Leah R. Cutter's Blog, page 40

Sick. Redux.

Friday night, after I got home from San Francisco, my chest started feeling tight. Then I realized it was filling with congestion. By Saturday morning, it was game over. Have spent the weekend in a cold & flu-like haze. I've managed to do a few things, but none of the things I wanted to do, as those all involved either brain power or physical exertion.

I'm disappointed to say the least. I keep thinking I'm going to find something, a diet, an exercise plan, something, anything, that will keep me well. Don't get me wrong, I'm better than I used to be. I get sick much less often. But it still feels far too often for me.

The only advantage to being sick as often as I have been is that I know how to treat it, what effectively reduces my symptoms and the amount of time I'm ill. Still. I'd like to use this knowledge less often, if possible.

My schedule for the novel is in jeopardy. I just keep hoping that I'll soon get to the chapters that are in better shape, and will take less time. ::crosses fingers::

The good news? I had enough brain to do formatting. So I was able to fix the few things wrong in Paper Mage and order another proof, as well as Baker's Dozen, and Caves of Buda.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Progress

I'm holding the PoD version of Paper Mage in my hand.

Wow.

It's beautiful. There are a few changes that I need to make, but it's close. I should be releasing it soon. It's so very pretty. I'm kind of amazed at it. And I'm proud of it. I had some ideas for Caves of Buda. Now that I see this, I'm going to make that book just as beautiful.

There's a real art to book interiors. I have a good eye, but I also think I lucked out on this one. It's been worth all the work.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras!

I read an article recently about how the difference between frugality and depravation was all about attitude.

I've gotten really good about only going out to eat once a week. Some weeks I don't go out at all, which is a shocking change from just a couple years ago. I've gotten so much better at not spending.

However, tonight, not going out felt like depravation. It's Mardi Gras. I took myself out and ate food that was really bad for me and had too much to drink. Then I went and wrote about cancer and death. Really, it all seemed very appropriate.

I miss New Orleans sometimes. Seattle's still my home, but New Orleans will always have such a special place in my heart. I will go back, not to live, but to visit, probably sooner rather than later. And I don't say that about many places.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Living the dream

Today was Presidents' day, and I had the day off from the day job. I told myself that I was going to live today as if I was a full-time writer.

Of course, then life happened.

I did get up and go write in the coffee shop this morning. I did write more tonight. I did finish chapter two today, and so I can start chapter three tomorrow.

But there were also life things, like shopping and grocery shopping and making dinner and doing yet another load of laundry and goofing off a little and. . .I think that I need to take a whole week off the day job to really figure out what it means to be a full-time writer. Because I certainly didn't spend the entire day writing. Though I did spend time thinking about the writing, which is as important.

As for the rewrite, the change in word count (an additional 1500 words) doesn't indicate the effort. I figure at least half, if not more, of the words are new (and the chapter is about 6000 words now.)

One of the good things about the break, as it were — I had thought I'd finished chapter two while I was in the coffee shop. The last scene was a bit awkward, but I was sure it would only take a little straightening out.

Then, while doing all those other things, I finally figured out what was wrong with chapter two and what I needed to do to fix it.

This is why rewrites always take me so long. I need time to figure out what's broken. I need time to address it. I can't just run at it like I can with writing.

The good news is that I already have a really good idea of what's wrong with chapter three — namely, it starts in the wrong place and summarizes what went on before. I need to have scenes with that stuff happening. This chapter is one of the shortest — 3900 words — and there's no reason why it should be. Important stuff happens that needs to be on the damn page.

At least with this chapter I understand why I shied away — the main character is losing a parent figure. It's hard stuff to deal with. There's more emotional honestly in chapter three, but it's all aftermath. I'm glad I have the time to think about it, and fix it.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Emotional heart

I've finished the rewrite of the first chapter of "Zydeco Queen." It's about 2000 words longer, which is good. However, the word count isn't a good indication of effort. About 3000 words are brand new, but that doesn't include the rewriting. The chapter is now 6500 words long. So maybe 4000-4500 words are new.

I've started the rewrite of chapter two. Like chapter one, it's missing much of the emotional umph. It's like I was afraid to get into the main character's head, to really feel what she was feeling. The second chapter is slightly better than the first chapter emotionally, but plot wise, ugh. Stuff that should have happened in the first chapter, that I added, I found at the end of the second chapter. There has to be escalation and what's there is wrong. I'm going to have to toss huge parts of the existing chapter, redraft.

I'm not sure why I keep running away from the emotional heart of my writing. I didn't used to. I recognize it's why "Paper Mage" is so successful. It's why so many of the "Baker's Dozen" stories are so good. I stopped running away.

This novel is worth saving. It's worth diving into that emotional heart and wrenching it out, displaying it for the world to see. It isn't the only thing that makes my writing powerful, but it's a major part of it.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

On being right

I started the rewrite of "Zydeco Queen" last night.

One of the things I can say about my writing is that it's powerful. I don't feel that while I'm writing it. But afterward, I can come back, and I can see the energy. I know it's dynamic.

Unfortunately, there's almost none of that power in this draft of "Zydeco Queen." I was afraid that was the case, and this is one of those time when I hate being right.

After I read the first scene of the first chapter I got up and walked away for a while. I couldn't see a way to fix that scene.

Fortunately, after I ate dinner and did some other things, I was able to make myself go back and read the second scene. It needed a heavy edit (which I was able to do) but at least I can use it. Ditto for the third scene, though it really should be the fourth scene, there's at least one, maybe two or three scenes missing.

The start of the existing fourth scene is so awful it needs to be completely chucked and redrafted from scratch. I don't know what I need to do instead. I'll figure it out when I get there. The end of the fourth scene needs to be its own, separate scene.

And so on.

This morning while I was in the shower (because of course that's when these ideas generally show up) I figured out what was wrong with the first scene. The event is almost correct, not quite, and the people involved in the scene are not the right ones. Now I know what the event should be, who needs be there, and not only what should happen, but the emotional tone that must set.

So the good news is I can fix this novel. It will require heavy edits in some places and complete redrafts in others, and I have less fear of killing what little voice that currently exists. I'm really hoping that from chapter ten on, I won't have to do as much work as I will in the first chapters.

The bad news is that it's going to be a tremendous amount of work. While I've been doing some writing during the month of January, I really was taking it easy. (For me. I realize that for some people, writing two short stories, putting together a collection, formatting two books for PoD, etc. seems like a lot. Really it isn't.)

This isn't actually bad news, BTW. It just means that every spare minute for the next 4-6 weeks is going to be spent writing. I'm going to be as busy as I was last year doing the Baker's Dozen challenge.

I should really do another post on the benefits I continue to see from doing that thirteen week challenge. Because I continue to stumble across benefits that I hadn't thought about when I'd started. I will do another short story challenge like that — I don't know if it'll be this year or next year.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Free Fiction Tuesday!

I finished the latest short story in the Hell 'verse! I'm putting it up for free for a week. It will also be available at all the usual outlets by the end of the week.

High Stakes Hell

December 21st, 2012 hadn't been the end of the world, only the Great Unraveling. The veils between the Seen and Unseen worlds shredded and the living suddenly found out they weren't alone.

Andy had seen it all, done it all as a detective when he'd be alive. Now, as a ghost, he still works as a private investigator. Gambling with the dead is different than with the living: no bodies to betray their tells. The stakes are higher than ever this time, involving not just Heaven or Hell, but his best gal, Betsy.

This story is a sequel to "Hell By Any Other Name," and follows after the other two as well, "To Hell And Back" and "Hell For The Holidays."

A couple notes about this story:

–Almost everything you learn about Betsy, Andy's camera, in this story was there from the very start, when I first wrote about her. She has as big of a back story, if not bigger, than Andy's.

–Ditto Simon Beaker.

–There will be a fifth story. I don't know what the story will be yet, but I already have the cover in mind. Once I finish and post that, I'll gather all the stories into a collection.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

That writing life

I finished the hand-written draft of the latest story in the Hell series, "High Stakes Hell." A few observations:

–Even though it's been a short while, only a month, I can really tell that my writing muscles aren't as sharp or as tuned up as they were when I was writing a short story a week.

–This story, if the written-to-typed draft is correct, is only about 6000 words. This is *short* for one of these stories, set in this world. I'm wondering if Point A (above) is responsible for this, and if the story will actually grow significantly while I'm typing it up. (I suspect it grow some because I've already identified the areas that feel "light".)

–I used one of my "write faster" techniques in order to finish this draft. Before every writing period, I sat down and spent 5-10 minutes plotting out exactly what would happen in the scene I was about to write. This worked so well I ended up writing 1 1/2 hours without a break tonight because I was so into the world and what I was doing. (Which, ouch. Should set an alarm for every 60 minutes so I will take a break.)

Regardless, I love this story and this world and where it ended. I knew what that last line was when I first came up with the idea for this story. The story itself went a little differently than I'd first imagined, but not too much.

There must be a fifth story set in this world. This story ends, but it's somewhat unresolved. I don't know what the next story is yet. I have faith that at the most inconvenient time the idea will come to me and demand to be written, because that's how my muse rolls.

In the meanwhile, I'll type up this story Saturday and Sunday. I'm currently planning on publishing it on Monday. I'll make it free for a week, and then it'll also be available on all the usual outlets by the end of the week.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Returning to the dark side. ..

One of my goals for the year is to read more fiction, as in, books. As well as short stories.

I read a lot. I read online. I have a huge RSS feed that I read every day. But that isn't the same.

Last year for Christmas I bought myself a Kindle. And I liked it a lot at first. It made it easy to read and knit while I was in NOLA.

However, I just made arrangements to return my Kindle. I've gone back to reading books on paper.

One of the discoveries I've made is that I'm more likely to read if it's on paper. I think that's due to a number of reasons: I'm online all the time, and I want to interact with things that are not electronic. I found myself resenting having yet *another* device that I needed to charge. During my last 2 trips my Kindle has died on me at the most inconvenient time, which left me with nothing to read at the worst time.

This isn't to say that I'm anti-ebooks or that I'll never buy another one — that Kindle Fire looks awfully sweet. If my life changes (and it might) I may get one for traveling, again. I just need to figure out what's right for me, what I'll actually use.

Now, when my burgeoning publishing empire really takes off, I'll probably buy a bunch of different ebook readers for testing of new material. Though my sales have been good for the month of January, I'm not anticipating doing that this year, but maybe next year, maybe the year after that.

In the meanwhile, I'm thoroughly enjoying, "Embassyville" by China Mieville.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Trade Paperback version of Tell Me Again available!

Tell Me Again — my collection of three reprints plus one original short story — is now available as a trade paperback!

I'm kind of excited by my burgeoning publishing empire, quite frankly. By the end of the month I hope to announce the trade paperback version of the Baker's Dozen collection, and sometime in February I should be able to announce the new paperback version of Paper Mage. I'll do all the novels in print versions, and I will be putting together new collections as well. I still have that next Hell story to write, after which I'll make that collection available as both an ebook and paperback. So many opportunities, both to fail, as well as succeed. I love this new world.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.