Lynn Flewelling's Blog, page 66
September 29, 2010
Today's Best Typo
He found Alec scrabbling around on the ground, gathering something and stuffing it in his shit.
Glimpses At Barnes and Noble
The e-book of Glimpses is now available at B&N. Hopefully the paperback will soon follow. These things take time.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Glimpses/Lynn-Flewelling/e/2940011106293/?itm=1&USRI=lynn+flewelling
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Glimpses/Lynn-Flewelling/e/2940011106293/?itm=1&USRI=lynn+flewelling
Skit!
Skit, our feral garage kitten, is getting a little less skittish. Tim and I were able to get him to sniff our hands, so long as we moved slowly. He doesn't mind camera flashes, either.
September 28, 2010
E-Books
I'm happy to announce that Luck in the Shadows and Stalking Darkness will be available in e-book format on January 12, 2011.
Guest Blogger: Meet Lucienne Diver!
Today our special guest is the fabulous Lucienne DIver, author of the equally fabulous Vamped series— tales of a fashion-forward teenage vampire named Gina. The books are wonderful and guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
So, tell us about your latest Vamped book, and the series in general.
First, Lynn, thanks so much for having me here! Revamped is the second novel in the Vamped series. In the first one, Gina Covello goes from (cough) mild-mannered teenager to one of the fanged and fabulous.
Not only does she have to dig her own way out of the grave, totally killing her manicure, but she discovers she's got to face eternal life without tanning options and with no reflection to help her fix her face. She's also, as it turns out, got to fight a vampire vixen to keep her from alienating the affections of her new boyfriend and from turning her classmates into cannon fodder for her hostile takeover of the vampire council. By the end of all that action, the Feds have found the enclave and made Gina and her minions an offer they literally can't refuse.
Revamped starts with Gina, her boyfriend Bobby, and another "friend" from Vamped going off on their first mission for the Feds. Only in some kind of cruel cosmic joke, Gina is assigned to go goth. No color palette to speak of, more chains than a bike rack, and don't even get her started on the shoes. Only the goth group she infiltrates starts to grow on her until her greatest fear isn't the big bad she ends up facing, it's that her newfound friends have something to do with it.
I love Gina, and the voice you capture for her. How do you put yourself in the mind of a teenage girl (never mind vampire) so well?
Thank you so much! Well, I'm a creature of the night, it's just that mine begins before the sun comes up rather than after it sets. Seriously, I'm a morning writer. I have to wake up before my inner editor, otherwise the words get stuck because they're not perfect. Perhaps the darkness inspires my vampy side. As for the teenage girl part, well, I was one. Some days it doesn't feel like it was all that long ago. Others….
I know you are not a vampire. I have seen you in daylight and you neither smoke nor sparkle. But are you a fashionista? What makes one one? How many pairs of shoes do you own?
The secret is sunscreen...lots and lots of it .
I have slightly fewer shoes than Imelda Marcos…but probably not by much. However, I couldn't tell you a Jimmy Cho from a swizzle stick. The mark of a true fashionista is probably that she can tell what designer belongs to what design simply by looking. I don't think fashionistas shop Target, though I could be wrong on that. I'm a clothes horse and an inveterate bargain hunter, but a fashionista…nah.
What sort of research do you do?
Well, in Revamped a historical figure comes into play. (Hmm, what character out of the musty, dusty past has a background perfectly suited to vampirism? And no, I'm not talking Vlad Drakul…that would be too easy.) I had a lot of fun doing research on him. Luckily, I was fascinated by the figure well before I ever thought to write him into Revamped, so it was more a matter of filling in a few details and confirming things I already thought I knew. In book three (yes, there's a book three!) the vampires meet the lifestylers at a club I call The Tower. It's based on a real place by a different name that I visited here in Florida, and it was absolutely fascinating. I also did quite a bit of research on The Black Veil, vampire culture and the like. Not all of it comes out in the novel, of course, but sometimes it's as much about not getting things wrong as getting them right. Flux has contracted for a fourth book, as well, tentatively entitled Fantabulous, that I'm hoping to set in Salem, Massachussets, but I've never been. Luckily, I have a friend who runs a great gothic show in Salem, who's offered to be my guide. (We met while working in local theatre and at a haunted mansion in New York.)
As some may already know, you are my agent, and a very successful one, as well as an author, not to mention all the conventions you go to, the workshops you do, and having a family as well. How do you balance all that?
As soon as you give up on sanity, the rest is easy. As my favorite superhero, The Tick says, "Isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit." So, insanity – check. Then there's the darned Type A personality, which means I have time urgency issues and a constant schedule running through my head. It's less stressful for me to be always busy and crazy productive than for me to have a second where I'm not accomplishing something. My family is great and amazingly supportive, so they're a godsend. People have asked whether my son gets a commission on sales, because he tells everyone he meets about my books!
I must ask the standard question: do you ever get stuck or blocked, and if so, what do you about it?
I don't get blocked very much since I gave myself permission to get things wrong. It was very difficult to trick my inner perfectionist into sleeping in while the writer in me sneaks out of bed at o'dark thirty without her, but it's been very rewarding. My new motto is get it down, then get it right. You've actually been an amazing inspiration for me. I remember you saying that you write about two books for every one published because there's so much you end up throwing out. That was very liberating for me. The idea that someone whose talent I respect so much would get things wrong (or not wrong so much as not ultimately right for the book) somehow gave me permission as well.
What is your favorite aspect of writing? Least favorite?
My favorite aspect of writing is the writing itself. I hate plotting. Plotting to me is like driving below twenty miles an hour—amazingly frustrating. I get cranky, sure that I'll never be able to reach "The End," certain that there's no way I can resolve all the issues and get my characters from point A to point Z and then inspiration strikes. Those ah ha! moments are wonderful. But I love that narrative flow even more. When I'm sitting down to write and the words are pouring out, and I know they're good ones…priceless. I lose time. I think in those moments, writers go into a kind of fugue state. I know I'll later read over what I've written and think to myself, "Wow, I wrote that?" Now, before I come off sounding arrogant, I have at least as many moments where I think, "This is complete crap."
When I write, I sort of see the action happening in my mind's eye, sort of hear the voices. (Not in a certifiable way). Other writers have told me it's just words on a page for them. Which sort are you?
Oh, I definitely see the action. Plus, my characters are so real to me (Gina, anyway), that sometimes I convince other people to talk back to them! (See Gina's blog: http://ginasgems.livejournal.com.)
Pantser or plotter?
Pantser, generally. I'll plot three or four chapters ahead and have a general sense of where things are going overall, but if I were to try to write a detailed outline from start to finish I'd just end up ditching most of the work when my characters take me places I never expected to go. Sometimes I overrule them, but if we have a give and take, things develop more organically and I can be more true to the characters.
A, B, O, AB?
Gina's not picky. As long as it comes from a hot guy, she's good. In Revamped, there's one in particular she's drawn to…and (hint) it's not her boyfriend Bobby!
Me? I'll never tell. International woman of mystery, that's me.
Bonus question: What interview question have you never been asked that you would like to answer?
Hmm? Why should you buy Revamped?
Because my kid needs school clothes, my husband wants to be a kept man and because my heroine becomes insufferable without an audience—the bigger the better. For myself, I just want people to keep buying so that I have an excuse to keep writing.
Thanks, Lucienne!
So, tell us about your latest Vamped book, and the series in general.
First, Lynn, thanks so much for having me here! Revamped is the second novel in the Vamped series. In the first one, Gina Covello goes from (cough) mild-mannered teenager to one of the fanged and fabulous.
Not only does she have to dig her own way out of the grave, totally killing her manicure, but she discovers she's got to face eternal life without tanning options and with no reflection to help her fix her face. She's also, as it turns out, got to fight a vampire vixen to keep her from alienating the affections of her new boyfriend and from turning her classmates into cannon fodder for her hostile takeover of the vampire council. By the end of all that action, the Feds have found the enclave and made Gina and her minions an offer they literally can't refuse.
Revamped starts with Gina, her boyfriend Bobby, and another "friend" from Vamped going off on their first mission for the Feds. Only in some kind of cruel cosmic joke, Gina is assigned to go goth. No color palette to speak of, more chains than a bike rack, and don't even get her started on the shoes. Only the goth group she infiltrates starts to grow on her until her greatest fear isn't the big bad she ends up facing, it's that her newfound friends have something to do with it.
I love Gina, and the voice you capture for her. How do you put yourself in the mind of a teenage girl (never mind vampire) so well?
Thank you so much! Well, I'm a creature of the night, it's just that mine begins before the sun comes up rather than after it sets. Seriously, I'm a morning writer. I have to wake up before my inner editor, otherwise the words get stuck because they're not perfect. Perhaps the darkness inspires my vampy side. As for the teenage girl part, well, I was one. Some days it doesn't feel like it was all that long ago. Others….
I know you are not a vampire. I have seen you in daylight and you neither smoke nor sparkle. But are you a fashionista? What makes one one? How many pairs of shoes do you own?
The secret is sunscreen...lots and lots of it .
I have slightly fewer shoes than Imelda Marcos…but probably not by much. However, I couldn't tell you a Jimmy Cho from a swizzle stick. The mark of a true fashionista is probably that she can tell what designer belongs to what design simply by looking. I don't think fashionistas shop Target, though I could be wrong on that. I'm a clothes horse and an inveterate bargain hunter, but a fashionista…nah.
What sort of research do you do?
Well, in Revamped a historical figure comes into play. (Hmm, what character out of the musty, dusty past has a background perfectly suited to vampirism? And no, I'm not talking Vlad Drakul…that would be too easy.) I had a lot of fun doing research on him. Luckily, I was fascinated by the figure well before I ever thought to write him into Revamped, so it was more a matter of filling in a few details and confirming things I already thought I knew. In book three (yes, there's a book three!) the vampires meet the lifestylers at a club I call The Tower. It's based on a real place by a different name that I visited here in Florida, and it was absolutely fascinating. I also did quite a bit of research on The Black Veil, vampire culture and the like. Not all of it comes out in the novel, of course, but sometimes it's as much about not getting things wrong as getting them right. Flux has contracted for a fourth book, as well, tentatively entitled Fantabulous, that I'm hoping to set in Salem, Massachussets, but I've never been. Luckily, I have a friend who runs a great gothic show in Salem, who's offered to be my guide. (We met while working in local theatre and at a haunted mansion in New York.)
As some may already know, you are my agent, and a very successful one, as well as an author, not to mention all the conventions you go to, the workshops you do, and having a family as well. How do you balance all that?
As soon as you give up on sanity, the rest is easy. As my favorite superhero, The Tick says, "Isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit." So, insanity – check. Then there's the darned Type A personality, which means I have time urgency issues and a constant schedule running through my head. It's less stressful for me to be always busy and crazy productive than for me to have a second where I'm not accomplishing something. My family is great and amazingly supportive, so they're a godsend. People have asked whether my son gets a commission on sales, because he tells everyone he meets about my books!
I must ask the standard question: do you ever get stuck or blocked, and if so, what do you about it?
I don't get blocked very much since I gave myself permission to get things wrong. It was very difficult to trick my inner perfectionist into sleeping in while the writer in me sneaks out of bed at o'dark thirty without her, but it's been very rewarding. My new motto is get it down, then get it right. You've actually been an amazing inspiration for me. I remember you saying that you write about two books for every one published because there's so much you end up throwing out. That was very liberating for me. The idea that someone whose talent I respect so much would get things wrong (or not wrong so much as not ultimately right for the book) somehow gave me permission as well.
What is your favorite aspect of writing? Least favorite?
My favorite aspect of writing is the writing itself. I hate plotting. Plotting to me is like driving below twenty miles an hour—amazingly frustrating. I get cranky, sure that I'll never be able to reach "The End," certain that there's no way I can resolve all the issues and get my characters from point A to point Z and then inspiration strikes. Those ah ha! moments are wonderful. But I love that narrative flow even more. When I'm sitting down to write and the words are pouring out, and I know they're good ones…priceless. I lose time. I think in those moments, writers go into a kind of fugue state. I know I'll later read over what I've written and think to myself, "Wow, I wrote that?" Now, before I come off sounding arrogant, I have at least as many moments where I think, "This is complete crap."
When I write, I sort of see the action happening in my mind's eye, sort of hear the voices. (Not in a certifiable way). Other writers have told me it's just words on a page for them. Which sort are you?
Oh, I definitely see the action. Plus, my characters are so real to me (Gina, anyway), that sometimes I convince other people to talk back to them! (See Gina's blog: http://ginasgems.livejournal.com.)
Pantser or plotter?
Pantser, generally. I'll plot three or four chapters ahead and have a general sense of where things are going overall, but if I were to try to write a detailed outline from start to finish I'd just end up ditching most of the work when my characters take me places I never expected to go. Sometimes I overrule them, but if we have a give and take, things develop more organically and I can be more true to the characters.
A, B, O, AB?
Gina's not picky. As long as it comes from a hot guy, she's good. In Revamped, there's one in particular she's drawn to…and (hint) it's not her boyfriend Bobby!
Me? I'll never tell. International woman of mystery, that's me.
Bonus question: What interview question have you never been asked that you would like to answer?
Hmm? Why should you buy Revamped?
Because my kid needs school clothes, my husband wants to be a kept man and because my heroine becomes insufferable without an audience—the bigger the better. For myself, I just want people to keep buying so that I have an excuse to keep writing.
Thanks, Lucienne!
September 27, 2010
Snippet: A little taste
In honor of the title change for the book formerly known as The Summer Players—now Casket of Souls for those of you who missed it— here's a little snippet to celebrate.
. . . a burst of white flame flared from the key hole, melting the pick and catching the edge of Seregil's rolled up shirtsleeve on fire.
"Shit!" Seregil struggled out of the shirt and hastily threw it away from him. He knew this magic. He'd seen Thero—who had a peculiar fascination with all things flammable—place it on various objects to protect them. This sort of magical fire could consume flesh if in contact with it for more than a few seconds. For all Seregil knew, Thero had placed the magic on the box for ??? himself. Unfortunately it set anything else it touched ablaze, too, and he'd thrown the shirt a little too close to the drapes behind the desk.
Hard pressed to think how he could make things any worse, he grabbed the box, which had stopped spewing fire, and hurried back the way he'd come. As he passed the kitchen, he shouted in "Fire! Fire upstairs!" and ran for the garderobe again. Tossing the box out, he wiggled after it and bolted for the garden wall. He could already smell smoke and cursed himself for a fool. That last thing he'd intended to was to burn down a friend's house. Fortunately someone had heard him and raised the alarm. He could hear shouting inside. Bolting through the garden, he heaved the box over the wall as high as he could, then scrambled up the rope and down the other side.
He found Alec scrabbling around on the ground, gathering something. Seregil bent down to see. Papers! Apparently there was no magic on the box to prevent it from smashing open when thrown over a wall onto a paved street.
"A little warning would have been nice," Alec whispered as he grabbed up the last of the scattered documents. "You nearly brained me with that thing."
. . . a burst of white flame flared from the key hole, melting the pick and catching the edge of Seregil's rolled up shirtsleeve on fire.
"Shit!" Seregil struggled out of the shirt and hastily threw it away from him. He knew this magic. He'd seen Thero—who had a peculiar fascination with all things flammable—place it on various objects to protect them. This sort of magical fire could consume flesh if in contact with it for more than a few seconds. For all Seregil knew, Thero had placed the magic on the box for ??? himself. Unfortunately it set anything else it touched ablaze, too, and he'd thrown the shirt a little too close to the drapes behind the desk.
Hard pressed to think how he could make things any worse, he grabbed the box, which had stopped spewing fire, and hurried back the way he'd come. As he passed the kitchen, he shouted in "Fire! Fire upstairs!" and ran for the garderobe again. Tossing the box out, he wiggled after it and bolted for the garden wall. He could already smell smoke and cursed himself for a fool. That last thing he'd intended to was to burn down a friend's house. Fortunately someone had heard him and raised the alarm. He could hear shouting inside. Bolting through the garden, he heaved the box over the wall as high as he could, then scrambled up the rope and down the other side.
He found Alec scrabbling around on the ground, gathering something. Seregil bent down to see. Papers! Apparently there was no magic on the box to prevent it from smashing open when thrown over a wall onto a paved street.
"A little warning would have been nice," Alec whispered as he grabbed up the last of the scattered documents. "You nearly brained me with that thing."
New Title for NR6
The Summer Players is now Casket of Souls. :-) Which is actually the original working title I didn't think they'd like!
September 26, 2010
Glimpses Lounge
There's been so much attention for Skit lately, Seregil and Alec have their noses quite out of joint! ;-) Anyone read Glimpses yet? Like it?
(I do know there are some typos and formatting problems with the e-book. Sorry about that.)
**Spoilers** are allowed, so if you haven't read the book yet, you should probably not read. Er, read the entries here, that is. You should definitely read the book!
(I do know there are some typos and formatting problems with the e-book. Sorry about that.)
**Spoilers** are allowed, so if you haven't read the book yet, you should probably not read. Er, read the entries here, that is. You should definitely read the book!
Garage kitten progress
Skit showed up for breakfast when I brought the food bowl out to the garage, and came quite quickly to the bowl as I sat a few feet away. He and Oscar both purr when they eat. Skit keeps a close eye on me but doesn't seem to mind when I scratch Oscar's back. Today he ate about three times his weight, rubbed heads with Oscar, then sat down, put his tail around his tiny feet, and looked up at me with bright blue eyes, purring. Just lasted a few moments, then he slunk away to where ever it is h...
September 24, 2010
Bookplates
I'm in the process of having Glimpses bookplates made up. They will be available—signed, of course— to those who send me a self-addressed envelope and return postage (in US, just a regular stamp, no extra postage needed)
Limit 1 per envelope.
I do accept International Reply Coupons. The postage, US, is about $1.00 Please send a coupon for as close to that amount as you can, since I can't make change.
Please send envelope approximately 4"x9" (10cm x 24cm) The bookplates are 3.43" x 1.93...
Limit 1 per envelope.
I do accept International Reply Coupons. The postage, US, is about $1.00 Please send a coupon for as close to that amount as you can, since I can't make change.
Please send envelope approximately 4"x9" (10cm x 24cm) The bookplates are 3.43" x 1.93...
