Gretchen Rix's Blog, page 38
June 6, 2012
The home stretch
As I’m writing this I’m wondering if I’ll Have Another will be the horse that finally wins the Triple Crown this upcoming Saturday. Probably not. Does this have anything to do with my writing process? Only in that the phrase “the final stretch” is equally relevant to both the horse race and what I’m doing the month of June, which is revising and editing my current novel Talking to the Dead Guys, a Boo-Done-It mystery.
Sometimes I think revisions are the hardest thing to do in the writing of a novel. Then later on, when I’m face to face with a completely blank page one, I know the hardest thing to do in the writing of a novel is the first draft.
As far as my revisions go, I’ve already finished the final outlining (I know, I know. Normally this comes first.), and the plot outline (this is to help highlight any problems), and right now I’m going through the manuscript and taking out/beefing up the plot problems I’ve discovered so far. I should be finished with this in a couple of days, and then I go back and flesh out the characters and make sure they’re consistent. After that I’ll go back over my research, and since this is a novel based on the town I live in, I’m going to walk out the novel and see what details need to be added in or changed to make it as close to reality as it gets. Checking for typos, misspelled words, awkward sentences and style will be last.
I made a mistake. I put off making revisions way past when I should, dreading it. Wish I could be one of those fantastic writers who have perfect to near-perfect first drafts. Already I’ve lost a couple months worth of writing time over it. But now that I’m into the work, I’m finding it enjoyable. Almost like editing someone else’s novel. Also, putting a bit of distance between writing it and editing it makes it easier to see the problems.
All photos by Roxanne Rix. My novels and short stories can be found at
https://www.amazon.com/author/gretchenrix
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK–Originby J. A. Konrath. Heavy Timeby C.J. Cherryh.
May 30, 2012
Wordless Wednesdays
Not totally wordless. All photos by Roxanne Rix.
You can find my books at
https://www.amazon.com/author/gretchenrix
May 23, 2012
BLAKE CROUCH Q&A EERIE
EERIE, the new horror novel by bestselling thriller author Blake Crouch and his brother Jordan Crouch went live on the Nook May14 (for those of you with Nooks http://barnesandnoble.com/c/blake-crouch ). The rest of us get our chance beginning June 14. While we wait, here’s a Q&A promoting these guys and EERIE.
GR–I’ve read a lot of ghost stories lately (through the SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US ghost story contest) and too many of them are not true ghost stories, they are horror stories. Is EERIE truly a ghost story? And why did you pick this genre?
BLAKE–This is going to take some fancy footwork. For those who don’t know, EERIE is about two people who are trapped in a house by an otherworldly presence that has claimed the upstairs bedroom. They don’t know what it is, and neither does the reader. So you ask whether or not this is a ghost story proper, by which I assume you mean, a story with ghosts in it. Well the question of what kind of entity they’re dealing (with) and whether it’s there at all is the story, so it’s hard to talk about it without tipping our hand too much.
JORDAN–For the longest time, we didn’t know the answer ourselves. It was this big hole in our outline that we kept skirting around until we had everything except for a clear idea of what was in this house with them. In fact, we didn’t fully commit until a few thousand words into the first draft. One of the hard things about writing a “haunted house” story is striking a balance between familiar and new. We already had two people trapped in an old house, which is about as traditional as it gets, so we wanted the “force” that confronts them to feel comparatively fresh. It took a while to get it right.
BLAKE–That was really hard to do, and we ended up incorporating some of the elements we like from other genres to make it work. Some you might not expect. What we’ve ended up with feels pretty unique to us.
JORDAN–Right. So I guess I’d say it’s more than a ghost story.
GR–Jordan, introduce yourself.
JORDAN–Hi. I’m Blake’s younger brother. He’s 33, I’m 27. This is my first novel and first collaboration with Blake. I graduated from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, in 2007 with degrees in Creative Writing and English Lit. Seattle’s home for me where I’m currently working on a few writing projects, one of which is another novel that will hopefully be out at the end of the year.
GR–Can you recommend any must-read blogs for e-book writers?
BLAKE– http://www.jakonrath.blogspot.com/ , http://www.davidgaughran.wordpress.com/let’s-get-digital, http://www.deanwesleysmith.com , http://terribleminds.com/rambles/blog , and http://writeitforward.wordpress.com. They’re all worth your time.
JORDAN–I’ll second http://www.jakonrath.blogspot.com/ . It’s a great resource for anyone interested in self-publishing, but particularly for those who are new to it.
GR–Make up your own question.
BLAKE and JORDAN–The two of you are brothers. How did your relationship affect the experience of writing this book?
JORDAN–It definitely made it feel more immediate. The main characters are brother and sister after all, which we didn’t intentionally choose for that reason, although I’m sure there was some Freudian stuff happening beneath the surface.
BLAKE–It’s funny. The two main characters were originally going to be romantically involved. She would have been his old high school sweetheart who blows back into town at a time when his marriage is self-destructing. We played with that relationship for a while, but it ended up creating more problems than it was worth.
JORDAN–Yeah, we didn’t want to deal with a wife that wasn’t a major character or find a way to have their marriage fall apart off screen. This is a story set almost entirely in one location with two characters who are terrified for their lives. That’s where we wanted the dramatic energy to come from. It seems obvious now that siblings are perfect for that kind of a setup, and you’d think two brothers would be able to figure that out, but it took us forever to get there.
BLAKE–It fell into place after that. You never know how collaborations are going to pan out. Writing is a personal venture, and including another person in the equation doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be twice as good. I’ve been lucky with this in that past, and it’s great when it works with someone else. It’s awesome when it’s your brother.
JORDAN–Definitely. There were some heated moments, but they were always about making the story better. It’s a lot easier to tell your brother that you don’t like an idea than it is someone else. That candor let us cut through a lot of the formality and just write the story. And it’s cool to have both our names on something that we’re proud of.
BLAKE–Yep. Glad it’s done, sad it’s over. We’d do it again in a heartbeat.
GR–Thank you BLAKE CROUCH AND JORDAN CROUCH, authors of EERIE. I haven’t collaborated on a work since I was in high school, but now you’re giving me ideas about dragging my sister in for co-authorship. Sounds like fun (mostly). She’s my main beta reader, though, and I’d hate to lose that. And to those of you considering writing for the first time, this is how it gets done, just like they said.
Catch up to Blake Crouch at http://blakecrouch.com.
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK—2012 THE WAR FOR SOULS by Whitley Strieber. Pushed Too Far by Ann Voss Peterson.
May 15, 2012
The Haunting of Pico
REVIEWING THE HAUNTING OF PICO by Patrick Kampman. Available at http://amzn.com/B006QW498U
This was a book I couldn’t put down, even though it’s aimed at the young adult audience and that’s no longer me.
Who’d ever have thought I’d be so wrapped up in the story that I couldn’t set it down until finding out what happened at that damned school dance! The Haunting of Pico is just that good.
Take small-town Texas life, add the fifty-year’s past lynching of a witch in the main character’s front yard to it, then stir in the ghosts, and then a family of ______ (I’m not going to tell you because it will spoil the surprise), and finally sprinkle in some teenaged angst at fitting in at the new school, making friends(and making out), and there you have the basics of The Haunting of Pico by Patrick Kampman. Most of the fun is in the details.
Well-written, fast-paced, realistic in its relationships (both family and friends), The Haunting of Pico should entertain most readers, young or old. And after you’re finished with it, try his other novel Chance In Hell. It’s equally good. Here’s the link http://amzn.com/B0050UQ9BE.
May 14, 2012
THE WILD WILD WEST MEETS THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
To me Arroyo was always Indiana Jones meets Forrest Gump, but this weekend a reader caught up to me and said Wild Wild West meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I thought, “Right On!” We had fun selling Arroyo and The Cowboy’s Baby this Saturday at Lockhart’s Main Street Market in front of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library on the square. We will do it again. Come visit, especially if you’re in Austin. Lockhart’s famous for its barbecue and its courthouse. Imagine Lockhart means to add to that list. www.ImagineLockhart.org
Arroyo available as an ebook at Amazon.com http://amzn.com/B0067NCEJ4.
At Barnes & Noble for the Nook at http://barnesandnoble.com/c/gretchen-rix
And at Smashwords for Apple and all the rest at http://smashwords.com/books/view/105559
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK–The Haunting of Pico by Patrick Kampman.
May 7, 2012
Speedbump
My plans were to have my short story THE RETURN OF TRUEPENNY published to Kindle and Kindle apps this past weekend, but I’ve hit a speedbump with KDP. My first in over two years with them. Seems my professionally formatted manuscript can’t be uploaded. I’m not panicking, or even irritated. The Kindle people get problems fixed pretty quickly. I just wonder what the hell has happened.
In the meantime, here’s the cover, at least. And here’s the link to TRUEPENNY, just in case you want to read the first.
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK– The Giver by Lois Lowry. In For A Penny by Lawrence Block.
April 30, 2012
The best laid plans of mice and men, they CHANGE
I’ve been real proud of myself this year as I successfully kept to Susan Mallery’s writing schedule. I started January 1 and I’m going to trail off it on April 30 (actually, I already have).
I really hate giving up the four books a year I probably could have written if I’d stayed true, but I know in my heart that each of those books would have only been first drafts (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But what I’m finding is that I don’t do well working on four to six projects at one time (you didn’t read that here, prospective employers).
I’ve got a good first draft of TALKING TO THE DEAD GUYS and I want to see it through. I have a chapter and a half of the sequel to THE COWBOY’S BABY and I have the idea in my head for the second in the TALKING TO THE DEAD GUYS series. But I want to finish the first one first.
I’m also drumming up entries for SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US http://clarklibraryfriends.com , judging a regional RWA writing contest, and preparing my last short story THE RETURN OF TRUEPENNY for publication. Then there is marketing and promoting my two novels ARROYO and THE COWBOY’S BABY. If I can get another two good books written and published this year, that’s good enough for me. At least this time. Next year I’ll give Susan Mallery’s schedule another try.
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK–Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Midshipman’s Hope by David Feintuch.
VOTE ON YOUR FAVORITE COVER! Leave a comment at this site.
My books and stories can be seen at
April 22, 2012
Spring Glorious Spring
ALL PHOTOS BY ROXANNE RIX
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK– Moonlight Rises by Vincent Zandri.
You can find all my books and short stories at
April 16, 2012
Book review RIVER BOTTOM BLUES by Ricky Bush
This week’s book review is of RIVER BOTTOM BLUES by Ricky Bush.
You know when someone like me who doesn’t like either jazz or the blues really enjoys a blues-centric mystery novel, that writer has to be really cooking on all burners.
Here’s RIVER BOTTOM BLUES for you from Texas author Ricky Bush. I loved it. It’s involving and fascinating from beginning to end, full of bluesy jazz and totally rife with blues history.
Legend has it the devil has been killing blues harmonica players since the early sixties. No one investigates because no one much cares except for the families, and no one believes a string of murders stretching from the sixties into 2009 could possibly be related. It takes a nearly retired former journalist and blues musician investigating the death of his friend Bobby T to break the case wide open.
RIVER BOTTOM BLUES takes you down, raises you up, and spins a hell of a tale full of the blues. You’re going to enjoy it.
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK—Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks.
April 9, 2012
SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US, plus Talking to the Dead Guys
The SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US ghost story contest and fundraiser (for the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas) has just received its first entry for 2012.
No matter that the time span for the contest is July 1 – October 1. While we will disqualify for a late entry, early birds are welcome. As coordinating judge, I've logged the entry and sent the "we got your entry" email. Right now I'm busy trying to interest Texas public libraries in putting up information about Scare The Dickens etc. Our efforts to reach colleges and universities across the country seem mostly to have failed.
Plenty of time left to write a great ghost story for the possibility of a $1000.00 prize. There are also $500.00 and $250.00 prizes as well. Go to http://clarklibraryfriends.com for full information and entry forms.
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My new novel TALKING To The DEAD GUYS has reached the revision and editing stage.
I'm what they call a "pantster" as a novel writer. I write first and then fix second. I have just finished outlining the novel (which is ass backwards of what logic dictates). Now I have a clear idea where every character is and what they are doing step b
y step. The next part of the revision stage is to read the novel as a "reader" from first to end without stopping to correct or to even make notes. This will give me a clear idea of what someone other than a writer gets out of it.
Obviously I had to read it chapter by chapter to make an outline. Making the outline was ao damned boring, I'm glad it's over. And given what I felt this morning in starting the read-through of TTTDG, outlining also gave me a slightly distorted view of the quality of my work. From the outline reading I wasn't too happy with my first draft. From the "reader" reading, I'm much happier. I see problems, but they'll be easy to fix.
Link to my published work —
https://www.amazon.com/author/gretchenrix
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK– Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson. Man Plus by Frederik Pohl. River Bottom Blues by Ricky Bush. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
