Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 47

Best Laid Plans?

Actually, these are plans I’m still laying. Coming up in the fall, I’ve had hopes that the pandemic would subside enough that I could make personal appearances again. With new variants and recalcitrant neighbors, I think we all know how that’s going.

Still, I am attempting to lay plans. The first one is around SpoCon, the science fiction convention I help to organize. I’m in charge of programming, which means I gather ideas for panel discussions (and other activities), recruit speakers, and schedule it all. It’s a lot of work, but it keeps me in touch with the other writers and artists in my area. Our dates this year are October 29-31, ending with Hallowe’en. That makes it extra fun!

We on the convention committee are all holding our breath and organizing as best we can. I think we all have a dread that the state will put us back in lockdown before then. Our convention can get up to 500 people, although under the circumstances 200 is more reasonable. So if the Governor halts gatherings of 200+ people, we are done.

The other thing we’ve had to wrestle with is health measures. I’m hearing around the Internet that speakers want to know vaccine cards are being checked. I don’t thing we have enough volunteers to do that, but I brought it up at the most recent meeting. One of our organizers started talking about “yellow stars” and “vaccine Nazis” and the vaccine being questionable. The convention chair, an RN, stated brusquely that the vaccine is valid and safe, and that we will have no more talk of Nazis in regards to public health. I agree with her, but it was pretty sad to hear one of our own lay down the anti-science card.

Anyway, we are going to require masks to attend. If we don’t do that, I’m pretty sure some of our speakers will back out. The same person then wanted to wrangle about what defines a mask. Sigh… It’s close enough to our event that we need to be clear about this. If there are cancellations because of it, we might be better off without them.

The other thing coming up is Fall Folk Fest, which is a weekend of mostly folk music and dance, but other crafts as well. I usually read my short stories there. I’m not part of organizing this one, but I’ve put in to read again and if the event takes place, I’ll be there.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Continuity

That short story, “Hag,” was my summer project. I finished it before going back to school, and I feel really good about that. That means I can start looking ahead to the series finale for Minstrels of Skaythe. Step one of that will be to firm up my continuity from the previous five novellas.

What do I mean by continuity? In writing, it’s basically how you keep track of the details of a story. Everything from the broad plot actions to the details of a character’s appearance are part of the continuity. Most writers keep track of stuff like that so that they don’t make embarrassing mistakes. Growing up as a comic fan, I was always aware of continuity because characters would mention things that happened in previous stories, and we got footnotes telling us what title and issue that took place in. (Which, possibly, was also a bid by the publisher to keep up interest in collecting back issues.)

For myself, I usually did stand-alone novels, where most continuity can be addressed in outlining. Knowing Minstrels of Skaythe would be a series, I’ve been keeping track of continuity in a different way. Some of the things I’ve tried to note for each volume are where the story takes place and who the main antagonist is. If there are important minor characters, I note them down. I try to always have a giant creature of some kind, and that gets written down, too.

Mentions of the other minstrels are also important. The minstrels are a group of mages, each of whom has one volume directed to them, but I still want the readers to know the other ones are out there. I accomplish that by having them say things about each other. Finally, the minstrels are followers of a philosopher-mage named Ar-Thea, and they sometimes quote her wisdom. All of those mentions and quotes go into my continuity document.

I have roughly 2 weeks left before returning to work, so before then I plan to go over my continuity document before then. I think I got in a rush with Renegade of Opshar, and didn’t do those entries. Honestly, that should only take me a few days. I can’t let myself get too lazy!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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I Must Decide

I’m glad (and maybe a bit relieved) to say that I finished the fifth draft of “Hag.” There still needs to be one more pass to look for typos and tweak my word choices, but it’s really almost ready. In a few more days, I’ll begin submitting to publications.

Everybody has their own way of deciding where to submit, and in what order. Should you submit first to the high-class markets? To the ones that pay best? Should you take a chance on lesser markets, or look for anthologies? Someone could run seminars on the subject. (And they probably do, honestly.)

My approach to this has changed over the past few years. It used to be that I was really chasing the traditional publishing route. I would spend hours combing through market listings, comparing the word rates and what kind of work they were looking for and how long the stories could be. At the end of it, I would put together a list and when I had a short story to submit I would go down in order, rejection after rejection.

The unfortunate thing is that I don’t write that much short fiction, so my list always seems to be out of date when I actually go to use it. Markets might have theme lists, or limited submissions windows, or they try to do a rights grab just because you submitted to them.

So these days, my submission process is a lot less formal. First, I look to see if the market is even open to submissions. Next, I check their guidelines to see whether my story would be a good fit for their approach. No point submitting to markets that don’t publish fantasy. Finally, I see what their word count is. I’m constantly finding that my work is too long for their needs.

Here’s where I confess that, like a lot of writers, I under-sell myself. Knowing how tough the competition will be, I skip the top markets and try first for the medium and lesser magazines. I also tend to give up after one or two rejections. Those are bad habits. I really should be pushing myself harder if I want to get any recognition.

With “Hag,” especially, the story is a little more substantial than my usual. When I’m ready, I’m going to aim for the top — as long as they are open to submissions, that is. I’m going to keep trying longer than a couple of weeks before I give up.

What do you mean, August is too late for making resolutions??

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Woman at Work, Part 17

What’s Happening? I’ve been nursing my garden along through the waves of this summer’s heat. Cucumbers and miniature pumpkins have started coming in, but my beans and tomatoes are sadly lacking. I feel that perhaps the smoke has prevented them getting enough light. We also have had roof work done, which looks great but did not pass inspection. The contractor promises to take care of it. Home improvements are always such a saga, aren’t they?

What I’m Working On. I’m about to start work on the fifth draft of Hag. I thought I would be done with it by now, but what did I know about it? However, the plot is firm and that will allow me to begin tightening, setting the imagery up to fit the theme, and so on. I do hope to be done with it by the end of this month, because that’s when I report back to the school.

What’s Next? In addition to SpoCon’s programming, which is coming together well, I have the next Minstrels of Skaythe novella to get ready for publication. Prisoners of the Wailing Tower is already written. Actually, I was working on it this time last year. Then I realized that for purposes of continuity, The Renegade of Opshar had to come out first. There will still be adjustments, but I plan to have it out for Christmas.

Fun and Games. In Animal Crossing, I made a major achievement. Lilies of the Valley have started growing on my island! This is a sign that I have a “perfect” village, and I’m pretty happy about it. For my other game, I took a rest on Conan Exiles. The building is still fun, but I got stuck in a spot where I lost a lot of gear. By Crom! Anyway, I’m doing a replay of Dragon Age II and having fun with it.

I hope you’re all having fun this summer, and getting your projects written, too.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Romance, Maybe?

I mentioned last time how there can be pushback when authors of work that is not in a Romance genre, include romances in their work. One pattern that I often see is romance included as a secondary plot arc. So there’s the traditional plot with a fight against evil (or whatever), while at the same time a romance is going on. It might be two members of the same team falling love, or a romance with someone not connected to the rest of the plot. Sometimes they even fall in love with someone from the opposite side. Oh, the drama!

To be clear, I think all of these are legitimate story arcs. A love affair can be a great way to raise the stakes in a novel. The characters not only have to solve their initial plot problem, but now they also want to impress their beloved. Or, the other side might threaten their beloved, and they have to protect them. Not only that, but a high percentage of readers are very drawn to romantic emotions. Having a romance arc is another way to keep them hooked on the story.

All this has made me look back over my own stories. What approach have I most often taken to the “Romance, Yes/No” question? So let’s go over a my books, in the order I wrote them.

The Magister’s Mask was about a young woman who used magic to solve crimes and was trying to get established in her career. There was no romance.

Too Many Princes featured two princes on a quest, and had some political intrigue. There was a secondary romance for one of the princes, who ended up happily with his partner at the end. There also was a positive romance for one of the princes’ sisters.

In The Necromancer’s Bones, sequel to The Magister’s Mask, the young woman fell in love with a man who was socially out of reach, and was tormented by it. But he shared her feelings, and in the end they were talking about marriage.

Masters of Air and Fire was a book for middle readers, about a group of young dragons who all were siblings. No romance there!

In The Seven Exalted Orders, a couple of rebellious young wizards hooked up while on the run. They spent the rest of the book deciding whether they had a future together. I’d call that one a troubled romance.

The Grimhold Wolf was about a woman running away from her evil lover, who took their child and turned her into a wolf. The other POV character was a werewolf-hunting priest. No romance.

Their Weight of Their Souls was a swords and sorcery novella with a diverse group battling the darkness. In the end, there was a possible romance between two of the group.

In the world of The Gellboar, men were forbidden to do magic. The main character was a man who disguised himself as a woman to so he could get around that. No romance.

Now coming to the Skaythe novellas. The Tower in the Mist: it was hinted that there could have been a romance, but then one of them died. Dancer in the Grove of Ghosts: the two characters were heading toward a romance at the end. The Ice Witch of Fang Marsh: flirtation heading toward romance, but then one of the lovers betrayed the other one. Ouch! The Renegade of Opshar: a partnership, but no romance. Prisoners of the Wailing Tower (which will be out this fall): a young woman has a huge crush on a man who doesn’t think of her that way, but by the end he is starting to see her merits. So, potential for a romance.

I’m not a Romance writer as such, but I guess I started out fairly traditional. If there was a romance as a secondary plot, it ended with a happy relationship. As time has gone on, I’m evenly split between no romance, troubled romance, and potential romance.

It isn’t that I’m against romances. As I said above, they can be a useful part of the story. In general, my stories have become more complex thematically. I supposed that I treat romances the same way. People’s emotions are complicated, and there aren’t always happy endings.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Romance, Yes/No?

Should your story include a romance? I’m speaking here about romances being included with stories that are not explicitly part of the Romance genre. There seem to be a lot of strong feelings about this issue.

From time to time I see people get very angry about romance being a part of other genres. There especially seems to be a sort of science fiction fan that complains about this. Science fiction is supposed to be about pure ideas, they say. Never mind that science fiction has always had other elements, such as social commentary and political theory (especially Libertarian theory). They seem to feel that the romance somehow pollutes the genre.

These rants always puzzle me. We want to read about characters who are interesting and fully formed, right? Well, romantic feelings and needs are part of every biological entity. Why should authors prevent their characters from having those feelings? If the author decided this wasn’t want they wanted their story to be about, that’s one thing. It just seems like a line is being drawn (or attempted to draw) that doesn’t need to be there.

To put it another way, I wonder why some fans are so uncomfortable hearing about romantic emotions?

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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What’s a Hag?

“Hag” is the short story I’m currently working on. I’ve mentioned that, but it’s possible not everyone knows what I mean by saying that my main character is a hag.

Probably the most familiar usage of “hag” is as a synonym for a witch. It can also be used to insult a woman by implying she is ill-tempered and/or appears old and wrinkly. In folklore from the British Isles, a hag was a kind of evil fairy. Peg Powler and Jenny Greenteeth are two well known hags from folk stories.

Night Hags were believed to fly around at night. They would sit on people’s chests and cause them to have terrible nightmares. When they woke up, they couldn’t move. Sleep paralysis is a real thing, and it’s thought that stories about Night Hags was an attempt to explain it.

River Hags were cannibals who lived in lakes and rivers. They were said to lurk near the shore and snatch up children who strayed too close to the bank. These folk tales are clearly cautionary, intended to warn children away from the danger of drowning.

In other cases, hags were believed to control the weather. They were blamed for causing bad storms in winter. Some others are thought to be diminished forms of ancient Celtic goddesses, who would sometimes disguise themselves as old women.

As for my story, the hags of Dolarus Swamp are River Hags. Long ago, they banded together with human wizards to defeat a demonic empire. The demons are still imprisoned beneath the waters of the swamp, and the hags are responsible for keeping them there. Like the goddesses of old, they have shape-changing powers and can impersonate any creature that lives in the swamp.

I also worked in the child-snatching thing, in a different way. Some of the humans who live near the swamp would abandon unwanted children there. They believed the hags would eat the children. Instead, the hags adopted the kids and performed a series of rituals that transformed them into new hags. So even though they did not have children, the race of hags could go on defending the Dolarus Swamp.

Working with folklore is lots of fun. When editors eventually see this story, and remember the legend of cannibal hags, I hope they will be surprised by how I used the material.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Achievement Unlocked

Yep, just like a video game, I leveled up! That is, I completed the third draft of my short story, “Hag.” I had to abandon the second draft, which is something I hate to do, but the POV change just wasn’t working. This story was always meant to be seen through the eyes of the sarcastic old hag who keeps having to chase human intruders out of her swamp. I cut a subplot that was tangling things up, and got the hag daughter to say a bit more. Turns out she’s just as snarky as her hag mother. The poor young wizard who gets caught between them just hardly knows what to say.

The story still has a lot more work to be done. Basically, I’ve got the skeleton of the plot to connect and move properly. My next draft will make sure a couple of critical lines didn’t get cut in the transition, and then I can really start to flesh things out. In particular, I’ve been vague about what my hags are wearing. They swim a lot, so it has to be something that won’t drag in the water. I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

By the way, I have also been giving status notes on “Hag” on Twitter. One person there has been asking for a snippet. An unknown writer like myself doesn’t get many requests like that, so I put up a couple of paragraphs in a thread. Check it out, if you’re interested.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Home Improvements

I’ve been working away on my short story, Hag. Yesterday was very much disrupted, though. We’ve been waiting almost two months for the roofers to schedule their work. Suddenly they arrived! It was a different company, though. We had to call around a bit to make sure they were not trying to scam us.

But they were legit, and they got right to work. Unfortunately for me, my office is on the second floor. So all day while I tried to work there were loud footsteps and intimidating noises as they pulled off the old roofing. Our poor cats didn’t know which way to run. Later, when that was all off, came more loud footsteps and lots of banging as they nailed the tar paper down.

We were very impressed with their efficiency, although my poor plants were somewhat the worse for having tarps thrown down on them. Today was better, and I feel like it’s going well.

At least, until the roofers come back…

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Role Playing in Person

Gasp! Yes, our gaming group is all immunized and able to meet in person again. Our first session was last night. Three members were out of town and joined by Discord. Four of us were at my house. It went pretty well, although there were a few technical difficulties. Anyone who’s been in a Zoom or Teams meeting will be familiar with the occasional lag and signal loss. I thought it went pretty well for our first try at the format.

What game do we play? Right now, we’re playing Starfinder, which is part of the Pathfinder framework. It’s set in the far future, in space. Currently our crew is invading the flagship of an armada that is trying to seize an ancient artifact. If they get it, THE UNIVERSE IS DOOMED!! As a writer, I appreciate having the stakes spelled out so clearly.

Anyway. A good time was had by all. I hope you are also able to reconnect with some of your favorite friends and activities.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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