven't been to New York in a few years, and if I sell the book, then I'll want to go meet the new editor, and I'll have some research to do.
In the meantime, this will likely be a reasonably quiet weekend, which will be nice after last weekend being so busy. I don't have a movie for tonight, but I've got plenty on the shelves if I decide to watch something instead of read, and there's a new Phineas and Ferb episode tonight. I think I'm going to attempt to make shrimp creole. I have some shrimp in the freezer that I need to use, and I've got the other ingredients on hand. I'll just have to see if I can mentally recreate the recipe after watching my mom do it so many times. Saturday I have to sing for a funeral, so I imagine I'll need a fairly quiet evening afterward. Funerals are draining, whether or not I knew the person. In this case, it's the husband of a friend. I didn't know him, but I know her very well (she's sort of my adopted choir mom), so it's rather heartbreaking, and my social skills really aren't up to dealing with this sort of thing. I just kind of freeze and mumble.
But first, I have to finish proofreading, finish my PR plan and make a quick Home Depot run because the bulb in one of my oddball light fixtures burned out, and the Home Depot is the only place that carries that kind (have I mentioned how much I love the person who designed my house?). I may peruse paint colors, but there's no point in getting any or making a decision because the AC company still hasn't fixed my wall or called me about scheduling a time to fix it. I may have to start nagging. I'll give them until Monday. That will be a full week, enough time for them to at least have updated me on the status. I have a feeling it fell between the cracks (no pun intended) (Spidey Sense activated).
I'm also starting to really look forward to WorldCon next month. I bought my plane ticket this week when my Spidey Sense suddenly told me to go check airfares, and they were more than a hundred dollars cheaper than the last time I checked (my Spidey Sense has been right about both the AC and the airfares, so I think I'd better continue listening to it). Normally as I get closer to a trip like this, I start wondering if I really want to go and have a bad case of "don't want to leave the house" kick in. Now not only am I excited about going to Chicago, but I'm catching myself mentally planning other trips. Depending on how money stuff works out (if I sell the book currently on submission, if book 5 sells well enough that I make decent money on it), I may even take a real vacation this fall, or at least a work-related trip that has some fun or down-time built into it. I haven't been to New York in a few years, and if I sell the book, then I'll want to go meet the new editor, and I'll have some research to do.
In the meantime, this will likely be a reasonably quiet weekend, which will be nice after last weekend being so busy. I don't have a movie for tonight, but I've got plenty on the shelves if I decide to watch something instead of read, and there's a new Phineas and Ferb episode tonight. I think I'm going to attempt to make shrimp creole. I have some shrimp in the freezer that I need to use, and I've got the other ingredients on hand. I'll just have to see if I can mentally recreate the recipe after watching my mom do it so many times. Saturday I have to sing for a funeral, so I imagine I'll need a fairly quiet evening afterward. Funerals are draining, whether or not I knew the person. In this case, it's the husband of a friend. I didn't know him, but I know her very well (she's sort of my adopted choir mom), so it's rather heartbreaking, and my social skills really aren't up to dealing with this sort of thing. I just kind of freeze and mumble.
But first, I have to finish proofreading, finish my PR plan and make a quick Home Depot run because the bulb in one of my oddball light fixtures burned out, and the Home Depot is the only place that carries that kind (have I mentioned how much I love the person who designed my house?). I may peruse paint colors, but there's no point in getting any or making a decision because the AC company still hasn't fixed my wall or called me about scheduling a time to fix it. I may have to start nagging. I'll give them until Monday. That will be a full week, enough time for them to at least have updated me on the status. I have a feeling it fell between the cracks (no pun intended) (Spidey Sense activated).
