Jessica Knauss's Blog, page 32

True Grit

If you need to be inspired to keep your nose to the grindstone in a way that doesn't take too much time away from that nose-grindstone contact, try this lovely tidbit. Ira Glass is incredible, anyway, and now he brings us years' worth of wisdom in two minutes.

On  the same day, I read an article that scientifically proved that success is better predicted by a person's "grit" quotient than by intelligence. Grit is perseverance and enthusiasm for long-term goals that cause an aversion to giving up. More or less, doggedness.

So I bit. I took the test. And thank goodness, this is how it came out:

That's 98, 99 and 97th percentiles across the board. I am gritty. Yes! Some long term things I've accomplished that bear this out are finishing an epic novel even while I moved to four different states, a PhD, two thesis-based master's degrees, and founding not one but two publishing companies.

So, that predicts success in the future, right? Because we all need to know the end goal isn't totally out of reach, and – dare I say it? – maybe even visible from here. I may be super gritty, but I'm starting to cramp up from keeping my heels dug in...

Dragon's Child: The King Arthur Trilogy by M. K. Hume

M. K. Hume set out to retell the Arthur legends from a new perspective, using the strength of her knowledge about post-Roman Britain, and tomorrow, that dream makes it to American readers with the first book in the King Arthur Trilogy, Dragon's Child.

The novel accomplishes many things, including:

Describing the post-Roman ambiance
Showing Latin placenames for Arthurians sites
Explaining the controversy between Roman, Celtic, and Saxon factions
Revealing that Arthur had a wife before Guinevere
Being old fashioned

I'm not saying that last one is a bad thing. Old fashioned writing is clearly a matter of taste. The novel doesn't really fit in with contemporary historical fiction for two big reasons: the pacing and the point of view.

Pacing: I was puzzled as to why certain passages were emphasized with description, dialogue, and emotional analysis while others were glossed over. The first really big event occurs more than 100 pages in. A devastating evening at the villa turns into several highly detailed days of horrors which stand out all the more because of the surrounding summarizing passages. I already believed Caius was nasty and have a sense of some of the depraved things Romans did in history, so I'm not sure the scenes in which Caius's friends worship the death gods and Arthur exhumes the corpses of abused children were necessary. Perhaps the depth of Caius's evil is important in an upcoming book? For the rest of the novel, I couldn't decide whether it could be condensed to a normal-sized novel or split up even further into two or three. Sometimes, an event was discussed or pondered so much that when it happened, it was anticlimactic.

The pacing is also weighed down with complex turns of phrase: "Artorex easily parried Caius's blows, until a woolen mat brought him to grief when his foot slipped on its treacherous purchase." (page 111 of the advanced readers edition). There could be many ways to express this, but in an action sequence, "he slipped on a woolen mat" is most effective.

Point of view: This novel takes an omniscient stance, in which the narrator knows everything going on, down to the thoughts of various characters in a scene. My experience as an editor has convinced me that omniscience isn't an option for today's writers. I find that the writing is stronger when events can be described from a single character's perspective, and any switch in point of view is clearly signaled by a chapter or section break. However, books with an omniscient point of view are still published all the time, and an epic with so many characters is the best excuse I can think of for using it.

There is one gaffe in my advanced reader's edition that is a nightmare for all historical fiction authors: "The landscape was newly washed by the onset of spring into a tapestry of green and chocolate..." (p. 205) Green and what?

One thing I'm sure about post-Roman Britain is that they'd never heard of chocolate. Granted, the characters aren't savoring chocolate bonbons, but since they wouldn't have been able to use it to describe a color, either, the use of the word takes the reader out of the story. Much safer to say "brown."

That said, I really enjoyed spending time with some of the unexpected characters, like Ector, Livinia, Targo, and Gallia. Ygerne (Igraine) and Morgan have good psychological complexity. And I really liked everything in the list above (except the last one).

I highly recommend this book to readers who long for the days of all-knowing narrators who take you on long adventures under the assumption of certain heroic ideals. And that's what King Arthur is all about.

Author Claudia H. Long on Her Publishing Journey

I met Claudia H. Long when she submitted her novel, The Duel for Consuelo, to Loose Leaves for consideration. The book was very exciting to me because it takes place in New Spain (Mexico during the colonial period). Unfortunately, Claudia's agent worked a little too fast for us while we were swamped with work and she placed it elsewhere.

JK: New Spain is obviously unexploited and fascinating material for novels in English. How did you come to be interested in the time and place?
CHL: I fell in love with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz when I was an undergraduate. After all, what 1970s girl could resist a feminist nun who wrote poetry and subversive letters to the Bishop of Puebla in 1690? 
JK: No argument here! I've spent a fair share of time studying Sor Juana, too.
CHL: I wrote my senior thesis on her, and remained fascinated by her daring and works. It didn't hurt that I grew up in Mexico City, either!
I agree, though, that Mexico and the 1650-1800 time period are a completely untapped world. One of the reasons for that is traditional publishers' hesitance to publish non-English-Regency-Historicals. I got lucky, Atria/Simon & Schuster took me on for that book... but I get ahead of myself here.
JK: How long did it take you to write your first book, and how did it come to be published? 
Sor JuanaCHL: It took me two years to write Josefina's Sin. I'm a veteran of NanoWrimo, and almost every November I have written a 50,000 word novel with them. I have a number of Women's Erotic Fiction books under a pen name, and even those were usually written in a Nano-November.  But because Josefina's Sin was my first breakthrough mainstream novel, I then took more than another year to expand, rewrite, rewrite some more, and polish the book. I was very lucky. I got an incredible agent, April Eberhardt, who sold the book to Simon & Schuster.
But when it came time for the next book, The Duel for Consuelo, my editor at S&S had left, and the house didn't want the sequel. While I was at the Historical Novel Society's conference in London, an editor of a major house, who had considered The Duel for Consuelo, counseled me on my book: "I loved Consuelo, you write beautifully," she said, "but does it have to be about Mexico? I mean, nobody wants to read about, you know, Mexico!" 
When I picked my jaw up off the ground, I realized that this mentality was seriously impacting the sale of the second book!
JK: Is that what prompted you to turn to small publishers this time around?
CHL: My agent did eventually place The Duel for Consuelo with Booktrope, and I am very excited about their model. I don't regret not being with a major New York house this time around. At the majors, the author has very, very little control over the marketing, and if one isn't J. K. Rowling, one doesn't get much in the way of support. Although I must admit the prestige is fantastic.
I was attracted to Loose Leaves Publishing because of The Fiery Alphabet . I read about the book in the She Writes newsletter. I liked the sound of the book and bought it. As soon as I started it, I was entranced. Who publishes such a book? I wondered. No major house would take a chance on such an esoteric topic, despite the fact that The Fiery Alphabet could be a best-seller. I checked and it was Loose Leaves. The choices, and the beauty of the publication, point to a fine, truly independent house. 
I can't wait to see more of Loose Leaves Publishing. They are THE house to watch, I think. 
JK: Thank you, Claudia! Dear readers, that was unsolicited! And thank you, Claudia for coming by my blog to talk about your wonderful books and complex publishing journey.
Follow Claudia on Facebook and Twitter, and check out her website for all the latest.

Unusual Historicals Feature

Today I'm featured at Unusual Historicals. Find out the three most pressing facts about me, and send me your good wishes for finding a place in the world.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Color Master by Aimee Bender

Full disclosure: I'm a diehard fan of Aimee Bender. I admire the way she defies categorization even while all of her fiction has a magical realism/fantasy element. Especially in a collection like this one, I admire the way she's able to assume a new, convincing authorial voice for each story. And I'm constantly amazed at the mysteries of her writing, which makes every story, no matter how long, seem too short.

I experienced The Color Master for the first time by reading each story aloud to my husband. He enjoyed the stories, but maintains that Ms. Bender doesn't know how to come to an end. Every time, he said some variation of, "That's it? That's where she chose to end it?" On a writerly level, I appreciate that she ends each story when she feels it's complete. These stories are evocative, meant to point to a bigger truth or to a whole world beyond what the reader's just read. Anyone who's expecting an entire world described and signed, sealed, delivered, should read a novel, and probably not a novel by Aimee Bender. It's just not what she's trying to do.

This is Bender's third collection of stories. In the first two collections, I thought there were some hits and misses (although even the misses were ecstatic and thrilling in their own way). Here, the quality is consistently high to the extent that going back through, I can't point out a weak one. Each one is memorable and impressive for any number of reasons, and together they make up a tour-de-force book even better than a die-hard fan like me could have hoped for.

How I Spent World Rhino Day 2013

I hope everyone had a happy World Rhino Day yesterday!

I wore my rhino coin necklace all weekend, but didn't have the guts to tell the one person who mentioned how cool it was that it was World Rhino Day. Baby steps for this introvert, I guess.

I also went to the university library to check out books and online resources about rhinos for that novel I've pledged to write.

The object is to fill the rhino to the top...The biggest activity I took part in was WWF South Africa's #iam4rhinos Tweet storm. This really impassioned me because it's so rare I find something I can really do without money and being so far from where wild rhinos live. The goal was to get one million Tweets by the end of World Rhino Day. I was in suspense for a while, but it eventually became apparent the million wasn't going to happen.
End of day SundayI started on Thursday and got really earnest about on Friday, when I had to do laundry and everything... I was driven. Here was my chance to make a difference! They may not make it, but it won't be for my lack of trying! I even tweeted my entire fantasy story "Not Extinct Yet" in honor of the rhinos. (You can see it in my Twitter feed for Friday, or just buy it for less than a dollar here. The rhinos will thank you!)

I found myself a top supporter a few times! I was possessed by a higher calling! I was going to single-handedly save all five rhinoceros species from extinction! Don't bother me with other work — what matters more than rhinos? I went to what my social media guru authors call "Twitter jail" for the first time for the sake of the rhinos. And it's somewhere I would go again, gladly, for their sake. Of course, when my husband was home for the weekend, the activity had to calm down or he would feel neglected.

Before this weekend I hadn't sent that many Tweets. I'd say 80% of my lifetime Tweets took place this weekend, for the rhinos.

As of this writing, it's still going on! Try it out! You'll like it!

Being that it's social media, a few experiences accompanied the furious tweeting: I ran across a lot of photos and videos — some sad, most funny or cute, like this one:

I found other media to experience, and purchased this sad story when it was available on Amazon.

I also met a bunch of people interested in helping rhinos however they could — just like me! Up to now, I've been mystified as to what's the point of Twitter. The only people I'd met there so far were in my authors' social media support group. So this was real aha moment! There are ways to connect with people on Twitter beyond membership.

There were a couple of tweets I noticed that (gently) hated on the whole idea. They thought that there were bigger problems to deal with (an opinion they're entitled to) or that tweeting doesn't actually help rhinos. That second one is misguided. I believe the awareness level was significantly raised. There are now a few more people in the world who realize that rhinos are in trouble and are worth saving. A worthy effort indeed.

World Rhino Day 2013: Writing About Rhinos

Five Species, one huge amount of charm. Love those rhinos.I'm posting a little early for World Rhino Day 2013 — the real day is September 22 — because this year, it falls on a Sunday, and I want to be sure my readers have time to browse the options and make plans.

Check out the World Rhino Day Website for a listing of most of the events happening all over the world. You're sure to find something near you. Please have a blast and help the rhinos!

The 2014 International Rhino Keeper Association Calendar is on sale on the IRKA front page. It's only $22 until Word Rhino Day, so get it before the price goes up and it's sold out! It benefits the Sumatran rhino sanctuary. Sumatran rhinos are the last descendants of the extinct woolly rhino that roamed ice-age Asia and there are only about 150 of them on Earth. They need your help so they can become not so rare! In in return you get a really awesome calendar that will be the envy of everyone who had to purchase discounted kittens in January.

Neither my husband's nor my photo was voted to be the main picture for any month, but a photo I took in 2011 at the San Diego Zoo received enough votes that it will appear as one of the smaller photos somewhere in the calendar (with my husband's name credited). Yeah!

In honor of World Rhino Day 2013, I pledge to write a novel about rhinos. It's the only thing I can offer right now, and it represents a huge commitment. I have a premise and a few scenes, but no plot per se. I promise to do everything in my power to get the research and outlining done in time for NaNoWriMo. With any luck, I'll have a finished gift for these sweet creatures before greed wipes them off the face of the Earth.

Just in time to celebrate, my story, "Rhinoceros Dreams," a masterpiece of magical realism, is now available in print in Recollections , the Jake's Monthly softcover anthology. Look on page 67!

I'll be wearing my rhino necklace and telling everyone I see that it's World Rhino day on Sunday! See you there.

In case you're not sure why rhinos should never go extinct, here are some irresistible rhino babies.

Homophonia: Not/Knot/Naught

Recently my husband and I worked on something together, and it didn't turn out the way we'd hoped. My husband forwarded me the rejection letter, and added, "I guess all that was for not."

Amazing, the power of email! It delivered a crushing blow and pointed out a common homophone trap.

Few people seem to have trouble with the obvious homophone pair not/knot. I remember being introduced to "silent K" in grade school, and it was weird enough for even the most slapdash speller to remember. (Or maybe it only struck me because the K in my last name is ferociously NOT silent. Even at a young age I'd had to correct adults numerous times on its pronunciation and bear the brunt of awe, annoyance, or condescension over it.)

Without the K, it's a necessary grammatical element of negation, and with the K, it's the result of tying things.

The word my husband was looking for, however, was "naught." It comes from the Old English, so it's about 1500 years old and still going. A composite of "no" and "thing," we witness its origin in the phrase "not a whit." It and its variant "nought" are still used widely in non-American Anglophone locations. For us Yanks, it's been relegated to phrases and situations like the one my husband was describing: Tons of effort and expectation that end up coming to naught.

And yes, "naught" is where we get "naughty." Something to do with zero moral value, perhaps?

Places in the Heart

View of our city from the 25th floor of the Revere Hotel, which used to be the
 Radisson, where my husband was based when we met. Can you see the patina of sweet sentiments?Friday marks four years that my husband and I have been married. It's been almost that long since we've lived outside the metro area where we met, fell in love, and got hitched: Boston. So last Labor Day weekend, we took a long, toll-filled, rainy trip.

Boston. It's still there! It changes so little in comparison to other places. And it's achingly beautiful, even in the rain, so why should it change? A lot people have bad things to say about this city, but I don't think anyone can deny it's the most simultaneously studious, historical, and introverted place in the United States. Which is to say, it's like me. It also has fabulous public transportation, something I find necessary and all too rare. Aside from that, all the quirks and things some people find annoying charm me.

So I'm not ashamed to say we spent most of our time over the weekend too choked up for words. I just wish Boston would love us back a little more, with a more reasonable cost of living and/or a job offer. We're willing to work hard, believe me!

When we moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona in late 2010, we stopped in what seemed like the middle of the night to eat an ice cream cone mere miles away from our destination. A sense that we were headed in the wrong direction seized me and I was crying hysterically even as I wiped up the chocolate drips.

"What's wrong?" my husband asked.

"I wanna go back to Boston!" I blubbered.

I came to love Arizona, too, for its own uniqueness and the stellar people I met. But Boston will always occupy a place in my heart that loves when everything is in its proper place. I'm not sure it was wise to make this trip, because that longing has only intensified and I'm not sure we can do a darn thing about it.

Anyway, if this list brings a smile to your face and a tear to your eye, you might be a Boston expatriate, like me. Happy anniversary to the love of my life, who I just realized is as fond of Boston as I am.

Accidents Happen by Louise Millar

Make no mistake: Accidents Happen is a thriller along the lines of popular movies. I think the American cover is less effective at predicting the book's content than the British one, which shows the woman's face, and she's clearly distressed.

I won't be posting a review of this book anywhere because I can't discern whether a thriller is good or bad. It gets off to a slow start, but about fifty pages in, the reader suddenly learns that one of Kate's unreasonable fears is actually true: there's a man who sneaks into their house! At that point, you know no good can come of the situation, but you're obliged to keep reading to see what does happen! And maybe that's all a thriller needs?

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things to like about this book. But I had to skip over quite a few paragraphs because the author showed us a little too much inside the head of an obsessive-compulsive character. And then, Kate meets Jago, a rugged man who attempts to cure her obsessions with shock therapy, which, from the beginning, includes sketchy, illegal behavior. The end of the book explains why he does it this way. It didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I won't spoil it for those of you reading. It sent mixed messages about Kate's empowerment I wished the book could have acknowledged. All through the book, I wanted to know why Kate puts up with this "cure" that borders on abuse.

Then I saw this analysis about women in fiction (and real life) who want to be saved. It makes the point that when women were kept in the home, they didn't need these recent fantasies about men who come into their lives and take control, because that's what they had in real life! Now, women have to make just as many (or more) decisions as men, and sheesh, it's tiring. Can't someone else step in and take on all these responsibilities once in a while? At least in fiction?

It's something to consider, but looking at my particular case, I have a strong relationship with an equal, and I would honestly like to see more of that in fiction, instead of the struggle for dominance or the willing surrender. Are there any books that assume a healthy balance of power between the sexes and get the plot conflict from some other source?

In this case, Kate's had some true traumas in her past, and in Jago she sees someone who can wipe the slate clean with his crazy methods. Of course, he can't. That would be a fantasy.

Thanks to everyone who participated in last Monday's giveaway with M C Muhlenkamp! A winner has been drawn and notified.