Charlene Mattson's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing"

I've been accepted as a Goodreads Author which is pretty cool and a nice way to reach out to more people! It's a nice note to add to my journey from a freelance writer with many unseen manuscripts to a freelance writer with one published book (and hopefully more to come!) I guess the whole journey...

Oh but wait, you may not know the whole journey! Well, it's not exciting, but it'll be quick.

For four years now, I've taken part in National Novel Writing Month as a way to kickstart my butt back to writing fiction in the wake of the birth of my son and running my own freelancing business (you can see why I needed to CARVE time out to write fiction!) The first two manuscripts didn't go anywhere (and the first one went missing), but the third one... ah, the third one became special. Borne from a panicked moment on about October 29 when I realized I had no ideas and I was watching my son play with his Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser and written in a month, I didn't expect much from it either, but I hoped.

In May of 2013, I was looking for work through Elance when I came across a job posting. A new publishing house was (and is currently! check out www.kellanpublishing.com) looking for authors. I took a deep breath, cleaned up the first three chapters of my novel and sent it off for review. Believe you me, I was shaking and the fact that I kept goofing up the Captcha seemed to me an ill omen.

But success! In early June, I heard back from the publishing house. They accepted my manuscript! In a frenzied six weeks (ye gods), I edited, cleaned up, patched and dragged a good friend in to edit the completed thing and sent it away. The result? The Curious Case of Prince Charming which is now tied to my name!

Back to what I was saying. Becoming a Goodreads Author is a nice tip of the hat towards this whole journey. It's not the end, but it's a great beginning and I hope that many others will follow with me! After a certain point, whether you want to write, draw, paint, do music, go to university/college, get a new job, get into a relationship (or out of one) or any other life change, you just have to take the plunge and do it! It's scary, believe me, and it won't always work out the way you thought, but it's better than doing nothing at all.

So much for words of wisdom. Here's an update on current and future projects:

-The Curious Case can be found in a variety of e-formats. No print yet-it takes the time and it costs more-but it should be out in a few weeks.

-Been working on The Glass Slipper Conspiracy which is the second book. It was done for NaNoWriMo 2013 and it needs a LOT of work, but slowly and surely, it will get there. Someday, there will be TWO books by my name.

-My mom read The Curious Case which freaks me out. I have a great deal of respect for my mother and my father-they are great writers, great readers and know very much what they like and are vocal about it (particularly my dad so I'm even more terrified of him reading it). My mom at least really liked it and our conversation clearing up a few points and adding to it has been inspirational for tweaking the plot of Book 3 and a book in the future. So thanks Mom!

I don't know what else to write here, so I guess... what would you readers like to see? Let me know!

I'm constantly giggling/rolling my eyes at myself for this: I don't blog very well.

Or, you know, at all.

I feel as though I should be blogging more. I'm a writer (reaaalllly!) Professionally speaking and passionately speaking. But I just have problems blogging about myself.

This actually dates back to childhood. I had a diary, but I was slightly sporadic about it. My Grade 3 teacher was at odds with me and my parents because the journal assignment was supposed to be giving us the chance to talk about ourselves and instead I made up stories. (My life was boring, what can I say? My mom is still rolling her eyes over the whole thing-she said the teacher should have just been happy I was writing and what I was writing was a sight more interesting than 'yesterday I went to the park. It was fun'.)

The reluctance to write about myself has continued to adulthood. Get me to write about anything from the history of silver to the best hotels in Cambodia and I'm good. Ask me to write a paragraph about myself and I will probably give you the deer in the headlights expression.


Yeah, that expression.

This means that I have a hard time with this whole blogging thing. So I'm terribly sporadic. But I keep trying! I should get brownie points for that.

Someone harass me about it. Ask me questions or something. That might work.

Books on the shelf:

Chosen, by Benedict Jacka
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Splintered by A.G. Howard
First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Manuscript headway:

Editing. O so much editing. And revising. I discovered a terrible plot hole which was so terrible that it was causing other plot holes to follow. Like earthquakes. I know how to fix it, but actually implementing the fix is another matter. le sigh.

I'm hopeful that if the job as an instructor sticks, I will be working kind of two weeks on, two weeks off thing where I teach for two weeks a month and then the other two weeks is devoted to my freelancing (er, for one client) and manuscripts. Then things will move along briskly.

I start my teaching job on Monday.

I feel like I should be nervous, but either I'm still in a food hangover from yesterday or I've actually prepared (nearly) enough to not feel nervous. It's a peculiar feeling as I'm nearly always nervous about new things (sometimes devastatingly so) and this time, other than a slight nervous butterfly and a slight headache (food hangover I'm sure), I'm not very nervy. Oh this will likely change Monday morning when I'm actually going and again when I'm facing 10 pairs of eyes, but at the moment, I'm kind of excited about it. Nervous, but excited.

I finally broke through the wall of editing for Glass Slipper. Man that was awful. Now to put all the pieces together again so that it becomes a coherent story! I was doing well, but this week I was prepping to teach and one of the lessons took me three days to figure out and left me drained and exhausted. Glah. Hopefully I can teach it in the one day it's allotted without falling over! Thursday-as usual-will be an awful day, lol.

It's also a slight peculiarity that I've been fielding questions about Kellan Publishing and trying to set up interviews on the radio for myself and one or two other local authors. So strange, but I guess I've been doing marketing writing for the better part of six years now, so shouldn't I be used to it?



I guess not so much. But it's kind of empowering at the same time.

So I guess the moral for this week is to take control, be prepared and take a chance. Kind of my motto for the year!

What's on the Shelf:

First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Editing:

Slowed down again. Hopefully I can find a routine soon.

I finished my first week of teaching, phew! It was mostly pretty good, but also kinda rough-mostly exhausting because of the new routine.

I'm up at 6:30am to get ready to go so I can walk down at 7:30 to be there by about ten to eight. Then I prep for class until 9 and then I'm teaching from 9-12. 12-12:30 is technically lunch, but since there is no place for teachers to 'hide' yet, I usually spend half that time simply helping the stragglers, answering questions, and then gulping down lunch in 10-15 minutes. Then it's back to teaching from 12:30-2:30 and then another two hours after that of helping one of the students get caught up. I'm hope by about ten to five, make supper, take care of the kiddo and then rinse and repeat for the week.

So exhausting.

But at the same time, there were so many 'ah-ha!' moments when students achieved things, so much laughter and joking to break tension and so many people looking relieved; it was nice. I enjoy helping people learn :D

Week 2 begins on Monday. This coming week should be easier as most of the class will be doing their own thing, but who knows? It could throw me a curveball. That's why I have a frozen lasagna in the fridge.

William has been taking the change in an all right fashion-he mostly behaves for my sister. However, he has been clingy and he keeps telling me he misses me. :/ Hopefully he adjusts.
~
Writing has halted completely. I might bring my manuscript to work on my flash drive so that when I'm not helping students, I can work on it a bit. I've got to get back to it! On the other hand, other ideas are creeping around in my head, so that's nice.

The whole week is kind of a big blur at this point. I have to mark finals next week and total everyone's grades for my boss. Hopefully everyone passes! But for now, I'm mostly...





What's on the Shelf:

I had to take 2312 back to the library today because I know I won't get to it until it's due. Sigh. I'll have to take it out later.

The Devil You Know, by Mike Cary
Passage, by Connie Willis

Editing:

Stalled due to work. We'll see what happens next week.

Time is relative.

Everyone knows that. It's not that it's literally moving slower or faster, but it certainly seems that way at the time. It really likes to 'telescope' on me so that a day can feel as though it's been zipped in my brain by the end of the day. (Yes, zipped, like a computer file, lol!)

The last two weeks have been like this with work days seemingly 'zipped' by the end of the day so that it feels like time went by quickly and I'm exhausted, but I still feel like I didn't *do* tons of stuff. I know I did, but since it was all going along at a regular pace and nothing odd happened or stuck out, it all feels like it got compressed and shuttered so that time went quickly.

I had a great two weeks teaching and knowing that I only have one more week (for the foreseeable future anyway) feels distinctly odd-though my son is happy. After that, its back to Strong Start, therapy and sorting out William's prep for Kindergarten. Don't get me wrong, I'll be glad to do that with him again (though taking him to a child psychologist for an exam for the school will be stressful-apparently our only psychologist in this stupid city is fond of medical jargon and likes to sound intimidating. Must put stomping boots on!), but I will miss teaching and working. The money is certainly nice too!

Of course, being too exhausted to play video games or keep up with my fiction is problematic, so I guess in that sense, it's a good thing I have some time off coming, lol.
***

Editing is kicked back up again: The Glass Slipper Conspiracy got some more work done on it and I'm working on the outline for Book 3 because I'm just that obsessive, lol.

Books on the shelf:

Vicious Circle by Mike Carey for work. Nothing for home yet-library trip tomorrow.

For many writers, having the parental units read their work is a good ego-boost. After all, most parents are going to be 'nice' about what their offspring have written. They'll be complimentary, go easy on the criticism and generally be nice. It's a (near) guaranteed ego boost.

When The Curious Case came out, I almost didn't want to tell my folks. And I would have been quite happy if my dad never read it.



'Writer be like: Don't touch my book!' lol

Don't get me wrong at ALL! My dad is AMAZING. He's a brilliant story teller, a fantastic writer and he's been reading fantasy and sci-fi all his life. He KNOWS a good book and he's not afraid to say when he's read a good one and when he's read a poor one (and why). Ditto for movies. Many a happy memory is of my father torpedoing a movie-not just criticizing it, but detailing how and why the writers went wrong.

But you can see why I was intimidated. My father is amazing and my writer's ego is not what it could be. So when my book came out, I obviously had to tell my parents and they just as obviously wanted to read it. I was less happy at the prospect. My mom is less... vocal... about critique, but arguably more picky when it comes to what she likes, so I had my worries!

My mom read it the day it came out (download baby!) and she really liked it. She had some questions, but they were great questions and helped me fill out more stuff for later books. She even came up with another story idea! I got a real kick out of someone coming up with fanfiction as soon as the book came out, ha ha.

My dad just finished reading the hard copy today. I'm glad no one told me he was reading it or I wouldn't have been able to focus on teaching! But he called tonight to say that the hard copies arrived (they ordered a pile for family) and he read it.

And he liked it. A lot. Phew! So now he's jumping on board with subsequent books to help myself and my editor weed out the typos (after spending months on filling plot holes and fixing inconsistencies, I miss things like missed words and misspellings, lol).

Now, where am I going with this? Well, at first, I'm twitchy about my folks reading my stuff. After all, they know what they like-and what they don't like-and they're quite vocal in their critiques. They are always thoughtful critiques and very helpful ones, but by this point, it's a wee bit too late for it! On the other hand, the fact that my dad had nothing bad to say and no problems means I did a good job of at least making sure the story had no plot holes, no strange characters issues and no stand-out problems (other than typos, le sigh). so there's that which arguably makes my mom and dad more useful as thoughtful readers than if they simply said they liked it because it was written by their daughter.

So I shouldn't be nervous about them reading it. But I'll probably continue to be, lol.

(as a side-note, both mom and dad are laughing at me for my nerves and dad was even a little bit laughingly offended that I was all worried, ha ha. I just love my folks so much, even when they do intimidate me with their vastly superior abilities!)
***
Editing: Five chapters down, formatted and cleaned. About 9 more to go, phew!

On the shelf:

Dead Man's Boots by Mike Carey

I'm done the string of teaching jobs (at least for the moment, though I might be working two days next week), much to my son's glee. He's been bouncing off the walls all day today, getting into everything and clinging desperately to me. Which would be fine, but it does lead to some awkwardness when I trip over him or when I'm wiped out and he just wants to keep playing :D

I guess it's a nice ego boost to have someone miss me, but I'm tired out!
***

It will feel awfully strange to go back to the writing/William's activities cycle. The three weeks I spent 'at work' was tiring to be sure and could be frustrating at times, but at the same time, it was very liberating. For several hours a day for five days a week, I didn't have to worry about William or even really think of him (Besides wondering how he was doing every so often). I was way too busy keeping ahead of my students and dealing with them! It was rather nice to be 'me' and not 'me+kid'; I can see why so many moms go back to work after a while.

Certainly I'm glad to be back and there are some things which *need* to be done and only I can really do them when it comes to getting William ready for the fall, but still. I dunno; it'll feel strange for a bit. I'll get used to it just in time to go back to teaching XD.

I am glad to be back to writing fiction and reading and freelance writing may be less frustrating now that I've had some time away. Hopefully things can move along for a while and we'll have another book out this year :)

***

What's on the shelf:

Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer
The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt
Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey

Book progress: Glacial. Kinda piecing together bits of book four though, god help me, lol.

I was reading over some reviews of The Magicians. I read it last January and I really did not like it. It was blah.

But the reviews got me thinking...

I understand at least to some extent what the author (and ones like him) were hawking: magic doesn't make life wonderful, getting what you want isn't always going to work out, etc. But his execution was blah.

So I'm re-executing it. Sort of. And now, William may have competition this year. Good thing I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo and regular NaNoWriMo! Now to figure out which order to do them in...

Wanna read the 'back cover'? Here ya go!

***

“Magic was supposed to solve all my problems, but instead, it just seemed to cause all new problems…”

There are three things which all of the people of Leelat Kingdom know:

1. Only a very chosen few are capable of learning and wielding magic
2. The chosen few vanish for years and when they return, they are powerful
3. Magic can solve any problem and lead to happily ever afters

And Ariana wants to be one of those chosen few. Unfortunately, the ages where arcane traditionally manifest: 7, 13, 16 and 18 have already passed with no glitters and 21 is fast approaching. She’s just about given up on ever becoming one of those powerful beings who can wield the power of the cosmos and has started to resign herself to simply getting married and having a family.

Then the letter comes on the eve of her 21st birthday and Ariana learns that not only is she one of the chosen few, she may be The Chosen One.

Unfortunately, no one has thought to warn her that being Chosen usually means being Targeted and that magic rarely fixes anything when it can make a situation worse…

'Happily Ever After and Other Nonsense I Was Taught'
***

Rather than depressing and bleak though, I think I'll go for the more humorous, characters change, wisdom is occasionally dropped and oh yeah: something really bad happens. Because hey, Chosen One = Big bulls-eye target, lol.

What do my readers think? Which one should I do first: Magic, schools and The Chosen One getting into horrible trouble or werewolves at war with each other, murders and reverse lycanthropy?

Oh well, when you put it that way....
***
What's on the Shelf:
The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt
The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey

Editing: Up to Chapter 8! Things are moving along more smoothly now. Course I get a little stymied when characters and plots randomly wander into my mind...

And only just now remembered that I dreamed at all. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the character I dreamed up besides the fact that he was male :/. *grumble* I don't even remember WHICH book he was belonged to: Blood Moon Rising, Happily Ever After and Other Nonsense I was Taught or something else altogether! I hate it when that happens.

The Glass Slipper Conspiracy is well on its way now; I'm into the second to final home stretch. I'll try to send some time today on it, assuming the sunshine and parental guilt doesn't haul me outside all afternoon (now that it's almost spring, it's hard to justify letting William do WHATEVER he wants, read: video games and playing with his plushies when he should be outside).

Camp NaNoWriMo begins in April, but I think I'll do the July edition. I'm going to be gone for part of April after all. My only concern there is that I'll likely be teaching for a chunk of July and that just chews up my energy and time. But I'll adjust and something (two somethings!) will be done this year, lol!

I don't really have any news or anything to really talk about. Just grumbling about the character who has clearly vanished back into my subconscious somewhere. Hopefully he comes back soon; I have the feeling he was an interesting guy.

***

Editing: On Chapter 9 or 10 of Glass Slipper Conspiracy and the first half went to my beta reader/editor for a look through, assuming he has time.

Books on the Shelf:

Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (now that I'm done work for a week or two, I should be able to finish it!)

Yup, I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo.

I was going to do the July edition, but William started banging around in my head. (It's like life hasn't thrown him enough lemons!) and so the writing of Draft 1 of Book 3 got bumped to April. Because I'm not insane enough with finishing Book 2, work, William's appointments, travel plans (visiting the parental units for Dad's 50th birthday at the end of the month) and what passes vaguely for a social life. Ah well.

And of course, two hours before I traditionally begin any NaNo project (midnight!) I realized that I had to stitch a final plot hole in Glass Slipper. It wasn't a SERIOUS one, but it was an inconsistency that stuck out like a sore thumb and would have made me look like an idiot.



So I have to fix that which means actually adding two or three (or more) pages of all new writing to Draft 3-the final draft before my beta reader gets his (or possibly her) hands on it. Sheesh! That should be sewn up tonight, but it does mean I'm going to spend about four solid hours writing tonight between work, GSC draft and then starting Blood Moon Rising.

Hello Straitjacket...

If you'd like to join me in the madness, you wanna go roight here:

www.campnanowrimo.org to sign up.

If you just want to follow me and yell at me for not making my daily word count, you can go here:

http://campnanowrimo.org/campers/tana... (you'll also get the synopsis for Book 3 and an excerpt, oooooohhhh! I absolutely do not guarantee that the final product will look much like the bits you'll see here though. In fact, I'd point out that it probably won't bear much similarity, ha ha.)

Or you can keep following my blog here.

So how's things going on Book 2?

Almooooossstt dooooonnnneeeee! Then it goes to my readers (assuming he can do it, otherwise, my sister is getting drafted for the role of plot hole, character inconsistency, problem finder). Then it goes to my dad the grammar/spelling/missing word finder king and THEN it goes to the publisher and my cover artist (he better do Book 2!) hopefully this summer to be released by Christmas. Yay!
***
What's on the shelf:

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher.

I'm having a HELL of a time getting into 2312. Maybe I'm just not in a hard Sci-fi mood, but I think it'll be going back to the library again. sigh.

To all Camp NaNoWriMo folks: see you at the finish line!

To my readers: see you soon! I'll likely be giggling softly and rocking gently in a corner by April 30, ha ha!