Kate Lowell's Blog, page 27

Playing With Scapple

I downloaded the trial version of Scapple the other day, to see if it would help with sorting out plot ideas. It’s like the computer version of something I do on paper at the beginning of a story, and I do like techy toys. :)

Here’s what it looks like right now:

I’m playing with colours and connections, and working out the primary ‘funny bits’ (yes, that’s a technical term :) ).

Do I like it? I’m not sure yet. I like the colours, and it’s very neat and tidy at this point, which is a bonus. Storage isn’t a problem, since it’s virtual. I can save my notes into the file folders for each project.

But I find it clunky to work with, compared to some other mindmapping programs I’ve used. Moving bubbles around on the screen is a slow process involving the arrow keys on the computer, instead of being able to grab and drag like in Inspiration. I’m not seeing any way to annotate the connections between bubbles, which is something I do with my pen-and-paper brainstorming. And, for some strange reason, trying to do it on the computer feels like I’m not really interacting with the concepts and characters. I wonder if the experience would be any different with a touchscreen computer?

Overall, I don’t think there’s enough going for it to move me away from pen-and-paper, despite the fact that I’d like to get away from binders and file folders (unless I can find a file cabinet that I like). I wasn’t expecting to be completely comfortable with it right off, but I also shouldn’t be irritated with the workflow, which I have to confess I was.

I’m thinking I might try Xmind. It looks a little more like what I’m used to. The base version is free, so that’s a bonus. I like the screenshots I’ve seen too. Hopefully it’s a little more intuitive and responsive. Once I get into mindmapping mode, the system needs to be able to keep up with me, since I move along pretty fast as I try out new ideas and essentially talk myself into a basic plot.

I’ll let you know how I get along. :)

Filed under: writing Tagged: mind maps, plotting, writing programs, writing workflow

Tuesday Guest Tickle: The Foreman by JT Hall

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

“The Foreman” was a small project that was originally supposed to accompany another short story, but it sort of grew into its own thing. J.T. has also been working on a full-length M/M romance, a paranormal mystery, which should be finished some time this fall.  Look for J.T.’s reviews on LGBT fiction, excerpts, previews and more on her blog.

What’s it about?

Tim’s got a problem with his new job as a carpenter. His foreman, Gary Zucker, is just too damned sexy. With a mustache, hairy arms, and a solid gut, Gary exudes power and confidence, and it’s driving Tim crazy. When Gary notices Tim’s attraction, he figures it’s all over. The foreman will probably fire him for having the wrong kind of wood.

Then Gary surprises him. He shows he knows how to be the boss in more than one way. The question remains if this will be a one time thing, or something more. Tim’s got one chance to show the man how good he can be, before his dream man slips through his fingers.

A quick peek at what’s inside:

“Having trouble, junior?” Gary crossed his arms, shaking his head.

Spots danced in front of Tim’s eyes until he remembered to breathe. “I’m fine,” he managed, tilting his head back farther to look up into the foreman’s face. “Just had a little issue with the knife.”

Gary’s dark eyes raked over him, and Tim wished he could go crawl in a hole. This was supposed to be a job. It really wasn’t a good idea to be crushing on the boss. No matter how often he kept telling himself that, however, nothing seemed to obey. Not his head, not his eyes, and most certainly not his dick. He only hoped Gary couldn’t see how hard this encounter was making him.

Time stretched as Gary continued to look him over, eyes narrowing. Tim felt the back of his neck heat up and prayed he didn’t do something stupid. “I won’t make any more mistakes, sir.” His voice cracked. I was just having a hard time focusing.” Even as he said the words, he imagined what it would be like to kiss Gary, to feel that mustache brush against his lips, his cheek. Tim blushed hard.

Gary snorted. “Focusing, huh?” He hooked a thumb into his belt, adjusting it. “Do I need to send you on a coffee break? Take care of that ‘focus’ problem?”

Was it Tim’s imagination, or had Gary just glanced at his crotch? He was starting to feel strange, kneeling in front of his boss.

“Um, no, sir,” Tim replied, even though a coffee break right now sounded perfect. He’d get his head back on the work. He could jerk off later, imagining what it would be like to be shoved up against a wall by Gary Zucker.

Filed under: Guest Releases, Tuesday Tickle, Uncategorized Tagged: blue collar worker, carpenters, mm romance

A Dirty Bird Delay

The Dirty Birds were inundated with ‘Things That Must Be Done’ this week, so we’re putting off our installments of Self-Editing for Fiction Writer’s until next week. We tried all day to make connections, but it was a no go. Hopefully, things will have settled down by the time next week rolls around and we’ll be back, chirping about writing and what we thought of the book.

 

Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: all the work, need to be cloned, unexpected delay

Are we sure it’s not full moon?

This has been a crazy week for writers. Okay, everyone has a bad day. We bitch, or throw things, or crack open the emergency bottle of wine. But when you’re in the public eye, as writers (even small ones) are, there needs to be a little common sense applied.

By common sense, I mean you need to have some rules in place for things you can and cannot say in public.

 

One thing you don’t do is insult the people who pay for your books so you can get your royalty checks.

Just in the past two days, there’s been the Chelsea Cain, complaining about having to interact with her readers. Yet, she was the one who opened up her Goodreads account to questions. It’s almost like taking a retail job, deciding it was a bad idea, and yelling at the customers to leave you alone. Actually, no, it’s exactly like that. A retail job is interacting with people who hopefully will buy something in your store so you can keep getting paid. When you open up a dialogue with your customers, you have to expect all sorts of questions. Some of them will be things that might frustrate you but everyone who’s ever worked retail has nodded and smiled while dealing with a customer that made you wonder how they managed to find their way out of bed in the morning. (And, if we’re being honest, we’ve all been that customer too–probably a lot more times than we’re aware of, because retail workers never let on what a dork you’re being.) But if you see questions coming up over and over again, that’s a sign–either they feel really comfortable with you and are treating you like a friend, or they’re having trouble finding the information they want. (Or they could just be my mother, who is technologically handicapped and regularly gets the retail worker treatment. My four-year-old nephew is more techie than she is.) But there are more appropriate, and kinder, ways to deal with it than telling them to go away.

The other one that caught my eye was some tweets by Alexandra Adornetto. Congratulations on landing a book deal so young, my dear. You obviously have talent. And I’m going to assume that what happened was a result of having been feted at a young age, and discovering that the standards get higher as you get older. That, and a bit of youthful impulsivity. But being snarky at reviewers and making disparaging remarks about the quality of industry events does you no favours and fixes nothing. No, not everyone is going to like your books, any more than you liked all the books you’ve ever read. That’s a part of this industry that you bought into when you signed that contract, whether you were aware of it at the time or not. I know you’re young, but it’s time to grow up a little bit more and realize that these people don’t work for you, they’re here to help you. Help you improve your writing, help you promote it. If you don’t like the way it’s being done, there’s only one way to fix it: become perfect. And when you figure that out, could you let me know you got there? I’d sure like me some perfect. (Hell, at this point, I’d take some longer legs and call it good.)

But everyone has bad days, when all the stress seems to land on you at once. When you feel your frustration mounting to the point where you want to throw something, or yell at anyone who comes near you. Sometimes you can’t do anything to stop the stress, because it’s a book tour, and looming deadlines, and family issues, and you can’t just step out on them. So, what do you do?

The first thing, I would say, is you DON’T ENGAGE. If the questions are making you angry, don’t answer them. It’s not like the person is sitting across the table from you, waiting for your answer. It’s the Internet–we’re all used to the stop-and-start communication endemic to the medium. So wait to look at them until you feel a little less like a faulty pressure cooker, pick a finite number and only do those. Then wait a while, give yourself a break.  If the review doesn’t make you happy, DON’T ENGAGE. They have a right to their opinion. Making a fuss only makes you look like a self-entitled prig. An asshat, if you will. And there’s enough product out there that I don’t need to buy from asshats. If you can engage respectfully, that’s another story. I once got a review that started, “I really wanted to like this book…” (I think we know where it goes from there. :P) But she was honest, and not mean, so I emailed and was not mean either. I said thank you, and sorry, and I’ll work harder next time. And she was gracious.

The next thing I would do is GET HELP. Are you getting a lot of email? Hire an assistant, enlist family, maybe find an enthusiastic fan to handle stuff from an address that is specifically for fans alone. Pay them in free books and beta reading opportunities. :) But jeepers, don’t burn yourself out to the point where your bridges are going up in flames too. We all know, what goes into the internet never goes away. Don’t increase the chances of a flame-out by trying to be all things to everyone.

The last thing I would say is HAVE RULES. Barbara Hambly wrote a series called the Silicon Mage. One of the plot points was that when the mage was running the machine, it drains all the good, all the energy, out of the world. It became very hard to think, so easy to give up. The heroine in that series made a set of rules–“doing it by the numbers”, she called it–so that she would know what to do when that terrible drain hit, even when she didn’t feel like doing it. And, in the end, they defeated the bad guy, because she “did it by the numbers”. So, figure out some rules for times when you’re angry, and frustrated, and just done, and stick to them, even when you don’t want to.

You’ll be glad you did.

And on that note, and in honour of my mother (who I do love dearly but who can drive me mad in thirty seconds or less), let’s end this post with the anthem of all children called upon to talk their IT-challenged parents through…anything. I give you–“Tech Support For Dad”!

Oh, hello, he has a song called “Hermione Granger the Pirate Queen”. *click*

Filed under: rant Tagged: authors behaving badly, writing advice

Three Dirty Birds Talk Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Tweaking the Sound

A lazy Friday at Ana’s blog. Why not fly over and visit?

Filed under: Tuesday Tickle, writing Tagged: dialect, dialogue, word choice, writing advice

This is the BEST PRANK EVER

I need a dog.

If the pony was a bit more cooperative, can you imagine the fun I could have with that?

 

Content Warning for The Editor in Question: Don’t watch this.

Filed under: Random Weirdness Tagged: practical joke

Three Dirty Birds Talk Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Dialogue Mechanics

Hanging out at Zoe’s nest today. Sorry for all the puns and terrible dialogue… :P

Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: dialogue, Renni Browne, writing advice

Tuesday Guest Tickle: Hard Act to Follow by K. Vale (Giveaway!)

Another Hollywood romance, with Kyrie, who you might remember from Double Takes and that ill-conceived reality show.

 

Find it at:

Liquid Silver Books

Amazon

All Romance Ebooks

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

 

 

 

 

 

Hard Act to Follow Playlist: As Time Goes By

Guest Post by Kimber Vale

Howdy, all! Kimber Vale here going on and on ad nauseum about my musical inspiration for my latest release, Hard Act to Follow. Bear with me. I’ll be brief, I promise.

Yes, I secretly work in the music industry and I’m just trying to boost record sales. Just kidding.

Oh, and thanks so much to the lovely Kate Lowell for hosting me today! You’re the bee’s knees and elbows.

Anyway, As Time Goes By may seem like an odd choice for a playlist tune. Hey, my musical tastes are nothing if not eclectic. Why not a classic?

In truth, the iconic song from Casablanca (Play it again, Sam—which is actually a misquote, but one everyone recognizes) is highly apropos for my playlist. Plus, I get bonus points because it was originally written for a Broadway play. You see, my MC Kyrie is an actor and classical film buff who’s working his way toward Broadway.

At one point in Hard Act, Kyrie is depressed because his relationship with his best friend Greg has taken a nose dive. Apparently, a one night stand with your ex-brother-in-law can make things awkward. Who knew? So Kyrie hides out in a dark bar during his graduation party. A pianist is playing in the corner and Kyrie considers requesting As Time Goes By. He doesn’t, and then regrets it after the musician launches into Hey Jude.

As Time Goes By is a song about love being love, no matter the date, no matter how much time passes. In Casablanca, it works with the story line of lovers separated by time and distance who reunite and realize they still love each other. But I adore how “a kiss is just a kiss” works no matter the gender of the lovers. It’s my sincere hope that people the world over will welcome lovers of every kind as time goes by—and the less time, the better.

——–

——-

So, what’s the story about?

Kyrie is an actor with a physical aversion to telling lies, a one-eyed cat, and horrible taste in men. His ex-brother-in-law and best friend, Greg, harbors a secret crush he can’t shake. After denying his feelings for Kyrie for too long, Greg finally gives in to desire one drunken night. Come the morning, the facts get twisted. Kyrie pretends he doesn’t remember a thing—a lie that eats him alive—and Greg can’t stop thinking about how he screwed up the best thing in his life.

Before they can clear the air, Kyrie follows his dreams to New York City, but could he also be running away?

A mistake from Kyrie’s past detonates their silence, and Greg is forced to confront the man he loves. Is their new truth strong enough to support a relationship, or are they doomed to crumble under old fears? Their friendship could evolve into something a million times stronger, but maybe Kyrie’s act is just too hard for Greg to follow.

How about a sample?

“Beer!” Kyrie came from Greg’s small kitchen with two fists full of Sierra Nevada IPA. “Last two— You need to do better, buddy.”

“I try not to keep a ton of alcohol—”

“Yeah, yeah. But this is why we never hang here.” Kyrie turned around, arms spread, still laden with pale ale. “And this…” He spun around. “Is so much classier than my dump. Game nights would be sweet over on the swanky side of town, bro.”

“I let you and the other riffraff over here every other week, and the swanky side of town just took a turn for the worse.”

Liar. You let Kyrie over here and he’ll drink too much and pass out on your bed. That’s why you avoid this shit—because you can always leave his place with your blue balls and your pathetic fantasies. But Kyrie here is a live hand grenade. Duck and cover.

“Catch!” Kyrie tossed the beer underhand, and Greg barely managed to grab it with uncoordinated fingers.

“Watch it!” Greg bent to set the beer on his glass coffee table, heart thumping for a thousand reasons.

“You deserve an exploded brew for that comment.” Kyrie popped his bottle cap with a keychain opener that screamed arrest me. He dropped his keys on the table beside Greg’s beer while looking up at him with an intense stare. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me lately? Tired of playing with the riffraff across town?” Kyrie smirked, but pain touched his voice and eyes.

“No, man. You know I’m busy as hell. I didn’t mean that about game night…”

“You totally did.” He narrowed his amber gaze at Greg. “Kilborne’s a slob, and he and Liv would lick your fridge clean. Their combined eating forces are the stuff of legend.”

“It’s weird. She does have an amazing appetite for a girl her size.”

“It’s her thyroid, lucky bitch. Big eyes and a stick figure. She looks like a freakin’ anime.”

Greg grinned, reaching for his beer as he sat heavily on the couch. He recalled its tumultuous state and set it back on the table.

Kyrie plopped down next to him, his knee brushing Greg’s despite the vacant cushion to the guy’s left. “Here. I said I was gonna get you good and drunk.” He took a quick tug and then pushed his bottle into Greg’s hand.

“I really don’t need it. I’m there.”

“You need something. To relax. Chill out. Live a freakin’ little. Something.” Kyrie knocked his knee into Greg’s and his hand slipped off the beer and fell onto Greg’s thigh.

“I’m… relaxed.” But the buzz was suddenly scattered by apprehension. Kyrie couldn’t be this close—touching him. Rubbing the inside of my goddamn thigh!

“Chug it.” Kyrie leaned over, his breath hoppy and sweet, his top lip still glistening from the last sip he’d taken. Greg sucked in a wavering inhalation.

The hand on his leg inched higher and squeezed while Kyrie grasped the glass over Greg’s fingers and led it to his lips.

“Drink up.”

Greg opened his mouth and managed to take a sip without choking, miracle of miracles.

“Good dog.” Kyrie grinned wickedly less than a foot from Greg’s face. He took the beer back and brought it to his own lips, the tip of his pink tongue darting out to lick the glass where Greg’s mouth had just been.

Greg almost whimpered as Kyrie sucked back a mouthful, his gaze glued to Greg’s the whole while.

Like porn when the chick maintains eye contact while giving head. Wonder if guys do that in gay movies. Despite the strange sexual attraction simmering inside him—the one that had him jerking off to visions of Kyrie way too often—Greg hadn’t had the balls to look for gay stroke films. He wasn’t even sure he’d find them appealing. He’d never even considered sleeping with men until Kyrie came along and flipped his world over like a sore loser tossing a board game.

All he knew was Kyrie’s puckered lower lip wrapped erotically around the bottle top. Paired with his gorgeous, almost challenging golden-brown stare, it sent a surge of blood to Greg’s dick so hot and fast it made him lightheaded.

“What are you looking at?” It was too close to Greg’s dream. Way too fucking close. And so was Kyrie. But instead of Greg reaching out and grasping nothing but ghost, Kyrie’s hand on his thigh pressed hard, real and reassuring. Instigating. It slid slowly inside and up while Kyrie lifted his eyebrows in question, his sweet mouth forming a tiny O that made Greg desperate to kiss him.

Greg tried to swallow, but the lump in the back of his throat didn’t move—wouldn’t allow for speech. He took a shallow breath that caught when Kyrie’s pinky wisped over his bulging cockhead. Kyrie placed the beer on the coffee table with his free hand while that little finger flirted over Greg’s ridge like it was reading braille. Reading Greg’s perverted mind through his khakis.

“Kyr—” he croaked.

“Shhh.” Kyrie leaned closer, a full hand stroking up Greg’s hard-on. “Don’t.” His lips skimmed across Greg’s, warm, soft, and tremor inducing. Greg inhaled sharply, maybe to work out a final cry for reason, but any remaining resistance fell away as Kyrie’s familiar scent overwhelmed him. Instead, he groaned as that knowledgeable hand squeezed him through his pants, and those seductive lips, a bare hint of stubble peppered above the upper one, touched down again to ply and cajole without words.

Who is this Kimber person anyway?

K. Vale writes erotic romance of all stripes, from hot hetero to mouthwatering manlove. Find her MF work published under Kimber Vale. Come for the sex. Stay for the story. Stalk Kimber on Facebook and Twitter @KimberVale, and check her site for updates, new releases, and freebies at http://www.authorkimbervale.com. The blog: http://www.kimbervale.me.

And here’s the giveaway! A $25 Amazon gift card to celebrate her new release!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed under: Guest Releases, Tuesday Tickle, Uncategorized Tagged: actors, mm romance

Three Dirty Birds Talk Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Keeping Things in Proportion

Welcome back to Chapter 4 of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Today we’re chattering about Proportion in your writing.

Kate: This section talks about how much time you should spend on different parts of your story, how much description you should do, how much detail to go into, and how that affects the way the reader perceives that part of the story.

Ana: One of the first things that’s mentioned is how it’s hard for writers to judge what impact your writing will have on your reader while you are writing. Again, this is why you need beta readers.

Kate: Oh, a good beta reader is worth their weight in gold. Or fine chocolate and Blue Mountain coffee.

Zoe: Yeah, the book doesn’t really mention beta readers, but the authors do give some tips on gaining some distance yourself before you read what you’ve written (though I think “waiting a few days” is probably not long enough).

Kate: No, I need a good bit longer to ‘forget’ this story that’s been inhabiting my brain for the past couple of months.

Ana: I do a first editing pass when the story’s still fresh on my mind. Mostly because my drafts are messy and I want to get the continuity errors and such ironed out. Then I do another editing pass after I’ve worked on something else for a while.

Zoe: I wait a few months between first and second, and a month or so between second and the slew of finals (which don’t get much of a waiting period between them, but by then I’m working off printed pages and changing fonts).

Kate: Kind of like at a wine tasting, I do my first drafts right after another, so that the details are still fresh in my mind, but then I put it aside for a bit and work on something else. A palate cleanser, sort of. :P

Ana: Sounds like we’re doing the same thing, Kate.

Zoe: I really can’t face my story for another minute after I’ve done the final draft. So anyway…proportion. The authors talk about the various ways stories get out of proportion, particularly in the first draft, such as including every movement of the character or going into great detail describing a technology or process or whatnot (usually one the author has a lot of experience with).

Kate: I Lol’d at the story about the three pages on how to kill and dress a beaver. I can picture the looks on their faces as they passed the end of the second one. o.O

Zoe: I just cringed, recognizing that that’s something I’d do. (Write it out in detail, not necessarily kill and dress a beaver. What have beavers ever done to me?)

Kate: It is easy to go overboard when you’ve done so much research, and it’s all so cool, and you really want to share that coolness with the reader. (And, to be honest, sometimes it’s a great way to hit daily wordcount. Oops.) But the important thing to keep in mind is whether this information will be important later in the story, and whether it moves the plot forward at all.

Ana: I tend to underwrite. Unless it’s NaNo. Then all bets are off. So anyway. I have a sticky note on the part where she talks about a seven hundred pages ms that was accepted at one of the major houses only to be cut down by… well, it doesn’t say, but I’m assuming a lot. My first thought was: how did that get accepted? And what does she mean ‘when editing wasn’t so rare’ at major houses?

Kate: Honestly, I got that second part, because I’ve been struggling with finding books by new authors that aren’t missing some major part of the story–reader connection. Even in major houses. I know, you have to expect a dud every once in a while, because everyone has different tastes, but I’ve been surprised at how hard I’ve had to work to find one I even make it to the half-way point on.

Zoe: Even not-new authors. You run into books where it seems like the publisher was like, “Eh, he/she knows what they’re doing. No need to pay an editor the big bucks here.”

Kate: Sometimes that’s what it feels like. Or that the world concept of the book was so interesting, they winked at the author’s lack of connection with the reader. It was interesting that the editor in the case of the 700 page behemoth asked her to cut out all the character building scenes, but never touched the sex scenes. Where did that idea come from? And why didn’t the author question it?

Ana: You honestly wonder why they wanted to turn it into a steamy novel? $$ And to a lot of authors getting published is all that matters, no matter how.

Kate: There’s that, but I think it could have been plenty steamy and successful, even with a more even-handed approach to the cutting. I mean, you tell the story you love, and you send it out the way it is, loving it the way it is. Why would you agree to so drastically change the tone and personality of it?

Ana: Because when an editor at a big house tells you it sucks, you believe them. Obviously. It’s no news that writers often suffer from low self-esteem when it comes to their writing.

Zoe: You’ve just gone through a bazillion hoops to get that point. You worry that if you don’t go with it, your book will never get published. Thank god there are alternatives these days.

Kate: Jeepers, you guys are scaring me. I had just talked myself back into NOT doing something in that R&R/Sword of Damocles.

Zoe: We’re cynical birds.

Kate: *sad chirps*

Zoe: I like how the second half of this chapter in Self-Editing comes around to telling you, once you’ve fixed your proportion problems, how you can use proportion as a technique in your story.

Kate: Me too. I love, love, LOVE hiding the important stuff in a whole bunch of other things. That’s the bad birdie in me, I guess. But I hope that, if people ever come back to reread the book, they’ll hit that point and giggle in anticipation, because now they know what it means.

Zoe: In their advice, they say, “If you have some plot development that you want to come as a surprise, spend less space on it before you spring it on your readers. Or you could spend as much or more space on similar plot elements to mask the really important ones.” Like Kate and G.R.R.M. do.

And their final point in this chapter is to let your viewpoint character guide the details. Write what would be important to them, what they would notice, in the situation they’re in.

Ana: This is one of the things I’ve always kept in the back of my mind after first reading this book some years ago. Solid advice.

Kate: This whole chapter is, as Ana says, solid. I’m liking this book very much.

Zoe: I’d worried that it would be kind of boring, covering stuff I already knew—and in a lot of places it does, but some of it’s a good reminder. (Actually, all of it’s a good reminder, really.)

Ana: This was the first book on writing that I read, so it wasn’t boring to me the first time. But, I can appreciate some of the information in it better now than I could back then, which goes to show that just reading craft books isn’t enough to learn. You really need practise too.

Zoe: And to crit and be critted. Lots of valuable learning in that.

Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: writing advice

Three Dirty Birds Talk about Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Chapter 3

 

Three Dirty Birds are chirping over at Ana’s blog today!

Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: writing advice