Sarah Ettritch's Blog, page 26
February 25, 2011
1911 Journal: A Year in Kate's Life
(For privacy, Kate is a pseudonym.)
When I was in my early thirties, a friend gave me a 1911 Daily Reminder she'd come across in a used bookstore. When she handed it to me, she said, "When I saw this, I thought of you." I wondered why. At the time, I wasn't interested in history and didn't collect historical papers. I wouldn't have picked up the book for myself, that's for sure. But as you do when accepting a gift, I smiled and said, "Thank you."
The book had belonged to a woman named Kate. She'd used it to record her daily activities, not as an appointment book or to-do list, so from this point forward, I'll refer to it as a journal. The ink was fading in places and her handwriting was sometimes difficult to read, but I read through it. Even though I wasn't terribly interested, I felt I owed it to Kate and wondered how the book had ended up in a used bookstore.
To my surprise, a friend who once ran a used and rare book business told me it wasn't unusual for people to drop off boxes of personal papers, including diaries and the like. Online auction sites like eBay offer all sorts of personal keepsakes, items such as identity papers, diaries, and old photographs.
When Kate sat and wrote an entry in her 1911 Daily Reminder, did she think her journal would end up in a used bookstore, and then in the hands of a stranger who didn't appreciate it very much? She probably imagined it being passed down to younger family members, an item to be treasured, not discarded. But somewhere along the line, someone decided it wasn't worth keeping, or perhaps opened an old box, peeked inside, and thought, "Nothing here but junk."
So it landed in my lap. After reading it, I shelved it. I forgot about it. It moved several times with me, unpacked, shelved, and packed again.
In 2001, Kate briefly re-entered my consciousness. My partner and I were visiting the city where Kate went to university and decided to stop in at the alumni office to see if we could find out more about her. Since it was during the summer, the office was operating under reduced hours and unfortunately closed, but when we got home, I emailed the office and inquired about her. They responded that they didn't have a hard copy file for her and there wasn't much in the database, but they did have her birth year, married name, and death year. It turned out that only one piece of information was accurate, but I'll get to that in another post.
Around that time, I decided it might be prudent to type Kate's journal into Word, in case the ink faded into nothingness. I did so. Then I forgot about Kate and her journal again.
Why am I telling you this story?
Well, I've blogged that my creative process takes place at a mainly subconscious level. I've also mentioned that my first non-Rymellan project for 2011 is a time travel fantasy novella. The story just happens to have two characters from 1910. I was about 10,000 words in when I thought, "Wait! I have a journal from 1911. An entire year of a woman's life, told in her own words!" I'd forgotten about Kate's journal, but my subconscious hadn't.
I put aside everything else I meant to do that day and read Kate's journal again. My interest in history has increased as I've grown older (and a teeny bit wiser), so I appreciated it so much more. Kate probably never imagined that one-hundred years after she wrote in her journal, a writer would use it as a resource for a story, but life's funny that way.
I'm going to share some of Kate's journal as I write and edit the novella. Some posts will be longish, like this one. Others will be an excerpt and a line or two from me. I hope you'll enjoy glimpsing life in 1911 through Kate's words.
Have a great weekend!
February 18, 2011
Readings in Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Fiction
An early heads up: In March, I'll appear on Lara Zielinsky's Blog Talk Radio show, Readings in Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Fiction.
Lara puts on an interesting show because she researches her guests and avoids asking the same old canned questions. Her show is also interactive; you can call in and ask questions. If you don't want to be on the air, you can pose questions using the chat room that's available during the show.
I'll talk with Lara for about an hour.
Date: March 24th
Time: 10:30 PM EDT
Place: Readings in Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Fiction
I hope to see you there!
A quick word about Rymellan 2: The eBook is now available at Smashwords and the Kindle Store. I approved the print proof, so the print book should be available at all the usual online bookstores soon.
February 11, 2011
Rymellan 2 Update
Just a quick update on Rymellan 2:
Print: I expect to receive the proof from the printer early next week. If I approve it, the book will go into distribution and start to show up at places like Amazon.com. You can already pre-order it from Barnes & Noble at a great discount that probably won't last too long.
Smashwords: I've uploaded the book. It's currently in the queue to be converted to all the different formats Smashwords sells. Assuming there are no problems, it should be available by the end of today. It will take Smashwords anywhere from a week to a month to distribute the book to places like Kobo, the Sony eBookstore, and B&N (Nook).
Kindle Store: The book should be available in the Kindle Store by the end of next week (unless Amazon has a backlog of books to approve).
Have a great weekend!
February 4, 2011
Time Travel Genres
A few weeks ago, I said that I'd chosen my first non-Rymellan project for 2011, but that "…I won't add anything to the WIP page just yet. By sometime in February, I should know whether the project I'll start next week has legs."
Here we are in February, and the project is ticking along nicely. I've added it to the WIP page and labeled it Time Travel Fantasy.
When I'm deciding what to write, I choose whatever story idea appeals to me the most, regardless of genre. Once I've chosen an idea, the genre is usually obvious. But this time, I wasn't sure. The story involves time travel. Does it fall under science fiction, fantasy, or something else?
When I searched the net for guidance, I found the following on Wikipedia:
Stories that involve time travel devices and technologies that take people backwards and forwards in time and space are considered part of the science fiction genre, whereas stories that involve time travel through supernatural, magical, or unexplained means are considered part of the fantasy genre.
Based on that and other explanations I've come across, I'm writing a fantasy story. I expect it to be novella length, and I'm almost a third of the way through the first draft (assuming my word count estimate isn't completely out to lunch). If I maintain my current pace, I should finish the first draft by late March/early April.
The story differs in a couple of ways from those I've shared before. First, it features a heterosexual main character, in addition to a lesbian one. Second, it doesn't involve any world building; it's set right here on good old planet Earth. It's turning out to be a fun story to write, and I hope it'll be a fun read when it's done.
Have a great weekend!
January 28, 2011
Rymellan 2 Cover: Sneak Peek
Rymellan 2 is almost ready to go to press. The Kindle and Smashwords files are sitting on my hard drive, ready to go (and backed up!). The print version is waiting for the CIP data from Library and Archives Canada, which should arrive sometime next week. The CIP data is the library cataloguing information that sometimes appears on a book's copyright page.
I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at the Rymellan 2 cover designed by Patty Henderson, who also designed the cover for The Salbine Sisters. She did a great job and pretty much nailed it on her first try. The only element we did a little backward and forwarding on was the face that's meant to represent Lesley. I made Patty laugh when I said that the initial face looked too "bimbo-ish."
When I first saw the cover design, my initial reaction was that the faces bear little resemblance to how I imagine the characters. You might have reacted the same way. Keep in mind that the cover isn't meant to replace your imagination, or to represent exactly what's in the book or how the characters should look. It's meant to draw the eye and pique interest. Continue to imagine the characters however you like. I certainly will.
I normally don't upload the eBook files until I've accepted the book proof from the printer. But with Rymellan 2, I'm going to upload the print and eBook files around the same time. The eBook will be available earlier than the print book, possibly as early as next week.
Rymellan 2 contains Shattered Lives, Besieged, Closing Ranks, Shields Down, and Shattered Delusions.
Enjoy your weekend!
January 14, 2011
Story Ideas Galore
Earlier this week, I finally finished the first draft of the Rymellan March story. Between the holidays and starting off the New Year with a bad cold, it took me longer than usual, but I'm still on schedule for March.
I spent part of this week trying to decide what non-Rymellan project to start next. The sheer number of ideas in my "to-write" file was overwhelming, so I narrowed the choices down to five and spent at least an hour brainstorming each one. As a result of that exercise, I dropped two of the five ideas (for now) and decided to write the remaining three stories in 2011. Of course, if an absolutely brilliant story idea strikes me and demands to be written now, I'll do what I can to squeeze it in.
In my last post, I said there would be false starts, so I won't add anything to the WIP page just yet. By sometime in February, I should know whether the project I'll start next week has legs.
On a related note (no pun intended), I love music, and it's not uncommon for story ideas to hit me while I'm listening to my favourite songs. This recent news item didn't surprise me:
Music Produces a Natural High, McGill Study Finds (Montreal Gazette)
Enjoy your weekend!
January 7, 2011
My Writing Plans for 2011
Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holidays.
I'd imagined myself starting 2011 filled with energy and enthusiasm, but the New Year arrived with a sniffle. The joke was on me.
We had plans to visit family in Quebec and Eastern Ontario over the New Year's weekend, so when I woke up on New Year's Eve slightly congested and with a sore throat, I thought, "Uh-oh." Since I wasn't feeling too bad, we went ahead with our visit. Somehow my body managed to hold off the raging head cold until Monday.
Now that I'm starting to feel better, what are my writing plans for 2011?
At this point in time, only two projects are definitely on my "to-write" list: the Rymellan series and a story for Torquere Press's Sapphic Signs line (more details later).
Having said that, I hope to write more in 2011 than I did in 2010. I just haven't settled on what to add to my list. I do know that I'd like to focus on short stories and novellas. Since I don't write a story with a set length in mind, I might end up writing a novel anyway, but my preference will be to work on projects that I expect to come in under 50K words.
I see myself publishing only one print book in 2011: Rymellan 2, which should be available in February. Unless I inadvertently write a novel, anything else I publish will go to digital format only.
I have lots of ideas swirling around in my head. Some might materialize into stories; others might not work out. There will be a few false starts, so I'll only update the WIP page with projects I'm confident about. At times it will look as if I'm only writing the Rymellan series, when I'm actually writing more than that.
Here's to producing engaging stories in 2011!
On a completely different topic, I've done several blog interviews over the past couple of months, with more to come. To keep track of them, I've added an Interviews page to the site. The most recent interview is at Kindle Author.
Have a great weekend! (I hope to spend mine less congested!)
December 24, 2010
Happy Holidays!
Ah, Christmas Eve, the calm before the storm (unless you haven't finished your Christmas shopping!). Christmas Day is a quiet day for us. We always spend it with two close friends who are pretty much family.
Then the madness begins.
I have a small family: my parents, two siblings, and four nieces/nephews. My partner's parents have passed away, but she has four siblings, 15 nieces/nephews, and 17 great-nieces/nephews. We'll see all of my family and a fair number of her relatives over the coming week.
When I do manage to snatch some quiet time, I'll want to relax. 
I won't get much–if any–writing done, so I won't update the WIP page next week.
The chances I'll post next Friday are slim, so . . .
I hope you have a lovely holiday season, and I wish you health and happiness for 2011.
See you next year!
December 17, 2010
Out and About on the Net
I had a great time on the Virtual Living Room hotseat last weekend. I fielded a lot of interesting questions and comments, and I believe new readers were introduced to my work. A big shout out to Gentoo.Rogue, who joined the VLR group to participate in the Q&A with me. Great to see you there!
I popped up on the net in a few other places this week:
Broad Universe Interview: I sit on the Motherboard for Broad Universe, which is an organization for women who write science fiction, fantasy, and horror. If you fall into that group, you might want to check us out at the Broad Universe website. If you're a reader of SF/F/H books, you'll find a great online catalog of books written by female writers.
From the Shadows Interview: Author E.J. Stevens interviewed me on her blog. It was super-nice of her to approach me for the interview, considering that she normally covers the paranormal genre. While you're over there, check out E.J.'s books.
Spalding's Racket: Nick Spalding posted a synopsis of The Salbine Sisters on his blog and to the Kindleboards. Nick's a great supporter of independent authors and the author of Life… With No Breaks. His blog is well worth a visit.
Have a great weekend!
December 10, 2010
A Couple of Reminders
Two reminders:
1. I'm on the virtuallivingroom hotseat this weekend, which means I'll answer questions about my work. Details here.
2. The auction for Nene Adams ends on December 14th. I'm offering a signed copy of The Salbine Sisters (item #56). Details about the auction are here.
And a video I posted to my Facebook wall with the comment, "All we are is ducks in the wind." It was filmed in Toronto, so one of our newspapers had an article about it. I can assure you that no ducks were harmed. (And no, there isn't sound.)
