Rachel Haimowitz's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

Greetings all, and thanks so much for checking me out following me here on Goodreads :)

Just a quick note to share my joy with you all: after many a long discussion with my editor on the direction of the sequel to Counterpoint, I finally sat down today and wrote the first scene. It felt great to get back to Ayden and Rik, their banter, the flow of the language and the world's unique expletives . . . I was even geeking out over once more having the etymology dictionary open nonstop on my desktop.

Perhaps what I'm most looking forward to as I complete the chapter is painting a whole new setting. I'll not spoil it for anyone, but those of you who've finished Counterpoint know what I'm talking about. Now off to watch The Tudors to get in the mood!

I created a page on AuthorsDen.com the other day, and one of the things they ask for is a personal slug--and no, not those slimy-adorable little mollusks. A slug is a summary headline, 15 to 25 words, the kind of thing you'd write to lead off an online dating profile (you know . . . "Single white dominant female, 33, ISO submissive male to take beatings for her pleasure and manage social media campaign for her new book" :-p).

I thought quite long and hard (sigh, mind goes instantly to gutter there) about it. After all, this is the first thing people see, the only space I have to convince them that my profile, and Counterpoint, are worth clicking on. So what did I end up choosing? A harsh truth:

"Here's hoping I'll never meet one of my characters in a dark alley; they have every reason to hate me, the poor dears."

:D

So, who else is that true for? (Aside from Stephen King.) Would your characters all hate you? :)

I've been having some fascinating talks about writing with Aleksandr Voinov lately, and one of our recurring topics has been the research writers do (or don't do, or don't but should do) for a book. That got me to thinking about some of the tools I used to research Counterpoint--some of which I literally had open on my desktop for six straight months--and I thought I'd share some here for the writers among us.

1. The MVP of Counterpoint was the Online Etymology Dictionary. Given the texture and music of the book, I decided early on not to use any words that haven't been in circulation since at least the 1600s--with, I believe, two exceptions (Challenge: see if you can identify the exceptions!). Conservatively, I looked up a thousand words there. One of the more common editing notes on Counterpoint ended up being "etymo!fail," which was shorthand for "this word's too new; find another one." Oh, how frustrating that could be :p

Anyway, this is a great resource for anyone, even if you're not constraining your language like I did. It's a ton of fun (for word geeks like me, anyway) just to see where your favorite words come from and how they've been used throughout the years. Sometimes that even helps you to understand their nuance better. Check it out!

2. Another critical--and useful-to-everyone--site for Counterpoint was Thesaurus.com. I think this one's self-explanatory :)

3. A third site I visited often was the Norse-English Online Dictionary. Elves are a part of Norse mythology, and I went back to their roots to name people and places and create the slang of this world.

This probably won't be of any specific help to most of you, but it's good just to know that these kinds of resources are out there, for whenever you have a need for any foreign language (even dead ones :p).

4. Rooms In a Medieval Castle was also useful for helping to set the scene. I visited a number of other similar sites to paint the most complete picture I could, and I highly recommend that anyone working in this sort of setting pursue similar resources.

5. Since music was such an important part of Counterpoint's world, I bookmarked this Wikipedia page, and I visited it often. Even though I've been singing all my life, sometimes professionally, I still found this site to be useful, as I don't have much formal music training.

6. Speaking of Wikipedia, this one was invaluable too for determining the roles and titles of castle staff and courtiers. So was this one. And so were a great many of the links found on both of those pages.

Well, that about covers it! If you're giving some websites a workout in the process of your own writing, share the links in the comments!

I'm sure many of you have seen the myriad and hilarious evil overlord lists out there, but this Fantasy Novel Quiz was a first for me. Had me laughing out loud at several points, though I'm afraid that Counterpoint failed the (cynical but perhaps fair) #39: "Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings?"

Some of my favorites:

14. [Does your novel contain] "a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons"?

25. Do you not know when the hay baler was invented?

16. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"?

38. Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named "Tim Umber" and "Belthusalanthalus al'Grinsok"?

So, are you guilty of any of these? Read books that are egregiously so? Which were your faves?

Happy Saturday, all! I thought it'd be fun to kick off the weekend by posting a free short story here on Goodreads. It's M/M, of course, what I'd call D/s-lite, and features two characters (Sir and Nicky) who I hope you all will get to know much better in the coming year.

A couple years ago, I wrote about a dozen stories in this universe, including two longer ones (around 15K apiece) that I'm considering polishing up and submitting to a publisher. In the meanwhile, as I dust the short stories off, I'll post a few more of them here for you all to (hopefully!) enjoy. Some of them are much, much darker than others, and will probably push right past a lot of comfort zones, but this one, at least, is fluffy and feel-good, which is admittedly something of an aberration for me :)

I hope you'll check it out, and I'd love to hear what you think of Sir and Nicky and if you'd like to see more. Thanks all!

As promised, I've posted up a second Sir/Nicky fic here on Goodreads. It's quite a bit more intense than the last one (and significantly moodier :-p), so be forewarned.

In other news, I may have some exciting news at the end of the week. Then again, I may not. Cryptic, eh? :) Stay tuned for the news-or-not, and I'll try to post up another Sir/Nicky fic this weekend if I can clean one up enough to make it worthy of public consumption.

The M/M Romance group here on Goodreads is holding a fun little holiday fic celebration called 25 Days of Xmas...M/M Style!. Any group member (it's not too late to join!) can pick an inspiring photo and include it in a letter to Santa, asking him to stuff your, er, stocking with a fic about the pic. The group writers choose the letters that inspire them, and we'll deliver one fic a day from Dec 1 to Dec 25 to those who've been good naughty boys and girls.

I've decided to get in on the fun by filling this delicious little Christmas wish:



There's still room to stuff a few stockings, so if you've been wanting to ask Santa for that special fic, or if you think you might want to step up and be one of Santos L Halpers and stuff a stocking for someone else, come on over to the M/M Romance group and say hello :)

The last few weeks, all I've been doing is edits edits edits, no time or energy to write anything new. I'd forgotten how much I missed it until I sat down today to write my gift fic for the 25 Days of X-Mas...M/M Style stocking stuffer.

Four hours later, I'd plotted, written, and polished a 2,200-word Sir/Nicky fic called Pony Up. It's lite BDSM and--surprise surprise--pony play. I've never written (or engaged in) pony play before, but when my letter to Santa included this photo and mentions of a coil of rope found at his feet, that was where my mind immediately went:



Keep an eye out on the M/M Romance group here on Goodreads, where my story should be posted sometime around the second week of December. After that, I'll be sure to post it here as a free read with the other Sir/Nicky fics. I also finally sucked it up and submitted the Sir/Nicky origin story to a publisher, so hopefully there will be even more of them to share with you next year.

Special thanks to Jess for such wonderful inspiration and for getting my ass out of the editing chair and into the writing chair once more. Hope your gift from Santa is everything you wanted :D

Alas, I can't seem to embed video, so follow the links for this hilariously informative four-part series :D

Part 1: Chapters 1-3
Part 2: Chapters 4-10
Part 3: Chapters 11-15
Part 4: Chapters 16-20

On a different note, my free holiday short story posted today in the M/M Romance group. (If you're not a member, don't worry. You can join, or you can download the story free in a couple weeks.) It's 2,000 words of Sir and Nicky at (pony) play. Enjoy!

In the next little while, I'll be releasing a collection of BDSM short stories featuring Nicky and Devon (or Sir, to you :-p), the boys who've starred in the freebies I've posted here on Goodreads. This collection too will be free, at least for a while, and will comprise the freebies already posted, plus half a dozen or so new stories never before released. It's my intent to make it available as a download for whatever e-reader you might have.

Of course, to put out a collection, one needs a cover. I was quite fortunate to have the brilliant and talented L.C. Chase step up for this particular task. So without further ado, I present to you L.C.'s cover for my new collection, Sublime. Isn't she amazing? I seriously could not be happier :D