Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 43

Getting over the slog in the middle of a draft

Photo by Laura Zalenga

I'm smack in the middle of this stinking swamp right now. It's oozing at me green tentacles of slime and fumingmy nose a mix of noxious gases and...well, it happens in every book I write, but only now do I see it clearly and know what it is, thisdreadful viscousmiddle of a draft when the excitement of the beginning has worn off and the catharsis of the ending is too far away to be felt yet. I'm in the middle of the first draft of TUBE, at exactly 49K words, and it's...

It's not about the dialogue, it's about what surrounds it

Photo by Phillip Schumacher

I had this epiphany strike me while reading Anna Karenina. There is a scene of conflict between Anna and Vronsky (several of them) where the dialogue is almost meaningless if you looked at it as puredialogue. It has no information in it, no explanations; the lines are broken, unfinished. It was while reading those scenes that I undestood something I already knew yet failed to apply fully to my own writing.

You know how they say, you're blind to something until y...

My books are now on Ingram! What does it mean?

My books are on Ingram now! Hooray!!! Well, not all of my books, only Rosehead and Irkadura, and you will understand the significance of the image above shortly. So, what does this mean and why is this important?

Many of you have asked for my books to be in libraries and in bookstores, but since I'm an indie, I had to figure out how to do it myself. So the first thing I did was I gotextended distribution on CreateSpace. Several of you have requested my books in the libraries, and they have ha...

Amtrak Residency, Day 15. The last day.

And so it came to an end. It flew by like a blur, like this picture of the passing Amtrak train you see above. Today was the last day I wrote on the train, the last day I got to spend gazing out the window and thinking and reading and thinking again and listening to people's stories. As I'm typing this, it's dusk, violet dusk in the snowy mountains that we're rumbling through. There is no phone service, no signs of life save for train tracks and occasional service lights. It's been an amazin...

Amtrak Residency, Day 14

It was a bitter-sweet departure from Chicago. A bitter-sweet welcome onboard the Empire Builder. A bitter-sweet glance out the train window. The last leg of my Amtrak Residency adventure has commenced today. I'm going home, I'm going back to Seattle. Two more nights and one more day, and on the morning of March 31st it will be over. Why did it end so fast? Good things have a knack for flying by before you can blink.

This morning Jacquelyn, my lovely Chicago host, walked me to a local neighb...

Amtrak Residency, Day 13

I'm back in Chicago! And it's freezing here, with snow patches sitting in every shadow and cold wind nipping on your ears and your hands getting numb if you don't wear gloves or mittens. This, this weather after the hot sand and the succulent palms and the tanned people of California? The contrast is palpable. If I was flying on a plane, I wouldn't have been so surprised by it. I'd feel the striking difference, yes, but I wouldn't have witnessed the gradual change that was happening behind t...

Amtrak Residency, Day 12

I can't believe my residency is coming to an end. It feels like it only started, and yet tomorrow I will be in Chicago and after a couple days there will get back on the Empire Builder train and head home, to my beloved rainy Seattle. The plan was to write the whole first draft of TUBE, my new novel, while on this trip, but I will probably write only a third. It is impossible to ignore the views, the sights, the people, the excitement of travel, and so I was writing only for about 4 hours ea...

Amtrak Residency, Day 11

Haunted trains! Have you ever heard of haunted trains? I did today, from one of the very own Amtrak train attendants. But let me start from the beginning. Get ready for haunted stories and some rather unsightly life stuff concerning neglected children.

At breakfast, as you already know, I always meet new people since seating is limited and you get placed at a table with three other passengers, and the mix of people today couldn't be more interesting. Bobby and Kathy, both from New Orleans, ce...

Amtrak Residency, Day 10

My brain apparently knew that I was hopping back on the train tonight, so it woke me up early again, traitor. I took a shower. I packed. I waited for Anna (my daughter) to wake up. And then we went to eat breakfast at Bruxie which is this place that stuffs heaven between freshly made waffles and if you eat that heaven, you float up from happiness like a balloon. (My heaven was pastrami flavored.) So many travel stories center around food, aren't they? I just noticed. How boring. I won't bore...

Amtrak Residency, Day 9

I didn't write today. At all. I mean, I'm writing this blog post, but I didn't write a single word of my novel, and by the end of the day anagging anxiety has started getting under my skin. "What if I will lose the sense of the story?" "What if I won't be able to pick it up where I stopped?" "What if...?" There are a million of those questions.

Since morning my daughter whisked me away to see places and eat things and see more places and eat more things, and talk, and laugh, and indulge in do...