In My Little World

New Blog and Website Relaunch!

2009-04-10T20:09:00.004-06:00

If you come here via RSS feed or other direct link, you'll need to revise the link on your blog or site. In My Little World has moved to...well, to MY little world. Please visit my relaunched website and new blog at ValerieComer.Com, poke around, and let me know what you think.

I plan to leave the archives here, so this link will remain on top.

I'd like to thank my daughter and webmaster Hanna Sandvig for all the work she's put into the new website (as well as the one it replaces). Hanna is an artist, illustrator, and geek who would love to design a site for you as well.

Thanks for hanging out with me here on Blogger and I hope you'll enjoy the new site with me. See you over there!

Petcetera

2009-04-07T10:24:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday my niece and her family came by to visit. 10-month-old Micah got some one-on-one time with Brody. Can you tell he has his own dog at home?

Brody would have loved to get closer!

But even though he thinks he's a lap dog doesn't mean he's little!

In other news, our old kitty George is sick, and I don't think he's going to be with us much longer. A couple of days ago he felt well enough to be interested in the open window in the living room, though, so I took his picture.

The vet believes Georgie has abdominal tumors. He stopped eating over a month ago and barely drinks anything, even the tuna broth he's always loved. I keep putting it out for him, though, along with fresh water--George has always mistrusted water more than thirty seconds old.

Started again at the beginning

2009-04-05T21:09:00.004-06:00

I have to laugh that I thought I'd cut words with all the rewriting of the first fifteen pages. Not so much. Sure I cut a scene. I also added one. According to the over all word count once I'd shuffled my Word doc back into Scrivener, I added about 500 words with a honkin' huge 4550 word first chapter that defies chopping up.

So I've been glancing through--not reading thoroughly--making a list of the scenes I have and seeing what seems choppable. Or at least snippable. I'm on Chapter 7 of 21 and have a growing list of places to tighten. I think I can do this without losing too much. And I think I must resist the siren call of all the places that beg to have the theme expanded, and deeper characterization. Etc.

First-and-a-Half Pass Done!

2009-04-02T19:57:00.002-06:00

Made it through to THE END of the romance rewrite this afternoon. Why am I calling it a first-and-a-half pass? Because so much of it turned out to be new material! I retyped the whole thing, even the scenes that came across reasonably intact, because I was hunting down passive voice and shallow point-of-view along with the deeper issues of wobbly plot.

Next week I'll read through the whole thing and figure out if it works now. Doubtless I'll find a few things to change, to say nothing of the fact that I'm 3,000 words over the maximum allowed for my target publisher. 3K will be quite easy to cut, though. In fact, I may already have chopped a third of that as I tightened and retightened the opening pages for the Genesis contest. I'm not sure until I transfer the pages back into Scrivener, where I've been doing all the writing since then. (I had to do the pages in Word to make sure I had the formatting correct all the way through.)

And then it's off to a few trusted critique buddies while I turn my attention to writing the workshop for May. I'm happy! :)

Rise of the Dibor by Christopher Hopper

2009-04-01T22:54:00.004-06:00

I've been looking for Rise of the Dibor for a couple of years, since I started running into the author, Christopher Hopper, online. He's a youth pastor in northern New York state and someone who loves and follows God with deep passion. He's also a worship leader and recording artist with eight cds.

I was intrigued by the premise for Hopper's novel: What if Adam and Eve had never sinned? Would Satan still have found a way to enter the world? This fantasy novel takes place on Dionia, a sister-world to Earth, and shows how evil enters a pure and beautiful world. Luik and a group of his peers are trained to be Dibor, an elite force trained to do battle against the deceit of Morgui.

The novel gets out to a slow start. This is both good and bad, because Hopper's intent (I'm sure!) is to show the world of Dionia before Morgui becomes strong there. And a perfect world, sadly, is a boring world. I found I skimmed parts of the first couple of chapters, especially a game of rokla sportscast in great detail. (If you want to know how rokla is played, read the novel!)

Even if you don't care (and I didn't), you'll likely enjoy this richly imagined tale. Once things get rolling, Luik finds himself in the thick of things that come to a head after various people disappear and Morgui's army prepares to attack the capital city of Dionia. The skirmishes and battles are described as thoroughly as the rokla and to much better effect :) I'm looking forward to reading book 2, The Lion Vrie, which just so happens to be at my local library waiting for me.

One negative I really noticed with this novel is that it badly needed a fine-toothed comb edit pass as it was full of the kind of errors spell check doesn't catch. I was constantly pulled out of the story with homonym errors such as manor for manner, to name only one that happened numerous times. Punctuation errors such as missing periods and quotation marks did little to help me relax into the story. Still, the plot and characters exerted their effort to pull me back each time.

The third novel is out soon (sorry, I can't remember the title!) and Hopper is also contracted by Thomas Nelson to cowrite a Young Adult fantasy series with noted author Wayne Thomas Batson. The first novel in this series is out in the fall of 2009.

Conflict

2009-03-30T22:01:00.002-06:00

Some stories are bigger on conflict than others. But whether you're writing action-adventure or relationship stories, there had better be conflict. I'm one who avoids it like the plague in real life, so I've had to learn to enjoy inflicting it on my characters. I like nice people, but stories have to be populated with the less than perfect to be of any interest. I'm curious why this is so--why we are bored stiff reading about the kind of people we want our kids to turn out like? And yet it's true--stories without conflict don't catch hold of the reader and propel him or her to the other end like a rocket launcher.

Conflict doesn't have to be big stuff. There doesn't have to be a dead body on every page to keep momentum. In fact, that's the kind of conflict that will turn me off, as a reader. Not everyone, of course. Conflict can be as small as characters arguing over what's for dinner. I think the main thing is that the minor conflicts need to play into the major conflicts. Why are the characters arguing over dinner? Is it a symptom of a problem in the relationship? A refusal of one to acknowledge the life-threatening allergies of the other? Or something else? Because honestly, if *what's for dinner* makes no difference to the growth of the characters or to the main story plotline, it doesn't work as a source of conflict.

Sure, it allows the maxim of conflict on every page to be fulfilled, but a novel is more than random conflict. They have to build and intertwine and matter to one another. If the conflict is merely an irritant and doesn't actually matter, it isn't the kind of conflict they're talking about here.

In the same way, if the characters keep tripping over dead bodies, the story had better be about the dead bodies. They'd better not be in there to represent conflict unless it matters to the story's plot line. There's lots more to writing a novel than stringing 100,000 words together. Even pretty words. Or gritty words. They need to be more than loosely related vignettes, at least in genre writing.

That's my thought for tonight!

Book Tour--Turning the Paige

2009-03-25T10:25:00.001-06:00

Turning the Paige

When I saw this title in the upcoming blog tour list, I took a second look because I have a character named Paige in one of my works-in-progress. Then I noticed that Laura Jensen Walker's character is a divorced woman of 35 who moves back in with her aging high-maintenance (read: passive-aggressive manipulating) mother, and I thought that I might enjoy the tale.

Turning the Paige is a great read in many ways. I got sucked straight in with this opening:

My mother killed my marriage. Stomped all over it with her Pepto-Bismol pink pumps and ground it to divorce dust.

Okay, maybe that's not entirely fair. Mom wasn't solely responsible for the destruction of my marriage. Like many couple, Eric and I had some problems. But the biggest one was my mother. I turned the page in our wedding album on what would have been our five-year anniversary to a close-up of the two of us--happy, bright, shining, and in love. So in love. But that was then and this is now.

My fingers moved up the glossy page to the cleft in Eric's jaw. I loved that Kirk Douglas cleft and had spent many happy hours kissing it. And the delicious lips above it. Now someone else was kissing them.

I slammed the album shut. And as I shoved it back into the closet, the phone rang. I walked over to the nightstand to check the caller ID. Probably a telemarketer.

As the phone continued to ring, I squinted at the name. Now where'd I put my reading glasses? By the time I finally found them, the answering machine had clicked on.

"Paige?" My mother's querulous voice filled the air. "Are you there? Or are you out again? Seems like you're never home anymore." She released a loud sigh. "I was hoping you could come over for just a minute and pull down my other quilt from the top of the linen closet. This one's getting too hot and heavy." She lobbed one of her famous guilt grenades. "Oh well, guess I'll just have to make do. Talk to you soon."

My turn to expel a loud sigh.

Paige also has a sister, Isobel; though she lives many miles away she plays an important role in the novel. I enjoyed the story up until the last few chapters. They seemed to be a travel guide to Scotland that, while interesting, didn't keep the plot moving. Something else in the very end came as a bolt out of the blue to me, totally unforeshadowed. Even so, the ending was satisfying and I'd read another book by this author.

This novel is part of a women's fiction series called Getaway Girls, in which Paige and her friends have a book club and often plan adventures that echo those in the books they're reading. I can really see this kind of series working in women's fiction, because you get to know the various characters but focus on different ones in each book. I was also amused that one of the other women in the series was named Chloe. I've got a Chloe and a Paige in the same novel, too!

Walk Along the Beach

2009-03-23T11:56:00.003-06:00

When the calendar turns to spring, apparently it means it. Saturday it rained most of the day and well into the night, but then cleared off. Sunday after church we decided to head for a walk to one of our favorite places (we have a lot of those!) where the river channel meets the lake. Everything is very low water this time of year, held back by dams in preparation for glacial melt over the next few months.

One of the cool things in our area this time of year is that trumpeter swans rest here on their way back to their Arctic breeding grounds.

More photos are in an album at Facebook.

Genesis contest

2009-03-20T20:06:00.003-06:00

Having experienced a measure of success in the ACFW Genesis contest the past two years, this year I decided to try out some of the other genres I've been writing in. This morning I got my third (and final!) entry into the '09 contest. I've had a lot of help over the past couple of months from my critique partners as I've polished three sets of 15 opening pages and their accompanying single-page synopses. Now they're out of my hair and can be ignored until the first round results are released in early May.

Next week I'm back to the romance rewrite, currently sitting at almost 45K out of 60. Back to critiquing, back to workshop writing, back to rebuilding my website, and back to *normal* writing life. Whatever that is.

Hunter Brown Day 3

2009-03-18T07:48:00.002-06:00

So today it is time for my infamous practice of posting the first few paragraphs of a novel and picking them apart. We'll get that over with first. Here is the opening of Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow:

It was the last day of school and I was running for my life. My friends and I had just pulled one of the best pranks ever. It's not like we were trying to get in trouble, it's just that we were determined to get even with the school bully before summer break. After all, Cranton had gone out of his way more than once to make my life miserable this year so it wasn't as if he didn't deserve it. Besides, the last day of school was the perfect time for payback.

Stretch and I had planned out the whole thing weeks in advance. We called it Project:Fireball, and elaborate scheme that required hijacking a bag of brownies from my sister's bake sale and modifying them with a bottle of Stu's Unreasonably Wicked Hot Sauce. All we needed was a decoy. Kitty Swanson, the most popular girl in the whole school, had been Cranton's crush for the entire year and was the perfect candidate. The objective was simple enough: inject the brownies with hot sauce and leave them in a bag on Cranton's "reserved" cafeteria table, along with a note from Kitty in the girliest handwriting we could manage.

Stretch and I watched with anticipation, recording every moment of our latest attempt to humiliate Cranton on my video camera. If everything went as planned we would be posting the footage on our Web site for the whole world to see. It would be the thirteenth and final installment of our online video series. Our subscriber list had grown considerably over the school year as we devised and recorded some of the greatest pranks ever achieved by a student at Destiny Hills High School.

Thinking back over the whole novel, I'm not sure this lead-up directly feeds into the main plot. It does show that the narrator, Hunter, is a prankster with a history of being the underdog and trying to get even. Does this pull you in?

The first few pages really felt like a knock-off of The Never Ending Story with a couple of major plot points in common: getting trapped in a dumpster or garbage bin in an effort to escape the bullies, and finding themselves in a magical bookstore with a magical book.

I'm really happy to announce that the book, while obviously allegorical (and therefore a little predictable, but maybe not to tweens!), struck off into more original territory after that. One of my favorite bits involved the fantasy mounts of Solandria (giant iguanas, pg 255-6):

"Man, I'm going to regret this," I said, closing my eyes and cracking the reins. The creature lurched up the tree with a jerk, and before you could say, "What am I getting myself into?" it scampered up and came to a sudden stop. My head was aching, and when at last I opened my eyes, I discovered why. I was hanging precariously upside down on the underside of a tree limb--the very same limb that Hope was currently occupying above me, or was that below me? How is this even possible, I wondered, looking down, which was up, at the Ugua's grasp on the branch. It reminded me of the little gecko I'd found climbing the walls and the ceilings of my grandparents' condo in Hawaii three years ago. I never did figure out what kept the gecko up there.

I looked up, which was down, at Stretch, who was still uncommitted, staring up in disbelief.

"Come on, Stretch," I called down. "It's not as bad as it looks." Who was I kidding? I was terrified.

All in all? I think this novel by The Miller Brothers will be a great read for its target audience, kids age 9-12 or thereabouts. The second installment in the series will soon be available.

Hunter Brown Day 2

2009-03-17T10:05:00.000-06:00

What is Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow actually about?

Strange visions...hideous monsters...startling revelations...Hunter Brown never expected a summer like this, and it's only getting started! After one of his infamous pranks backfires, Hunter unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient book and key. Little does he know the mysterious book is a gateway to Solandria, a supernatural realm held captive by the Shadow.

In Solandria, Hunter joins forces with the Codebearers, a band of highly trained warriors who form the Resistance to the Shadow. But before he can complete his training in the Code of Life, Hunter is sent on a mission far more dangerous than he ever bargained for. Now with his life in peril and the future of Solandria hanging in the balance, Hunter is headed for a showdown with the Shadow and a battle to save his soul from a fate worse than death!

Is Hunter's knowledge of the Code deep enough to uncover the secret of the Shadow, or will the truth be more than he can bear?

If I were a kid in the target age for Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, I think I'd love the website that the authors, The Miller Brothers, developed for the Codebearers series. Here things come to life, and I discover that The Miller Brothers are first and foremost animators, which explains the cover of the novel to a large degree. They designed it themselves, and it matches the website. Or vice versa.

Have a look at this great video imbedded on the main page:

There are games and forums and a whole great little world hidden away on this website. Check it out!

You can also read the entire novel online by clicking here. The animation involved in the turning pages is quite awesome!

Why would The Miller Brothers give away their novel? They're hoping (I'm guessing here!) to encourage folks to purchase this book for the kids in their life. You can buy autographed copies through the site. The bound novel has great *feel*, browned edged pages, brown on cream typeset. Besides, it's just fun to hold a novel in your hands. And rumor has it that there are clues in the book that help with the games on the website. Clever!!

Can you think of any reasons to give away novels online? I'm interested in any or all opinions on this matter.

Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow

2009-03-16T10:42:00.005-06:00

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is touring another YA fantasy book. I share my novels with several families with teens and tweens so I'm not generally against reading these books and talking about them, though I'd prefer more adult-oriented novels for me.

When I opened the package containing Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, my first response was that it was a cute cover but I didn't remember that the book was geared for children. However, I order the books a couple of months in advance, so I figured I'd just forgotten. I wasn't in the mood for a kids' story so it took a few days for me to open the book and start to read.

Have a good look at this cover. Can you see why I was surprised to discover that the characters are fourteen years old? I held the book up for my husband to see, and asked him what age the cover looked like it would appeal to. He came up with the same number I had: that it looked like it was for eight-year-olds.

Please remember it's been nearly 20 years since we've had an 8yo in the house, so we may not be the best folks to guess at characters' portrayed ages. But my gut instinct was that no 10-14 year old (the target age for books about a 14 year old) would want to be caught reading a book that looked like it was intended for an 8 year old.

I went to the publisher's website and found that they don't publish a lot of novels and wondered if they were simply inexperienced in the way of appealing covers. Then I went to the website for the novels and revised my opinions again! Tomorrow I'll talk more about the website and what it adds to the experience of the books. And what that has to do with the book's cover.

Here's what other bloggers are saying:
Brandon Barr, Keanan Brand, Melissa Carswell, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Marcus Goodyear, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Ryan Heart, Timothy Hicks, Jason Isbell, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Carol Keen, Mike Lynch, Magma, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Nissa, Wade Ogletree, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Crista Richey, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Fred Warren, Phyllis Wheeler, Jill Williamson

There's more to life!

2009-03-15T12:28:00.004-06:00

Although the main focus of this blog is the written word, there is more to my life than writing and reading. More than walking, too, though it does take up 1.5-2 hours of nearly every day for me since I joined a few friends last year in an online walking blog. I'm currently about 2/3 of the way north on the Appalachian Trail!

I've talked a few times about the farm, about the garden, about healthy eating. A few years ago I dabbled in a recipe book project but realized after a few months that I didn't have the drive to make that succeed. I've recently moved the recipes out of the closed forums and into a publicly accessible wiki: Healthy Recipe Box. If you'd care to browse through the recipes I've got stored there and use them, go ahead. You don't have to sign up for anything, and I won't even know you're there unless you wish to comment, in which case you'll have to join the wiki so that I can grant you the power to comment.

Most of the recipes there are fairly low G.I. (glycemic index), and most of them are ones we eat fairly regularly. I keep adding recipes as I come across other family favorites. I hope you enjoy our *down-home* recipes.

But that's only part of the story, of course. Where do the ingredients come from?

In our case, a lot of our food comes from our farm and garden. Jim and I grow our own beef and many of our vegetables. We live in a fruit-growing area: apples, cherries, peaches, pears, apricots. In the summer we don't spend a lot on groceries. We watched the back-to-the-land movement in the 70s and 80s from our rural background, wondering how folks had gotten so far away from knowing where their food came from.

In the past few years, since the books 100 Mile Diet and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle came out, there's been a huge resurgence toward local, organic, sustainable eating. That's a good thing. We haven't jumped on this thing with whole abandon, but are definitely increasing awareness once again, thanks to our kids. We're also looking at more ways to use the forty acres we have to contribute to our own food and that of other local residents. If this is the type of lifestyle that interests you, you might want to follow our new blog, Scratch. I won't be talking about most of those issues here much, so don't expect cross-posts.

Pern novels

2009-03-10T14:47:00.003-06:00

In response to my MICE post on Sunday, I said I wondered if Anne McCaffrey's Pern series had come about from a milieu (setting) spark, so I wandered over to her website and found the answer in her FAQ posts. Here's what she says:

Back in 1967, I was sitting in my living room in Sea Cliff, Long Island, wondering what sort of creatures I could use in my next story. Since S-F is a “what-if” form of fiction, I suddenly wondered, “what if dragons were the good guys?” Then I had to develop a planet which needed a renewable airforce against some unknown menace and came up with Pern, dragons, Thread and humans who Impressed a hatchling in a lifelong symbiotic relationship. Rather wonderful to have an intelligent partner that loves you unconditionally. Who wouldn’t like a forty-foot telepathic dragon as their best friend? By the time my (then) children got home from school, I knew how it would all start: “Lessa woke cold.” I finished Weyr Search by summer and John W. Campbell bought it immediately for ANALOG Magazine and asked me to do more stories about Pern.

Guess that answers that. Pern started out as an idea series, not milieu.

MICE

2009-03-08T22:22:00.002-06:00

Ha, I bet that got your attention! I'm talking about Orson Scott Card's four-cornered story foundation, not four-legged cat food.

MICE stands for: Mileu (or setting), Idea, Character, and Event. Novels need to have all of these in place to be a well-rounded story. (I'd like to say they'd have to have all four to be on a store shelf, but I'm sure someone could point to an example of a book that doesn't!)

What I'm curious about these days is: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The rage these days is for character-driven stories. Trust me, I totally understand that. I like nothing more than to get right in there in characters' heads and experience life through them. It's why I prefer novels in tight third POV or even in first to pretty much anything in omniscient.

But is it necessary to have the character appear in the writers' mind first for the story to be character-driven? I'd like to think that, no matter what the starting point, an experienced writer can pull all the parts of MICE together seamlessly so that it isn't obvious to the reader where the story came from originally.

That said, I tend to come up with ideas first, then audition characters to find the ones who'd like to explore my ideas. What comes first in your mind?

Story Math

2009-03-03T18:20:00.003-07:00

So the original romance novel that I wrote during NaNo was about 54,000 words. The market I'm aiming for is 55-60K. I threw out a bunch of scenes and added new ones. Apparently they are longer ones!

Today I discovered that, at 38K, I've reached the half-way point of my printed-out copy of the original draft. Kinda scares me. I can't afford this book to come in at 76,000! I'm on scene 25 of 53, which seems to tell me about the same thing, lengthwise.

On the other hand, half of the original length is 27K, so if I add 27 (what's LEFT to rewrite) to the current 38, I get 65, which should be much easier to whittle down to 60 than 76 would be.

I'm always on the other end of this stick, trying to lengthen without padding! It's new to be worried about over-length. However I slice it, though, I have a whole bunch of words to go, so I refuse to sweat about it this week. When I actually get through Scene # 53 is when I'll figure out a plan of attack.

I'm still on target for finishing this pass by the end of March, unless it really does turn out to be 76... Nah. I'm NOT going to worry about that today.

I'm not.

Still, that's kinda long, isn't it?

Book Tour--Love Finds You...in Humble, Texas

2009-03-02T09:07:00.004-07:00

Summerside Press is publishing a series called Love Finds You:

Want a peek into local American life--past and present? The Love Finds You^TM series published by Summerside Press features real towns and combines travel, romance, and faith in one irresistible package!

How does it work? Well, (Love Finds You) in Humble Texas is the only book in the series that I've read.

I mentioned recently that I don't read a lot of romances--not because I don't love love as much as the next gal, but because it seems a bit of a stretch to invent so many ways to keep a couple apart realistically for the sake of the story. And yet, the convention of a novel requires that there be true conflict. Preferably something that isn't obviously too manufactured. (Well, that's kind of funny, being as of course the author is manipulating it all, but you know what I mean...don't you?) Being as I'm rewriting a romance novel of my own these days, I'm constantly watching out for what is *realistic* and what isn't.

So the set-up for this story is that two sisters--one an image consultant and very *together*, and the other a retail worker who lacks self-confidence--both fall in love with the same man. Miss Priss saw him first, decided he wasn't the guy for her, sets him up with her sister, then decides she loves him after all and wants him back. The humble, introspective sister is very kind and allows this to happen...if the guy is willing. But of course they don't tell him what's up.

To me this arrangement took a bit to get off the ground. When Trudie, the heroine, allowed her younger sister Lane to get another chance at the gorgeous Mason, I wasn't invested in her character enough yet to see this as believable. Once the story got rolling, it mostly worked, but the introduction to the issue felt awkward to me.

Here's the opening paragraph:

Trudie Abernathy always wondered about two things. First, how was it that some people could live charmed lives while others accumulated troubles like those beetles that spent their time rolling up balls of dung? And secondly, how could one person fall in love as effortlessly as a sneeze, while another hobbled along on love as if it were a twisted ankle?

One of the premises of the entire series is that the interesting name of the featured town be a significant part of the story. Thus Trudie of Humble, Texas, is the *humble* sister, but in the end things work out well for everyone. I read the novel in a couple of evenings and found much to enjoy. Enough to make me wonder what cool town names haven't been written about yet in this series!

Anita Higman is the author of over 20 books ranging from romances to mysteries to devotionals to plays to children's books. Wow, busy gal with a diverse set of interests! She lives in Texas. But not, I believe, in Humble.

Agents?

2009-02-28T19:06:00.002-07:00

I've heard this is what an agent's life is like. What do you think?

(Thanks to Rachelle Gardner at WordServe!)

Pushing for words

2009-02-27T09:50:00.002-07:00

My main excitement these days is the romance rewrite, so there's not a lot of variety in my life. There isn't room for it when I'm pushing for 3000 words a day around customers, sales dudes, and freight trucks. I admire folks who can work all day and still put out a meaningful set of words regularly in the evening. My brain just shuts down. (My kids used to call 10pm Mommy Pumpkin Time, but I have to admit 9pm isn't much better!)

Looks like I'll be up for teaching a workshop at Forward Motion in May, so I'm mulling over that and will soon have to start doing more than mulling and actually start planning!

In other news, my website redesign is coming along nicely. The old one is still what's showing when you click over, but I'm hoping to launch the new-and-improved version sometime in March. My daughter is doing the design and tech work on WordPress. Adding static pages is my job, and one I've already started. Coming soon to a valeriecomer.com near you!

Winter Walk

2009-02-22T12:42:00.011-07:00

It's been a couple years probably since I've posted a photo tour of where I walk daily. This morning it was -15 Celcius (about +5F) and the hoar frost was intensively beautiful. I waited till the sun came up (after 9) to walk Brody and grabbed the camera. We've had only a couple of small snowfalls since the first week of January. Since then, most days have been about the same temperature (cold!) and foggy and/or cloudy. It's nice to see the sun. Here it is peeking through a frost-covered tree at the end of our driveway:

Not far west on our one-mile-long road is what I call The Sentinel. Remind you of anyone you know?

A bit farther west there are trees on both sides of the road:

Our road ends on private property just beyond the irrigation channel, so it's Brody's and my turnaround spot. Here we've just turned back. The neighbors have been enjoying the speedway of the channel!

Here are the neighbor's corrals:

Somebody I know loves the snow and isn't near as tired of the cold as I am!

That same somebody loves to eat rose hips; I'm surprised there are any left on the bushes.

Just about back to our farm.

And when I look south-east again, towards the sun, I see there are still wisps of fog in that direction.

I hope you enjoyed this virtual walk. I'm sure it was warmer for you than it was for me!

Rewriting versus Revising versus Editing

2009-02-19T19:21:00.002-07:00

Seems like folks have different definitions for these three terms. Today you get mine.

Editing a novel is the final polish. It's the act of catching typos and clarifying confused sentences and adding in a bit of five-dimensional senses. If your novel is in good enough shape that all it needs is an edit, you can expect to make speedy progress through this draft.

Revising is where most of my second (and sometimes third) drafts live. I need to shift scenes around, rewrite some scenes completely to get more depth, maybe change up the pov character. When I'm revising, I've got the bones of the story pretty well but still need to wrastle it into shape.

Rewriting is more drastic yet, and that's where I am this week with the romance novel. Some scenes in this book needed revising, mostly in depth of character point-of-view. But the scenes that needed replacing really really needed replacing in their entirety. As in, parts of the over all novel plotline worked and parts didn't. This week I'm in the midst of a section that didn't. (The lame part that had me scrawling Seriously???? in the print-out margins...) I've added a complete new subplot and other new bits to amp up this part and help to complete the whole.

Still, to get through the entire 60,000-word novel by the end of March means I need to keep to about 10K a week. This week that 10K has been all new material. Take out a day to intensely revise a one-page synopsis in chat, and suddenly you're looking at 2500-word days instead of 2000. Lose a second day to customers, and you're mighty thankful you got a bit ahead last week. However, I've made 3K each of the last two days and if I can pull off 2K tomorrow, I'm still pretty much on track. Big if, being as it's a half day. Wish me luck!

Book Tour--Cyndere's Midnight--Day3

2009-02-18T09:08:00.001-07:00

I'm always interested in a novel's hook. The first few paragraphs go a long way in either enticing me to read more or allowing me to set the book down for *later*. Of course, sometimes later never comes. An author such as Jeffrey Overstreet, whom I've already learned to trust may get a bit more of a break than someone I haven't read before.

Cyndere's Midnight starts with a brief prologue. I'm about as much of a fan of prologues, in general, as I am of omniscient point of view. This prologue reveals Auralia (though not named) working her colorful magic in The Expanse, proving that she is still there but choosing not to be seen.

Chapter one starts with Cyndere (pronounced SIN-der):

Cyndere walked down to the water to make her daily decision--turn and go back into House Bel Amica, or climb Stairway Rock and throw herself into the sea.

Okay, I have to pause here. As first sentences go, that one is an attention grabber. We have a character who has a habit--a habit of choosing every single day whether this is the day she will suicide or not. I don't know about you, but I kept right on reading. What had happened to her to make this sort of despair a part of her routine? And why, if it was so very tempting, hadn't she done it yet? Back to the opening:

It had become a habit. Leaving her chambers early, while the mirror-lined hallways were empty of all but servants, she would traverse many bridges, stairs, and passages and emerge on the shores of the Rushtide Inlet, escaping the gravity of distraction. Today in the autumn bluster, she wore her husband's woolen stormcloak at the water's edge. She brought her anger. She brought her dead.

While the fog erased the wild seascape, waves exploded against the ocean's scattered stone teeth, washed wide swaths of pebbles, and sighed into the sand. They carried her father's whispers from many years past, mornings when he had walked with her along the tide's edge and dreamt aloud. His bristling gray beard smelled of salt, prickling when he rested his chin on her head. He would place one hand on her shoulder and with the other hold a seashell to her ear. "Hear that?" he'd say. "That's your very own far-off country. You will walk on ground no one has ever seen. And I'm going to find it for you when I venture out to map the Mystery Sea."

He had done just that. While Cyndere's mother, Queen Thesera, stayed home to govern her people within House Bel Amica's massive swell of stone, King Helpryn discovered islands, sites for future Bel Amican settlements.

A shipwreck took the king when he tried to cross a stormy span between those islands.

Most all the reading I've done about opening scenes says not to give too much backstory right up front. First the reader needs to care about the character NOW before she gives a rip how the character came to this moment of their lives. Yet after this sordid beginning Overstreet goes on to document, albeit poetically, the demise of Cyndere's brother and husband. How does he keep our attention through what is basically three pages of history? Because of the strength of that opening sentence. Let me repeat it:

Cyndere walked down to the water to make her daily decision--turn and go back into House Bel Amica, or climb Stairway Rock and throw herself into the sea.

In her book Beginnings, Middles & Ends, Nancy Kress provides us with The Swimming Pool Theory:

Structuring fiction is like kicking off from the side of a swimming pool. The stronger and more forceful your opening kick, the longer you can glide through the water. The stronger and more forceful your opening scene, the less your reader will mind a "glide" through nondramatized backfill.

I think Overstreet's opening sentence is strong enough to propel us through three pages that show us what led up to it. Do you?

As near as I can figure out, there are two more strands to Auralia's Thread. Strand 3, Cal-Raven's Ladder, is due out in 2010.

Book Tour--Cyndere's Midnight--Day2

2009-02-17T09:39:00.001-07:00

I've spent much of the past week mulling over Cyndere's Midnight. What did I like better than Auralia's Colors? Was there anything that didn't live up to the potential of the first book?

What I liked better, for sure, was the more defined third person point-of-view, getting closer to the characters, getting into their skins, feeling what makes them tick. I also liked that there was more action, and a more discernable plot line. I'd loved the poetic grace of Jeffrey Overstreet's prose in the first book, but I have to say that it wasn't greatly diminished by the faster pace of book two. This is a strong, well-written book.

The Christian Manifesto posted an interview with Overstreet in which they discussed Cyndere's Midnight. Feel free to read the whole thing, but here are a couple of bits I'd like to explore further.

Overstreet says:

I was five years old. I saw an ad for Jaws in the paper. You know the ad—that famous image of the swimmer, and the beast rising up from underneath. That picture still scares me. It made quite an impression on my five-year-old imagination. And for the first time, I coped with my fear by writing a story about it. It was called “The Sea Monster,” 9 or 10 pages of green paper with felt-tip pen drawings, stapled together. I have it in a file somewhere. It was just a story in drawings, but I turned it into an epic battle between a swimmer and a thing with massive jaws. I just had to resolve that tension, that closing gap between the woman and the monster.

Now, Cyndere’s Midnight is in bookstores—and what is it? Well, on one level, it’s a story about a beautiful woman and a monster with big teeth… and that scary space between them.

I have to say I didn't see anything of the movie Jaws in this novel, so I found it intensely interesting that Overstreet sees this novel as his interpretation of the concept.

The interviewer asked again, more specifically, what this book was about. Here is the answer:

After Auralia’s Colors, I wanted to explore what might happen if a beastman came into contact with the same mysterious beauty that Auralia unleashed upon the world. Right away, I realized that this story was a strange variation on “Beauty and the Beast.” But in my version, “beauty” meant something different. Here was a woman broken by grief, and a man broken by a curse. Both were drawn to the same magical, beautiful place. Their shared experience of that beauty became the core of the story.

From this quote I gather that Overstreet's theme for Cyndere's Midnight is that of healing the brokenness. Many people have difficult things in their lives. Some--a few--have been truly broken by deep pain. It is to these that Overstreet extends his story of healing. Tomorrow we'll look at the opening sequence, where you'll get an idea of what pain is found in the midnight Cyndere endures.

Book Tour--Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet

2009-02-16T09:33:00.003-07:00

In the past few years I've had the privilege of reading quite a few speculative fiction releases by various Christian authors through the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy Blog Tour. There have been very few that I simply didn't like, but there have been equally few that I have loved. The Sword of Lyric series by Sharon Hinck are amongst the truly loved...and Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet. Even though it was written in omni.

I talked about Auralia's Colors here and here and here when I read it just over a year ago. I looked forward to the second novel in the series and have recently completed reading it.

Cyndere's Midnight is the second *strand* in The Auralia Thread series. At the end of the first book Auralia herself disappeared. Not in a way that smacked of foul play, just that her initial job was done. So while she doesn't really play an immediate role in this second novel, the mark she left on The Expanse is still growing and still affecting everyone she came in contact with.

About the only thing I didn't love about the first novel was Jeffrey Overstreet's use of omniscient point-of-view. I quickly got sucked into the novel anyway and found it didn't bother me once I was immersed. In Cyndere's Midnight I found that Overstreet used a limited third viewpoint and that it helped me to feel closer to the characters.

There are four major players in this novel, some of whom we knew well from the prequel: the ale boy, who still doesn't have a name; Cal-Raven, now king of the remnant of Abascar; and the beastman, Jordam, whom Auralia's colors had *tamed*. Cyndere is new--I don't remember if she was mentioned in the previous novel or not, but she definitely wasn't a player.

Cyndere and her husband had a dream to help the beastmen to throw off the curse that had brought down their house, but Cyndere's husband was killed by the beastmen while trying to make contact. Devastated, Cyndere swings between severe depression and hints of hope that the dream might yet become a reality. When she and Jordam meet at a mysterious well where Auralia's colors are prevalent, the world of The Expanse is set upon a new course.

Tomorrow we'll have a look at some of the prevalent themes in Cyndere's Midnight, but if you are interested in reading what other bloggers are saying about this book in the meanwhile, check out these links:
Brandon Barr, Keanan Brand, Rachel Briard, Melissa Carswell, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Jason Isbell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Carol Keen, Magma, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, Wade Ogletree, John W. Otte, John Ottinger, Steve Rice, Crista Richey, Alice M. Roelke, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Rachel Starr Thomson, Robert Treskillard, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Fred Warren, Jill Williamson

Multiple Genres

2009-02-13T21:43:00.003-07:00

The romance revision is going well. I cleared 12K this week, officially 20% of the rewrite. I've written a couple of all new scenes, ransacked some old ones for usable information, and rewritten some that just needed wording beefed up. Looking ahead at the outline, about the next six or seven scenes are all new material, taking the place of the section I mentioned in a previous post (where the original scenes got Seriously???? scrawled in the margin!) I'm pretty pleased with the results thus far.

So, some may think I'm crazy entering three novels in three different genres into the Genesis contest this year. I may well be. I know the official wisdom is that it's hard enough to make a go of writing in one genre, and that writing in several (unless you're REALLY FAST, like PaperBackWriter) is a ridiculous concept. It confuses your readers (should one be lucky enough to ever get any, lol) and makes focusing your marketing difficult.

Well, that's all true, but at this moment no one is beating down my door offering me any publishing deals, so I'm still experimenting and finding my voice. I love fantasy, but in the process of writing several speculative novels (and having a few more in the wings) I'm finding the types of it that I like to write--and won't bother focusing any more on the ones that don't call me as much. And while I don't read a lot of romance or *women's fiction*, I've met some I really enjoyed a lot. So I'm experimenting.

I guess this means that whichever genre door opens for me (if any) I'll walk through. Maybe at that point I'll try to juggle more than one, maybe I won't. But for now it's a moot point.

Revision Outline

2009-02-04T21:03:00.003-07:00

As near as I can remember, I am currently working on my sixth novel revision. By the time I'd written my first novel, I'd figured out that an outline would be a huge help. Why did it take me so long to understand that the same thing would be true of revision?

In 2007 I spent most of the year revising one novel, and I'm happy with the result. The process, however, was like pulling hair out by the handful. I worked through from beginning to end, going back and forth as I discovered issues. For instance, realizing something needed to be foreshadowed, then searching out the best place to put in a mention earlier. Realizing I'd dropped a thread, and looking for places to tie them off later on without drawing undue attention. Or should this thread have become more important rather than dwindling? Back and forth, back and forth. Just keeping track of all this (in my head, of course--where else?) was headache inducing and there were days I simply couldn't face the mental gymnastics required.

Holly Lisle talks about a one-pass revision. I thought I was doing this, for the most part. But I was so bogged down I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Many days, I couldn't see the trees for the twigs and leaves in my face.

About a year ago Margaret taught a workshop at Forward Motion about using a revision outline. I could see that this method worked with what Holly had been trying to teach. Since then, I've taken Holly's How to Think Sideways online writing course (highly recommended, by the way!) and feel that the process has clarified for me.

I guess the proof is in the pudding, as they say. I've read through Chloe this past week using techniques learned in the Think Sideways class, and analyzed my scene list with all the insights I've learned since the last big revision. Today I deleted scenes (in outline form) that were either weak or misleading or pointless, and replaced them with ideas that add greater conflict and move the story forward more forcefully. I've still got about the last 20% of the outline to rework. There are several really lame scenes coming up that need to be reworked, but I think I've got the underpinnings in place to deal with it.

This is all going in Scrivener. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this program for Macs? One thing Holly teaches is something she calls The Sentence Lite, in which one tries to get to the central kernel of the conflict of the individual scene. This Sentence Lite is what goes on the front of my Scrivener notecards, but, being as they're virtual notecards, there's plenty of room on the *back* for additional details, such as what subplots are carried in this scene, what additional characters are present, etc.

This is giving me the best of both worlds. I used to simply write *about* the scene on the notecards, and then wonder why the scene, when written, fell flat. Well, some of them weren't really scenes, didn't have solid conflict, didn't do any thing that pushed the whole story forward. They had good information in them and were often needed to a degree, yet still fell short of the goal. Spending a bit of extra time to focus on the core conflict of each scene ahead of time helps me to clarify the path through the scene.

At least, that's the goal. I wrote the new first chapter to Chloe's story yesterday, then went back to the re-outlining today with a new sense of purpose. I have a much clearer vision of where this story is going, and what I'd like to accomplish with it. Having this version of an outline is energizing!

How Writing Changes

2009-01-31T11:23:00.002-07:00

I wrote a contemporary inspirational romance novel a few years ago, for NaNo 2005. I promptly pushed it off to the side and proceeded on my merry way playing with fantasy novels and ideas again, but the story resurfaced about a year ago when I was chatting with my friend Jean. I snippeted her a few bits and then she read the whole thing. The first draft, scary thought. And said nice things. (Not ONLY nice things, mind, but included them).

Through that the idea of revising and shaping up this story took hold, though certainly not to the exclusion of anything else, lol. I played with it a bit at the time, but soon came to realize the problems were deeper than I'd thought at first and set it aside again.

So, the other day I printed out the whole thing and began to read through, making brief notes on every scene. Along about fifty pages in, the note for one scene was simply a large X and "delete." And for the next scene, I scrawled across the page, "Seriously?" I'd found a few really good bits (the ones I'd first shared with Jean!) but way more dross. A LOT of dross.

I sat back in my chair and thought about the characters, their kids, their issues. She's too nice, I thought. She takes monumental stuff totally in stride. Superwoman! Okay, so it's official. She needs a makeover. I began mulling over *logical* makeovers that would tweak things but not necessitate ALL new scenes!

After a few minutes, I turned my attention to the hero. Also a pretty good guy. Slightly less perfect than the heroine, but nothing that really qualifies as a character flaw. A little case of temper, perhaps, would go a long way. Or maybe...

In just over three years, my writing style has changed a lot. I've learned to characterize much better (even my stupid whiny hero from Tempest has more personal issues than these folks). And I've learned to get much deeper into point-of-view. Quite a bit I've done since then has been in first person, which helps with the deeper, but the potential markets for this romance novel want third.

Even in third, this main character thinks too much! So the first thing is to bring someone directly into that opening paragraph/scene so she can TALK about stuff instead of THINK about it. The meeting with the hero later in the scene is reasonably okay as is. She shouldn't tell him all this stuff yet. But she needs a new best friend to bounce issues off of.

I've set aside the month of February to hit this novel and bring it into line. I'd like to think I could do it all in one month--after all, I wrote the entire 52K in one November!--but I'm thinking it may take a little longer. Hopefully not a lot longer, though. Maybe six weeks? Two months tops.

I'm reworking character profiles as we speak, and I still need to mine the previous manuscript for more good stuff to carry over. It's in there. The bones are decent, and worth rebuilding from.

If you're wondering why I'm not writing either Tempest or Dottie these days, the answer simply is that I'm not. Though I've been poking at Dottie recently and getting good ideas of how things need to proceed. One thing her story does not suffer from is weak characterization. The novel is populated with true individuals and they agree on very little. Lots of fun sparks. I'm stopping short of calling Tempest dead. But she's on life support, which is sad as it is some of my strongest writing thus far. One day the answers to my questions about her will erupt in my mind and she'll hit the road running again. I hope.

The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs -- Day 3

2009-01-20T20:54:00.004-07:00

Here it is, the wrap-up day for the blog tour for A Book of Names. It's been interesting to read what various folks have said about it. (Check my Day 1 post for the complete list of tourists.)

Steve Rice doesn't let the fact that he hasn't read a book stop him. Check out his Genuine Fake Review for a few laughs as he reviews the Amazon book reviews.

Becky Miller and Chawna Schroeder expressed concern about the darkness portrayed in some of the scenes, particularly from the villains' pov scenes. To be honest, this level hadn't quite caught my attention, perhaps in part because it's been quite a few years since I've had a young teen in my house and, in general, I tend to read more mainstream fantasy than specifically Christian. So the advice for parents to preview for younger readers may not be a bad idea.

On the other hand, Keanan Brand got the goods from his 10-year-old niece, Jamie, who read the book and agreed to be interviewed about her impressions. Here is the link to the first segment, and here is the link to the second. I'm heading back later today to check for the third installment. After all, Keanan says this (emphasis my own):

I'm still reading the book, and should finish it by tomorrow, in time for my last post for this month's tour. I liked the poem and the map at the beginning, but--I confess--aside from the opening sentence, the first page just didn't grab me. Maybe that's because it wasn't intended to get a grown-up's attention. Jamie, however, devoured the book like a bear raiding picnic baskets at the park, and would have consumed more if the second book had been available.

(Hang in there, Jamie. Book 2, Corus the Champion is available for pre-order now!)

So of course, you know me. I have to post up the opening bit of the novel for you. Like Keanan, I wasn't smitten with the poem (too long, too cryptic), so I'll just head straight into Chapter 1:

The day was gray and cold, mildly damp. Perfect for magic. Strange clouds overhead teased the senses with a fragrance of storm, wind, and lightning, and the faint, clean smell of ozone. Invisible energy sparkled like morning dew on blades of grass.

Standing alone in an empty field on the back end of their new acreage, Hadyn Barlow only saw the clouds. By definition, you can’t see what’s invisible, and as for smelling magic? Well, let’s just say, unlikely. Hadyn saw what was obvious for late November, rural Missouri: leafless trees, dead grass, winter coming on strong. Most of all he saw (and despised) the humongous briar patch in front of him, feeling anew each and every blister and callus earned hacking through its branches.

Making room for cattle next spring, or so he was told; this, even though his dad had never owned a cow in his life. He was a history teacher, for crying out loud. A college professor. Hadyn’s shoulders slumped. It didn’t matter. Everything was different now.

Mr. Barlow didn’t let his boys curse, but low under his breath, Hadyn did, mildly, just to prove the point. Life stunk. That was the brutal truth.

All true for the most part. Yet standing alone in the field, bundled in flannel, something else prickled his skin--something hidden in the rhythm of the day, at its core--and it wasn’t just the chill wind. He couldn’t shake it. A sense of something. Out-of-placeness. Faced with a friendless sophomore year, Hadyn knew that feeling all too well. It attacked him every morning, right before school.

But this was something more, more than the usual nervousness and name-calling stuff. His intuition was maddeningly vague. Hadyn sniffed the air, eyeing the field. A fox scampered in the distance. Bobwhites whistled softly. This had been his routine for weeks. Go to school, come home, do chores. Today was no different. Except for the clouds.

Download and read the entire first chapter here.

Even though The Book of Names doesn't have a rapid-fire opening scene, I still found it intriguing. What was different about this day, really? What, in combination, made Hadyn's life stink? Why only mention his father? Why would a man, a history professor, who'd never raised cattle decide he wanted cows at this stage of his life?

I can feel the day, and I can feel Missouri in November. I believe that author D. Barkley Briggs has been there. I'm grounded, rooted, and already feeling the magic in the air that he is certain to spring any minute now.

And he does.

Thanks for touring with me!

The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs -- Day 2

2009-01-20T09:54:00.004-07:00

D. Barkley Briggs wrote this novel (and the rest of the upcoming series) for his four sons, which is one of the best reasons I can think of for penning a manuscript. I asked Mr. Briggs about the connections between his family situation and the novel. He says:

"The story is very much rooted in my kids' lives and the impact of the last few years on our family. The names are even similar to my kids' real names: Hanson, Hadyn....Evan, Ewan....Gatlin, Garret....Gabe, Gage. I've infused the book with aspects of their personality, and the realities of the loss we suffered when my wife lost her battle with cancer at a young age. Our world turned upside down in every way imaginable. It was like being exiled to a foreign country, and all you really want is to go back home. So while the pain you read is real, the point of the story was to find a way to immerse myself and my boys back into the adventure of life.

"I think it's important for people to realize the magic and thrill of the tale, no strings attached. The average reader will easily lose themselves in the fantasy without feeling the heaviness of what compelled me to write it. For many, it's just going to be a great read, nothing more---and that's exactly what I want. But for others, for kids and parents that have been knocked around a bit, they'll read it with an additional level of empathy. Regardless, I think most teens and preteens will appreciate the honesty with which I've tried to present some of the issues they have to face. Hope so, anyway! As it relates to my boys, I simply wanted to find a voice for the hardship that they could feel was their own, that would enable them (and me) to live again.

"In short...the fantasy is entirely my creation, but the journey is very much theirs."

Knowing the situation does bring a deeper understanding of the story in The Book of Names. Readers not going through a similar grief will still feel the edge of the pain that the characters Hadyn and Ewan (in particular) have gone through, lending depth to the tale.

The main message Mr. Briggs sends his sons--and to those who read the words over his boys' shoulders is summed up in The Calling:

Don't give up. Hang in there. Answer the Call.

The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs

2009-01-19T09:04:00.004-07:00

It's time for the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy tour for January. I love being introduced to new books, new authors, new series. It seems that most of the fantasy novels coming out in Christian circles are aimed at a Young Adult audience, and this month's pick, A Book of Names, is not the exception.

In this article, debut author D. Barkley Briggs talks about what draws him to fantasy:

This is the power of speculative fiction. This is the power of fantasy: to capture the mind, to both focus and liberate the emotional, imaginative faculties, to form real and symbolic connections, to viscerally associate yourself with a magical, desirable, grand-scaled life.

He goes into greater detail of what he means in a follow-up post.

The Book of Names thrums of the author's dedication to exploring those fantasy connections while never once bopping the reader on the head and saying: "This is what I want you to get."

Here's a brief introduction to the novel:

Here's what other bloggers are saying: Sally Apokedak, Brandon Barr, Keanan Brand, Rachel Briard, Frank Creed, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Timothy Hicks, Joleen Howell, Jason Isbell, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Carol Keen, Magma, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mirtika, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, Steve Rice, Crista Richey, Alice M. Roelke, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Jason Waguespac, Phyllis Wheeler, Timothy Wise

Stand-In Groom by Kaye Dacus

2009-01-19T09:00:00.002-07:00

I don't read a lot of straight-up contemporary romance novels. Not because I don't believe in romance--I certainly do!--but because it seems many stories are awkward at finding the right balance. I mean, we all know the plot pattern, right? Boy meets girl, there's some almost insurmountable bumps in the road, it all comes out fine, and the ending is HEA (happily ever after). Because we know that they'll get each other in the end, the wrap-up is never in doubt. We don't read romance for the ending but for the path.

My personal opinion is that it's hard to find believable conflicts to put in the path of these two characters who are obviously going to end up together. Conflicts that are significant enough that it's not some silly misunderstanding that could've been cleared up on page ten and saved us all from thinking "If they only talked to each other!!!" Because I'm a writer myself and have penned one contemporary romance (alongside a pile of fantasy novels), I've brainstormed a lot of conflicts in search of ones that are realistic and workable. It's not as easy as writers like Kaye Dacus make it look. I'd say she nailed the conflict department. The premise of Stand-In Groom?

When professional wedding planner Anne Hawthorne first meets the handsome Englishman George Laurence, she wonders if God has finally answered her prayers for a husband. But when the "best man" for her turns out to be a client--and someone else's to-have-and-to-hold--Anne quickly realizes that planning his wedding will be no honeymoon. Can she remain professional while falling for the groom?

A personal assistant for a wealthy man who wishes to keep his identity--and his engagement--a secret, George Laurence has come to Louisiana to plan his employer's wedding and pose as the groom. Not only is this a challenge to the tenets of his Christian faith, but he can't stand the fact that he's deceiving Anne, the first woman who ever made his heart really sing. Will George ultimately risk his career to keep the woman he loves?

And what will happen when Anne finds out the groom's true identity? Can Anne and George find a way to a happy ending, or will this "I do" ruse destroy their chance at love?

Having an evening with no real plans and no real energy this past week, I read this novel published by Barbour Books in one sitting. And I quite enjoyed it. I'll be happy to read subsequent books in this series.

If you're interested in reading the first chapter, click here.

2009 plans

2009-01-17T11:12:00.003-07:00

Well, here it is the 17th day of the new year. You'd think I could post up some goals for it at some point, eh? Perhaps my first goal should be...

1. Blogging more. Aiming for at least once a week might be a good idea.
2. Getting my website completely redone and the blog integrated. Hopefully within the next month.

Most of the things in my life that I have *some* measure of control over are writing related. While many of the highlights of last year (and previous years) are in family areas, those aren't areas where public goals make sense. So here goes on writing ones:

3. Novel Submissions: Keep Majai's Fury in submission. (I've sent queries out twice already this year, and it's been rejected once. So I'm succeeding in this goal, thus far.)

4. Writing: Finish Dottie and Tempest. (It looks like Dottie is going to move forward and be the first for concentration. I'm taking her story through the How to Think Sideways course as we speak.) I'll consider doing NaNo this year, if these are complete and nothing else seems to be more pressing.

5. Contests: I plan to submit at least two entries into the Genesis. Of course I would like to increase my *streak* of finaling and increase my standing. *If* I final again this year, I'd like to try to get to conference in September. But that's not quite a goal.

6. Revising: I'm not sure what will hit the front burner on this one. It depends on how long the writing from Goal 4 takes. At the moment it's a toss-up between Quest to Be Queen and Chloe. I wish I revised faster is the real truth!

7. Critiquing: I'll take on up to four novels this year for crit, though I'm not sure right now which of my partners will have something ready. So this goal is a bit vague.

8. Forward Motion: Continue with moderator duties at FM, including writing and facilitating one new workshop this year. Other things may come up.

9. Book Tours: I'm committed still to touring at least a dozen new books on this blog this year. Maybe it's cheating to stick it in my goals when there will be two next week!

The Store Wars!

2009-01-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Here is Cuke Skywalker: "May the Farm be with you!"

Looking back at 2008

2009-01-01T17:21:00.003-07:00

In the spirit of entertainment, I revisited my goals for 2008. In summary, I hoped to:

1. Keep sending out Marks of Repentance (now renamed Majai's Fury). After awhile, analyze whether the novel and/or the query package need another revision.
2. Complete revision of Quest to be Queen, get it out to critters and hopefully into submission in 2008.
3. Revise the opening chapters to Chloe's story (romance) and The Girl Who Cried Squid and submit both to the Genesis contest in April.
4. Revise both novels, send to critters.
5. Write something. Maybe two somethings.
6. Keep critting
7. Keep up with moderator duties at Forward Motion

How did I do?
1. I did keep sending out MF, but not nearly as much as I could/should have.
2. I completed the revision of QtBQ, sent it out to critters, and now have more work to do on it.
3. Of the two openings I planned to enter in Genesis in '08, I only entered one (TGWCS), but I did place third in my category for it.
4. But did not revise it.
5. Did not write two somethings or even one something. I did make reasonable progress on two separate projects, though, so I'll pretend that counts!
6. Critting? Well, that depends on my buddies having novels to swap. This year I critted two of them.
7. Mod duties at FM grew this year with the addition of the highly successful workshop program.

But in reality, many of the highlights of 2008 for me weren't related to my writing dreams, although some certainly were. The best things about 2008?

1. My hubby getting a local job again after 2.5 years of the nasty commute to his four-on, four-off job at the coal mines.
2. A two-day writing seminar in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, in April with Randy Ingermanson and my two new buddies, Bonne and Viv.
3. A great *Girls* trip to Victoria in May with my daughter and daughter-in-law. Even though the car broke down.
4. My daughter and son-in-law spending four months with us this summer--an unexpected but wonderful interlude.
5. A puppy, Brody. Some days he's not the best thing ever, but some days he is.
6. My walking buddies at Walking to Somewhere, with whom I have (virtually) logged over 1200 miles, and for my husband and the pup, who have been my real companions for many of those miles!
7. As part of the local hikes, we explored a lot of our local area and discovered some of the history with the native pictographs, etc, and got started in geocaching.
8. Placing third in the Genesis contest with the opening pages of my novel, The Girl Who Cried Squid.
9. My in-laws' celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in September, which was a great excuse for a family party and a time to honor them.
10. A great one-week trip to Lake Tahoe with Margaret in December, with lots of hiking and laughing.
11. Spending Christmas in Victoria with our kids and their spouses, spending great family time together. And surviving the nasty roads to and from.
12. No major flare-ups of degenerative disc this entire year!!!

That's a pretty spur-of-the-moment list, but definitely things I've been thankful for this year.

What are the highlights of 2008 in YOUR little worlds? Let me know if you've posted a list or recap!

Blog Tour--Lost Genre Guild

2008-12-30T10:09:00.002-07:00

This month's Christian Science Fiction Fantasy blog tour is featuring The Lost Genre Guild. The LGG's goal is to become a hub of biblical speculative fiction online. The website states:

The number-one reason people buy books is because they're recommended by family or friends. Publishers know the market is out there, which is why publishers keep throwing the dice on spec-fic. Publisher's traditional shotgun marketing isn't hitting the target market.

Why?

Christian genre fans gave-up on Christian bookstore shelves. Shotgun marketing aims inside the box, and our readership isn't in the box. Nobody home. According to the 80-20 rule of marketing, 80% of sales comes from 20% of efforts. The trick is identifying and focusing on that 20%.

The site includes forums, a Yahoo group, and a blog. If you're interested in the genre, check out this group! And here's what other bloggers are saying:

Brandon Barr, Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Kathy Brasby, Grace Bridges, Courtney, Frank Creed, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Joleen Howell, Jason Isbell, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Kait, Carol Keen, Lost Genre Guild, Mike Lynch, Magma, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Crista Richey, Mirtika, Hanna Sandvig, James Somers, Robert Treskillard, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Jason Waguespac, Phyllis Wheeler, Timothy Wise

Leaflette-on-Etsy

2008-12-05T10:03:00.004-07:00

If you have folks on your gift-list who are young or young-at-heart, may I suggest you stop by my very talented daughter's Etsy shop, Leaflette? She has additional information--more photos and a coupon code--on her blog, Hanna's Life is Cool.

If you're not familiar with her art (not sure how that could've happened, being as you're my friend and all!), let me tell you a bit about it. Hanna has always loved to color and draw since she was big enough to wrap her wee fingers around a crayon. Her daddy and I happily bought her artist sets and paints and sketch books and pencils as birthday and Christmas gifts throughout her childhood as she continued to show both talent and determination. When we bought our first computer in 1993, she even figured out how to use that super basic computer program--was it called Paint? or Paintbrush? Where you dotted the pixels by color? (I always thought a person could use that for designing cross-stitch patterns, but I digress.)

I guess that got her started, because she now does all her artwork digitally, though her programs have gotten more complex and her art has matured as well. She has built a website with her art portfolio on it as well as samples of website and blog designs she's done.

About a year ago she began experimenting with printing her art on 100% cotton fabric and making it colorfast. With that process in place, she designed dolls and birds that she prints onto fabric, cuts out, sews, and stuffs. This process makes toys for babies and toddlers that are completely child-friendly and can be machine washed.

She's also selling quite a few prints of her artwork at Leaflette in 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10, ready to frame up and hang on the wall. Or you can purchase them as fabric prints for use in quilts or toys of your own. Here's one of my favorite illustrations: Birder Boy.

Stay tuned in the New Year because Hanna has sold an illustration to a well-known magazine, and I'll be posting up the details when I'm free to do so! Meanwhile, go browse at Leaflette, and maybe you'll find something you'd like to purchase.

Good news and bad news

2008-11-27T16:16:00.004-07:00

There's good news and there's bad news. The bad news is that I've been pretty much stalled on Tempest for the better part of two months. The good news is that I discovered that my story had problems before I'd written 100K. I was only half way there.

I've spent the past couple of weeks going through many of the lessons in the How to Think Sideways course from Lesson 7 through 16. This time I've actually done the assignments instead of just reading them :P I also have open (and am working back and forth between) Create a Character Clinic and Create a Plot Clinic, also both by Holly Lisle.

I wish I didn't have to report that I've removed every scene from Aben's viewpoint in the draft thus far. (I moved them to an out-take file, so don't panic. They're not deleted! But I doubt there will be much in them I can re-use.) You'll notice Tempest's status bar on the right went from 47571 to 33618.

I've deleted all Aben's plot cards, completed and *future*. I found out that I'd written a character whose one redeeming feature is that he's a hard worker. He's also full of himself, afraid of heights, and a whiner. How did I not notice this months ago? I have no answer for that. I'm trying to hang onto the fact that I AM seeing it now, before I've finished the novel, before my crit partners look at him and go *huh*?

It's a bit humbling to find myself a third finished a first draft I thought I was half done. It's a bit humbling to find myself making such a simple but complex error when this is my eighth novel. But I'm trying to look on the bright side. Reading through the entire draft this week, Tempest herself is fairly strong. She has a strong voice and she certainly has conflict in every scene and she has a lot at stake in this novel. Sure there will be stuff to revise--it's not perfect--but I'm not throwing out anything but Aben's scenes at this time. I can work with Tempest as a character.

But my job for the next few days is to recreate Aben into a worthy love interest. Sure he needs a flaw or two, but he needs more positives than a good work ethic. Honestly. Where's the romance in that? :P

More on petroglyphs/ pictographs

2008-11-26T09:49:00.005-07:00

Technically the correct term is pictograph for rock paintings. Petroglyph seems to mean rock carvings, though around here and around the web I hear/ see petroglyph for both most of the time. In googling the words pictograph and Kootenay I did find additional information, including this site, which shows this sketch (click on it to see the whole thing):

With a shock of recognition I realized it was the pictographs we found on Sunday, though we couldn't find a *guide* to tell us what the letters on the sketch represent. But apparently just fifty feet south is another (smaller) set, so apparently we have to go back and find them. The other pictographs mentioned on the above linked page (site 76) are the ones we found last month. I've gone back and added a *pictograph* label to keep these types of posts linked. (Wonder what book I'm writing or could write might have these in it?)

We've suddenly become much more interested in the history of our area. Go figure.

Petroglyphs

2008-11-24T10:16:00.014-07:00

A month or so ago we found petroglyphs on a geocaching trip. After that we heard a rumor about another set of them in our valley, so we went hunting them this weekend.

On Saturday we walked along the road where we could see the hillside and plot out possible locations in the right area. There were two sets of bluffs that *might* hold these ancient rock paintings. On Sunday afternoon we headed north on the railway tracks until we came to a cairn. Then we angled down.

We found ourselves on the wrong side of a swamp, but we could just make out the red splotches on the rocks opposite us. See right in the center of the photo? (If you click on the photo, you'll get the big version!) But we couldn't get to them without getting a soaking, and in late November (even a sunny day!) I wasn't keen on that.

So we retraced our steps, found a place we could climb back up to the tracks--STEEP!!!--and followed them through the rock cut and found another trail (fairly easy one) down again on the other side. The ground was a little squoodgy here too, but not under water. We made our way back along the bottom of the cliff, then Jim climbed up to take a few shots. Though I could see the splotches from down below, I couldn't make out the shapes. Jim was calling out, oh, bugs!

Look, there's a dog or a wolf or something!

And a sun...

So of course I had to climb up and have a look for myself! It was a much easier climb than the ones from last month. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to fall and die this time, anyway. (Yeah I'm chicken and afraid of heights. So be it.)

Then it was a long walk back to the truck, and we got home just at dark. But what a cool day!

FlyLady

2008-11-22T07:47:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered what FlyLady is all about?

FlyLady @ Yahoo! Video

Progress?

2008-11-21T09:12:00.003-07:00

If you've been hanging around for long you may have noticed that my main wip, Tempest, has been stalled for awhile. I've been wrestling with how to fix the problems I see and move forward. And in between I've been writing on Dottie and wandering Facebook and Twitter and forums and ignoring the whole mess. And I'd like to write professionally? Um. Not a good habit I've slid into.

So ignoring it doesn't work, and poking it with a stick doesn't work. What does? I've been taking Holly Lisle's 'How to Think Sideways' course for several months now. She's been covering these mired-in-the-middle novels for the last few weeks. I read the lesson and think, interesting what works for her. That would never work for me.

What DOES work for me?

Exactly. I don't know.

So why am I paying her for her experience and advice and then dismissing it? That makes a lot of sense. I haven't got anything to lose by following her plan--and everything to gain. So this week I've bought new printer ink, printed out the lessons I hadn't yet, and began studying the ones I'd only glossed over. I think the reason I wasn't paying close attention was that it looked like a lot of work. Still does. But at least now I'm applying them and working my way through her steps, starting with printing out the 143 pages of manuscript already written (about 48K). Meanwhile I'm reading through the sample novels she's included in the course, ones she turfed and started over on, trying to figure out where she went wrong, where she went right, trying to apply the insights to Tempest.

If all else fails, take a pro's advice. Working on it.

Shade by John Olson Day 3

2008-11-18T10:51:00.004-07:00

Aha! I found it!!! Here's the book trailer for Shade by John Olson.

Let me know if you read it!

Shade by John Olson Day 2

2008-11-18T09:24:00.004-07:00

Yesterday I promised to tell you why I didn't order up Shade by John Olson when I had the opportunity to get a free preview copy. Well, first off you know I'm not really into scary. It's hard to know how scary something is going to be, though, unless you hear a personalized testimonial. (Even then you may not be sure, but it helps!)

Randy Ingermanson has co-authored a couple of books with John Olson and they are, apparently, quite good friends. And in April I attended a workshop taught by Randy. In it, he told us how excited he was for his buddy, and then told us the following story about Shade (which Randy has posted on his blog here and which I am shamelessly stealing):

In any event, as John’s writing buddy, I read SHADE at a physics conference in 1999. I finished it about 1 AM and went to bed. But I couldn’t sleep, so I turned on the light and checked in the bathtub for vampires. (They hide there sometimes.) I checked under the sink. I checked in the medicine cabinet. (You probably know about mirrors.) Then I went back to bed.

But I still couldn’t sleep, so I turned on the light and checked the room thoroughly again. Then I went back to bed.

But I STILL couldn’t sleep, so I made one last check. Those vampires can be sneaky little devils. After an extremely careful check, I went back to bed.

BUT I STILL COULDN’T SLEEP. So I turned on the light. And left it on all night. I can’t sleep with the light on, so I was a wreck the next day. But the point is that I survived the night.

All that was ten years ago. I’m now halfway through SHADE and you know what? It’s scarier this time. It’s better written. (I’ll take credit for that. John learned everything he knows from me. Ya heard it here first.)

Bottom line: SHADE is probably the spookiest book you’ll read all year. DO NOT read this book if you can’t take spooky. It also takes a bit of brain-power to “get it.” DO NOT read this book if you are a shallow reader who won’t “get it.”

Here is your chance to prove you are a deeper reader than me. Someone who "gets it"--whatever "it" is.

Have you read Shade? If not, does Randy's recommendation make you want to read it? Or, like me...chicken out?

Shade by John Olson

2008-11-17T14:05:00.003-07:00

So this month the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy Blog Tour is reviewing Shade.

I was looking for the direct link to the trailer, so you'd understand why I didn't order this book for review, but the direct link seems to be broken. You can go here and scroll down to view it.

The author, John Olson has several other books available, some co-authored with Randy Ingermanson. Tomorrow I'll tell you the REAL reason I didn't order this book! Meanwhile, have a look at what the other tour members are saying:
Brandon Barr, Jennifer Bogart , Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Kathy Brasby, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Joleen Howell, Jason Isbell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Magma, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Robert Treskillard, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise

Reading Meme

2008-11-16T21:42:00.003-07:00

Is November National Meme month? No? You'd think! Rebecca Miller tagged me on this one: Seven random book related facts. Okeydokey, I can do that!

1. My sister taught me to read from Dick and Jane. I remember us lying on our tummies on the bed in the attic bedroom. Thankfully other books had more interesting plot lines.

2. We lived in a remote rural area and got our library books by mail from the University of Manitoba.

3. The first year I attended a school with a library in it was seventh grade. Before that, books were just in a cupboard at the back of the classroom. (No wonder I learned to reread...)

4. Books were a common gift for birthdays and Christmas. Heidi, The Five Little Peppers, The Borrowers.

5. It's my husband's fault I *really* got into SFF, though. He started me on Anne McCaffery and I've never looked back!

6. Our kids learned to read *defensively*. That was what Mommy and Daddy were doing, so it must be fun!

7. I think it is the coolest thing these days to go into bookstores and realize I actually KNOW some of the authors on the shelf. They're people I've exchanged emails with or met through book tours or forums, a few even in person.

Seven folks whose responses to this meme I would like to see are:
1. Hanna
2. Karen
3. Bonne
4. Fiorinda
5. Mirtika
6. EJ
7. Maripat

Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds

2008-11-08T21:07:00.005-07:00

On October first, Marcher Lord Press released its premier offerings: three speculative novels from a Christian worldview. I ordered two, and just finished reading Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds.

Hero, Second Class is the story of apprentice hero, Cyrus Solburg, encompassing his years of training with Sir Reginald Ogleby, also known as The Crimson Slash, and his first solo quest as a Hero, Second Class. Reg has a habit of narrating his own battles (and asking Cyrus to record them, please) because, he says: (p 56)"You think I'd trust some half-wit bard who's never held a sword to accurately describe epic combat? You might as well ask a blind poet!" It's Reg's job to teach Cyrus everything he needs to know to become a hero in his own right, even if the First Thing about being a hero changes every time Reg thinks of something new.

Here's a sample (p 76-77):

"Who just counterspelled me?" he (the villain mage) demanded.

Cyrus smiled. "Over here, Shorty. You want to use magic? Try me."

The mage smiled back, though in a decidedly more evil fashion. "Insolent whelp! I'll show you a thing or Five."

As he pronounced the last word, he flung his hands out, twisting his arms as he did so. His thin wisp of beard blew forward in the backwash as five fragments of flaming frost flashed through the air.

Cyrus had time to either scream or drop to the ground before the ice reached him. He opted for the latter, flinging himself into the snowbank. The inexplicably incandescent icicles passed overhead, smashing harmlessly against a large rock.

A slash of flame rent the newly chilled air and carbonized the mage's hiding-tree. Keeth (dragon) waded out of the drift, shivering massively. "I d-don't l-l-like c-c-cold!"

The Crimson Slash drew himself up to his full Heroic six foot four inches, not counting the boots, and pointed his sword at the now-exposed mage. "Frostbite! I challenge you to a Hero's Combat! Stand your ground!"

Cyrus clapped a hand to his head. Not again, he thought.

The Villain turned slightly aside. "You do? I didn't expect that. Very well. I must use the most powerful spell I have left."

The Crimson Slash shifted his shield to Spell Blocking Position Delta.

"Teleport!" the mage yelled.

"No!" shouted the Crimson Slash, lunging forward.

"Bok in a bucket," Cyrus muttered.

The mage vanished in a shimmer of powdery snow.

"By the Seven Furies..." sputtered Reginald.

Methinks that gives you a bit of a taste of Bonds' voice in this rollicking fantasy spoof. This is a land where Capital Letter and Assymetrical Numbers add strength to magical spells, where Villains band together under an Arch Villain to take over the world, and where Cyrus, with his unusual abilities, is forced to make an impossible choice of who he will save in the final battle.

But is it the final battle? Of course not. Hero, Second Class is Book 1 of The Hero Complex. I, for one, will be around for Book 2.

Reminiscent of Patricia Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, this novel can be enjoyed by folks of any age, but is complex and witty enough to be appreciated by adults. I enjoyed a novel that allowed me to read a few chapters at a time, but that I always wanted to come back to.

If you enjoy spoofs, puns and tongue-in-cheek humor, pick up Hero, Second Class. I'm pretty sure you'll be glad you did!

One Word Meme

2008-11-08T12:28:00.003-07:00

I snatched this off my daughter's site and because I'm in the mood to procrastinate today, thought I'd play along!

Where is your mobile phone? purse
Where is your significant other? recliner
Your hair colour? brown
Your mother? aged
Your father? gone
Your favourite thing? writing
Your dream last night? nonexistant
Your dream goal? published
The room you're in? cozy
Your hobby? walking
Your fear? obscurity
Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
Where were you last night? home
What you're not? patient
One of your wish-list items? travel
Where you grew up? Manitoba
The last thing you did? shower
What are you wearing? clothes
Your TV? off
Your pets? snoozing
Your computer? MacBook :)
Your mood? procrastinating
Missing someone? kids
Your car? broken
Something you're not wearing? shoes
Favourite shop? bookstore
Your summer? gardening
Love someone? YES!
Your favorite colour? sage
When is the last time you laughed? today
When is the last time you cried? dunno

If you want to play along, post a note in comments! It only takes a couple of minutes.

Learning to stop when stuck

2008-11-05T19:38:00.002-07:00

You'd think a stuck person would automatically stop. It pretty much works on vehicles, doesn't it? I guess not entirely--one can spin tires and slide sideways and make a small amount of forward motion for the price of a lot of fuel.

Same can be with writing. I've been more-or-less stuck on Tempest for the past couple of weeks. I can see the rough shape of what needs doing to it to un-stick it, but the sheer amount of work has had me stalled. It's not work itself I'm afraid of. More the fact that while I'm shuffling things, I could lose parts and have a hard time putting the parts back into some kind of a whole. Pathetically, that means I seem to prefer a flawed whole over a shredded-but-possibly-closer whole. (Whole not meaning whole as in an entire novel. More like meaning the whole of what I've written so far.)

Today's lesson from the How to Think Sideways workshop by Holly Lisle is about middles that go awry and some tips on how to deal with them. How to recognize the issues and find solutions.

I'm almost glad I've stalled out and been taking the easy way of working on another project, just ignoring Tempest for the time being. You see, I want to FIX Tempest. Holly's advice (which I've seen in her other workshops) tends more to analyzing the problem, figuring out what you should have done, making notes on it, and then CARRYING ON as though you've already fixed it.

Yup.

Keep going all the way to the end, then use your notes as the beginning of your revision guide.

But I want to fix it now. Well, in theory. Really I want to already have fixed it. But I haven't.

Meanwhile I've been having a great time with Dottie, writing from one to two thousand words a day. I need to get back to Tempest, though. It's like she's standing on the side, watching, waiting. Ready to take the baton from Dottie and carry the next lap herself.

Maybe next week.

Re-re-replotting

2008-10-28T15:12:00.004-06:00

Does this happen to anyone but me? Every single time I feel like I'm home free, that I have a solid outline and am confident that the story from here on in makes sense, I hit a wall.

Every. Single. Time.

I'm writing a structured novel, which is likely a mistake to start with. Every chapter has three scenes, two from Tempest's viewpoint, and one from Aben's. They start out the story in the same location, and will (I think!) end it there. But in between, the threads are somewhat independent.

This means that two independent story lines must both have a similar amount going on, similar amounts of tension and disasters. It's hard to keep this balanced. Today I got to the next scene of Aben's in the outline, and it's horrible. Not only that, but he's practically treading water for the next few chapters waiting for the big slide into the inevitable that signals the beginning of the end.

My first impulse is to just write him out of the story. You know, drown him or something. But it's kinda hard to have romantic fantasy without the male lead character, and besides, the story has plenty of tragedy already. I think the boy needs to live. (Probably unmaimed...though that gives an idea...)

So I pulled out Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic. She's got it laid out in three main sections: Plotting Before Writing, Plotting While Writing, and Plotting While Revising.

Clearly I need the middle one. I open it and read this:

This is the most common scenario. You're somewhere in the middle of the writing and you hit a bad plot card. It sounded like a great idea at the time, or maybe it only sounded like an iffy idea at the time but you put it in there anyway, confident that when you got to it, you'd be so into the story that you could make it work. Only now you and your Muse look at each other and go, "Uh-uh. Not gonna do it."

Yep. Holly has pretty much nailed where I'm at. I have a few glimmerings of ideas but nothing that looks concrete. In fact, my thoughts at the moment are quite will'o'wisp. When I look straight at them, there's nothing there, but if I look sideways, pretending I don't care, there is *almost* something over there.

Back to reading the plot clinic. Hopefully something will coax those will'o'wisp thoughts out where they can be scrutinized.

Multi-tasking

2008-10-27T20:09:00.002-06:00

This is something I'm really good at in Real Life, and not so good at in writing. Why? I'm guessing because each story I work on requires a certain depth of thought immersion. It's not easy to dip in lightly and then off to something else, at least not if I want to make progress. And of course I do! Also there's the idea that each project takes so very long that if you mix two or more of them, it'll take twice as long to get anywhere.

The only time I've tried two first drafts was about four years ago when I did NaNo for the first time. I hadn't finished my previous novel when NaNo started, so I dropped everything for the new novel (to officially participate in NaNo, you need to begin and write a novel you haven't previously started). At the end of November I had two partially completed novels and then spent several months alternating between the two to finish both first drafts. It was difficult and I vowed never to do it again.

Even playing with world-building or revising one while writing on another is difficult for me. All of these areas require a real depth of focus that makes it hard to shift gears from one to the other. I've been trying to learn how to do this better, especially in the last couple of years where I've been spending so much more time revising and therefore feeling stifled without the *rush* of creating that a first draft brings.

I started writing Tempest in July, thinking that once I got rolling on it, I'd pull out one of my older novels to revise. I tend to write in the mornings (my best time), then, the idea was, spend the afternoon on revising. I haven't started a revision project, though. Instead I started taking the Thinking Sideways class and bounced some new ideas around for that, then resurrected an old partial first draft--Dottie.

And now I'm finding myself doing the unthinkable and actually enjoying it: having two first drafts on the go at once. It helps, I think, that they're quite opposite stories. Tempest is fantasy set in a harsh environment. Dottie is contemporary women's fiction and quite humorous at times. So when I find that Tempest depresses me, I can switch gears and work on something fluffier.

This has been working well for the past couple weeks. I'm making steadier progress on Tempest and plan to keep it the higher priority until the draft is done. At this rate, that should be sometime in December, but if it takes longer, so be it.

I guess this means that I'm not revising anything more until next year. Two projects is ample to keep me out of trouble!

Congratulations to Stuart!

2008-10-24T17:01:00.003-06:00

Anyone who's read Brandilyn Collins novels about the fictitious town of Kanner Lake, Idaho may remember the character S-Man, who takes a seat in the Java Joint to write his science fiction novel. This character was modeled after Stuart Stockton, who just sold his novel Starfire to Marcher Lord Press for spring 2009 release. Brandilyn gives her version of the news here.

I'm thrilled for Stuart because he's the first person whose work I've critiqued that has made it through the maze to have a novel accepted for publication. (We were in the same crit group in preparation for the 2007 Genesis contest.)

And I'm thrilled for him because he's a darn good writer. Congrats!

Reflection's Edge Day 3

2008-10-22T10:14:00.003-06:00

Not having anything further myself to say about the YA spec fic novel Beyond the Reflection's Edge, I'll point you to a few blogs that are more interesting than mine.

Stacey Dale posted an interesting interview with the book's author, Bryan Davis.

Another interview was posted by Shane Deal. I chose not to go to the direct link for you on that--the interview is on Day One--because Shane posted interesting content three days. On the third day he chose to analyze the names chosen by the author.

Ask Andrea discusses the reasons Christian parents might (or might not) want their young teens to read this novel.

At the blog Fantasy Thyme, Timothy Hicks looks at different aspects each day as well: the amount of research Davis put into his real-life settings, for example, and the character arcs for the major players.

Steve Rice also runs three interesting posts, today's post being about some of the theological conundrums that the novel raises. Personally, I'm with the camp that if the author can cause the reader to suspend disbelief, the story can work anyway. I don't think most folk, teens or otherwise, or suddenly going to start believing in alternate dimensions after reading this novel and its successors. Or start jumping through mirrors. My issues with the suspension of disbelief (as noted on Day One) were more to the line of the story continuing to bounce into reality, which loosened my grip on that suspension.

Interestingly enough, Chawna Schroeder asked Davis a question about the multiple dimensions and why he chose them. He says:

In the Echoes from the Edge series, I wanted to do a bit of time travel, but every time travel story I have read contains at least one paradox, and the impossibility of the situations always took away from the story. So, I invented parallel worlds that existed at different points in time, allowing my characters to travel, in a sense, through time. If they altered something in the past, it didn’t create a paradox, because their actions didn’t affect their own world.

These journeys fulfilled my hope to expand readers’ spiritual vision while exploring the great “what if” questions without an annoying logical impossibility. Alternate realms allowed for a generous dose of the coolness factor while still providing a sense of reality, because my characters kept going back to the real world. I think readers enjoy that, because the story does the same for them, providing a doorway to another world from the safety of their reading chairs.

Greg Slade says this: I'm trying to figure out a way to describe this book, and I'm really tempted to say, "take equal parts of Indiana Jones, Spy Kids, and the X-Files, blend at high speed, and leave spinning." He also comments on what he sees as the book's flaws: Do I have gripes? Well, yes, but they don't strike me as exactly fair: personally, I find the pace a little too breakneck, but I'm no fan of thrillers, and Davis is writing one, so complaining that it's too thrilling is, well, just showing my prejudices. I'm also frustrated that so much of the backstory remains untold, but this is only the first book in the series, and if it revealed all the mysteries, why would people even bother to read the second one?

Robert Treskillard asked his 14 year-old son to review the novel. Great idea, getting the goods directly from the target audience!

Reflection's Edge Day 2

2008-10-21T10:12:00.002-06:00

I have a habit of showing the opening paragraphs of a novel, so I'll do that again for this month's tour book, Beyond the Reflection's Edge.

Nathan watched his tutor peer out the window. She was being paranoid again. That guy following them in the Mustang had really spooked her. "Chill out, Clara. He doesn't know what room we're in."

She slid the curtains together, casting a blanket of darkness across the motel room. "He parked near the lobby entrance. We'd better pack up and leave another way." She clicked on a corner table lamp. The pale light seemed to deepen the wrinkles on her face and hands. "How much more time do you need?"

Nathan sat on the bed nearer the window, a stack of pillows between his back and the wall, and tapped away at his laptop. "Just a couple of minutes." He looked up at her and wined. "Dad's slide rule must've been broken. It took almost an hour to balance the books."

Clara slid her sweater sleeve up an inch and glared at her wristwatch. Nathan knew that look all too well. His tutor's steely eyes and furrowed brow meant the Queen of Punctuality was counting the minutes. They were cutting it close, and they still had to get the reports bound at Kinko's before they could meet his parents at the performance hall for the company's quarterly meeting. And who could tell what delays that goon in the prowling Mustang might cause? His father had noticed the guy this morning before he left, and he looked kind of worried, but that could've been from the bean and onion burrito he had eaten for breakfast.

(I hunted for a link for the whole first chapter, but I couldn't find one.)

Does this first page hook you, the reader? What do we learn about the characters and the situation?

Well, we have a boy, Nathan, whose family is wealthy enough that he has a tutor and a laptop. He seems to do the books for his dad's business, and they're staying at a motel. The tutor, Clara, cares about punctuality and about the guy in the Mustang. Nathan hasn't seen his parents since that morning, when his dad seemed worried about the guy. If we should all be worrying about the guy (and we find out within a very few pages that we should, indeed, be taking him seriously), I'm not feeling the tension in this opening.

Nathan is obviously somewhere between the ages of being old enough to do the books and still having a tutor, and I get a reasonably decent impression of Nathan within the next few pages.

Also missing, in my opinion, is any real hint of Clara's age or any other description other than wearing a sweater. Clara, who remains a fairly major character, turns out to be a woman old enough to be Nathan's grandmother. When that came out, quite a distance into the story, I had to mentally revise all the scenes thus far to bring them into line with a woman that much older than what I'd assumed an undescribed tutor would be.

The whole story is rather surreal, but you know what? It's that kind of novel! Just imagine characters crossing from one dimension to another using a mirror, a camera, and a violin--it can't help but be rather surreal!

I finished the book Monday night, and I hear that Book Two, Echoes From the Edge, is already out.

What do I find typical of Bryan Davis, the author? A couple of things. This is very complicated inter-dimensional stuff, and you don't exactly learn about it in school. And while I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a novel or ten, the flood of fake-technical terms here kept pounding me. Instead of the author allowing me to just step into that dimension and accept it, I felt he kept trying to explain the unexplainable.

The Dragons in Our Midst series that I'd read previously did much of the same thing, for younger readers. I guess I prefer the stories I read not to continuously challenge my suspension of disbelief.

Then again, I 'm not the target age of this novel (13-16?), so take that comment with a shaker of salt. Having the characters bop back and forth between three dimensions--with suspicions of a fourth--and meeting their other selves from the other dimensions was pretty weird. That might be a compliment. I'm not sure. But I'll definitely pass this novel on to folks with teens and I'll be interested in hearing their reactions later on.

Beyond the Reflection's Edge by Bryan Davis

2008-10-19T22:04:00.003-06:00

This month's book tour is Beyond the Reflection's Edge, a Young Adult science fantasy by Bryan Davis. A couple of years ago I won a four-book series by this author--a series that was angled a bit younger than this novel. First off, I'm not a teenager nor do I have one in the house any more. I might well be out of touch with what appeals to teens, but the cover of this novel did not pull me in. It has a very serious feel that is almost adult non-fiction in feel, as far as I'm concerned. Even though I knew it was a novel, and one in a genre I normally enjoy, it sat on my table for over a week because it just didn't call out to be read. It wasn't until the book tour was looming over me that I pulled it out and started in.

I know, that's lame! I'm about 2/3 of the way into it now, and understand what the cover portrays. There's a hint of musical scores in the background--important because the main character, Nathan, is a violinist, and music plays an vital role in the story. And of course the hand pressing on a mirror is also indicative of the title and the very strange mirror that plays its own part.

So far I am finding the story to be typical Davis. What do I consider to be typical? Hm, I guess that will be material for another day. For now, if you want to know what other bloggers are saying about this novel, check out some of these links. I see a few new names on this list!

Brandon Barr, Jennifer Bogart , Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Kathy Brasby, Jackie Castle, Courtney, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Marcus Goodyear, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Joleen Howell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Mike Lynch, Magma, Terri Main, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Ashley Rutherford, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Chawna Schroeder, Greg Slade, James Somers, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise

Tropes in Story Telling

2008-10-16T23:01:00.001-06:00

According to Wikipedia, a literary trope is a common pattern in literature. In fantasy novels, oft-used tropes include good triumphing over evil (often represented by a Dark Lord). Quests are a common trope as well. Also the poor unknown who turns out to be Royalty and saves the day when they figure it out. Magical items and prophecies tend to be important in a lot of fantasies as well.

I've been thinking of another one, but I don't know if it has a name. I can think of a number of examples of it, though.

Here are some of the elements: a person--often a child--always misunderstood, sometimes orphaned. This person has a special ability that they don't know about until Something Happens and they are whisked off to a wonderful place where they learn about this special ability and end up being part of something very important in saving their world as they know it. In fact, the world couldn't be saved without them.

Examples? Well, Harry Potter comes to mind as the most recent/ well known. But the trope is much older than that. Anne McCaffrey used it several times that I can recall: Lessa and Menolly in the Pern novels, Peter Redinger and the Rowan in the Pegasus series.

Mercedes Lackey uses it at least three times in the Valdemar series: Talia in the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, Darian in the Owl trilogy, and Mags in the new Foundation novel.

Holly Lisle's very first novel plays off this trope with the character Faia in Fire in the Mist.

I'm sure there are dozens more--probably more of them that I've read and just can't remember the pattern at the moment, plus doubtless many I haven't read.

This trope might be most common in fantasy, but I'm not sure. I don't read a lot else. I do know that The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett fits it to a lesser degree. The world that little Mary saves is much smaller than all of Pern or Valdemar, but it is very significant to her.

What's so universal about this trope? I'm guessing that many of us have felt misunderstood and alone. If we were honest, I'm sure we've daydreamed about Something Happening and we could make a huge difference in our world. Wouldn't everybody wish they'd treated us better then?

What's your favorite trope? Or do you have any other examples of the one above? What about it appeals to you?

Geocaching with Jim :)

2008-10-13T16:58:00.010-06:00

Today we went for a hike and to find a couple of geocaches. Since Jim got his GPS unit last spring, we've been doing a bit more *tourist in the hometown* stuff. We didn't know these rocks were worth climbing before!

We also didn't know there were petroglyphs in the area. The pile of rock known as Twin Peak One had this one on it:

Here Brody and I are in the *cave* under the glyph:

Then we climbed Twin Peak Two and found this:

If you know me in RL, you know I really DON'T do heights. However, I did climb this rock face to get close enough to see the glyphs. Jim had to haul both Brody and I up! This is the perspective shot: see him standing at the bottom left of the photo? PLEASE be impressed I climbed that rock! You can see the rock drawings on the top right.

We found a safe place on the ledge to wait while Jim got some close-up photos.

Somebody loves it when we get out and explore the countryside around our valley!

Social Media

2008-10-09T11:28:00.002-06:00

Are the social media sites only for people with too much time on their hands? No, I don't think so, though they can certainly serve as a major time-sink. Why do people blog? Why have a profile on Facebook? Why on Twitter? Why on other sites (that I know less about)?

I've been blogging for upwards of almost four years on Blogger and had a blog on a private site for most of a year before that (got killed by spam). I've talked about all kinds of random things--farm, family, pets, camping, books, and my own writing. Being as not a lot of you comment, I'm not sure why you keep coming back, which of these areas interests you in my life.

I joined Facebook last fall (November?) on the advice of my kids. At first it was merely a way to share photos and *communicate lite* with them, especially when Joel and Jen headed to South America for several months. Then I discovered a lot of my writer friends there (some published, some not), and more recently, my high school class has been reconvening on FB. Great fun.

When I first heard of Twitter, I couldn't figure out why anyone would use it. But Holly Lisle is doing a huge giveaway over two weeks to folks who follow her on Twitter, so of course I had to sign up to see what all the twitter was about!

A couple weeks ago I read this blog post by Michael Hyatt, president and CEO of Thomas Nelson, a major Christian publishing house.

He talks about how quickly word travels in this digital age and believes that everyone who has a *brand to defend* needs to make sure they know what is being said online about their brand. He gives a list of seven ways to keep track, and here's his first one:

Build an online presence. The time to build an audience is before you need it. You need people for whom you add value, a small army of followers, if you will, who can help you when you need it. This is why every CEO, brand manager, and department leader should create a blog, a Facebook page, and get active on Twitter.

It’s really not that difficult, even for the technically challenged. If you really don’t have a clue, enlist the help of a co-worker—or perhaps even your children!

If I had to select one place to start, I would pick Twitter. Then I would create a Facebook page. Finally, I would start a blog. I don’t think there’s a less expensive way to create brand equity than by using these three tools.

I'm guessing that a lot of my reader here are not CEOs (grin), but it seems his advice might still be valid. Build an audience before you need it. Why should I not find my old friends and make new contacts now, before I have something to sell them? Wouldn't you rather hear from someone you lost contact with now, while they are on their journey to publishing? We once had an old friend look us up that we hadn't seen in probably 12 years and within half an hour he was trying to involve us in his marketing scheme. It seemed that was the only reason we'd been rediscovered. When we didn't jump in, the contact drifted away.

Seriously, I care about people. I genuinely like my friends. I try to be true to myself online, and try to be very aware of everything I say. The world wide web holds information over our heads forever, and I don't want something I said to come back and bite me. Yes, I hope that one day my novels will sell, and I truly hope no one ever thinks I've befriended them just to make a sale. It's the people I care about...and sales will be nice, someday. If people want to buy my stuff.

On the advice of Randy Ingermanson, I plan to move my blog over to my website sometime within the next few months, as my daughter has time to finish redesigning the entire thing. I do have the website somewhat updated this week, though.

If you're a writer and you're not currently following Holly Lisle on her blog, in her classes, or on Twitter, I highly recommend that you do so. She's a multi-published author with a lot of material available on how to write. She's opened her writing class How to Think Sideways to new members this week. Go have a look! And if you follow her on Twitter, you might WIN a scholarship to this class. FOR SURE you will qualify for one of her e-clinics on Monday. Don't delay! Follow her on Twitter today! And you can follow me by clicking the link in my sidebar. Or look me up on FB.

Tempest clears 40K

2008-10-08T21:08:00.002-06:00

Although I've got a lot on the go these days, I'm managing at least an hour on Tempest most mornings. Today I crossed the 40K milestone, and I should reach the official halfway point of my current outline later this week. The outline keeps growing, though! That's good, I believe. The two scenes I've written this week weren't in the outline even last week; they came considerably after I did the massive rebuild of the outline a couple weeks back. I was staring at the notecards--have I mentioned recently how much I love Scrivener?--and realized I hadn't shown a major mental turning point for the main character.

Duh.

Today I also broke and fixed my website while I was updating it. I needed to add Tempest to the *projects* section as well as add the Genesis finals for Majai's Fury and Off Beat (previously known as Marks of Repentance and The Girl Who Cried Squid).

And while I wandered the net looking for agents to submit Majai's Fury to, I discovered a contest at Agent Kelly Mortimer's blog. Then I needed to find something to submit--something that was not fantasy! So I got an entry off today (not mentioning the project here as the entries are to remain anonymous through some complicated method, but you've met it before!)

A Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell

2008-10-07T12:04:00.001-06:00

I used to accept more books for review on the blog, but I've become somewhat pickier about the ones I choose. I don't have a lot of time to read--sadly, when it seems I could get a free book every week or so, should I want them! Most contemporary novels don't appeal to me a whole lot.

However, back in the day I reviewed The Cubicle Next Door by Siri Mitchell and quite enjoyed it, so when I saw one of her new books on the list, I decided to ask for it.

As is so often the case, A Constant Heart has not yet arrived and it is time for the book tour. However, I read the first chapter here and discovered that it isn't a contemporary novel at all, but a historical romance from Elizabethan England. (You'd think the cover would have told me that, but our list doesn't come with covers!) It sounds quite amusing and I think I'll quite enjoy reading it once it finally arrives.

The young lady is the daughter of a knight, and the young man an earl in need of a fortune. As you might guess, and typical for the period, this marriage is not at all about love. In fact, they haven't met yet. But what caught my funny bone, he writes sonnets and cannot figure out what might rhyme with carriage.

Tempest in a Teacup

2008-10-02T15:57:00.002-06:00

Or in a nutshell: A breeder for the Guardian Race fights to make a young prophet's vision of them leading a reformation come true even when he is banished and she becomes the cult leader's fifth wife.

Tempest is currently at 35,000 words and moving along nicely. In an effort to think about rebuilding my website, I see that the content of it is as out of date as the design itself. So I'm working on the teaser blurb next.

Not only will the website work get done, this meshes nicely with Lesson 11's homework for Thinking Sideways!

Sailing

2008-09-25T16:55:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd share some of the research I've done today. Yes, there are sailing ships in Tempest!

Day 3 Marcher Lord Press

2008-09-24T11:16:00.002-06:00

So I promised you a peek at the three books that are being released by Marcher Lord Press on Launch Day, October first. So here goes:

Hero, Second Class sounds like a book after my own heart. It is "a delightful roast of all the fantasy fiction elements we hold dear. It is said that only someone who loves something can truly lampoon it. So it is in this case. Bonds' novel is a riot.

Quest with Cyrus, our young protagonist who aspires to be a Hero. But Heroes have a guild, you see, and lots of rules. One has to pay one's dues, apprentice to a Hero in good standing, and comport oneself as befits a member of the Heroes Guild.

Cyrus is fortunate to be serving his apprenticeship during a True Crisis, during which an Arch Villain is on the loose. An ambitious hero-in-training could make quite a name for himself during such times.

Cyrus's progress toward achieving his next level in the Heroes Guild is complicated by a wise-cracking dragon, a self-narrating knight, a droll zombie, and an attractive young woman who also happens to kind of be a cat."

Here's the opening:

The Prologue
Which, Unlike Other Chapters, Has No
Pithy Subheading in Italics

Dawn poked her rosy fingers across the sky.

And promptly tore two small holes in it.

Vertis the sky god repaired the holes and scolded Dawn, sending her off to get a manicure. He took over from there, and cast the sun’s early rays into the stone-paved courtyard of Bryath Castle, the hub of Centra Mundi’s government. Blue and silver pennants flapped merrily in the gentle breeze, and the cold stones of the ancient fortress began warming in the sunlight.

You can read the entire first chapter here.

Hero, Second Class, Mitchell Bonds, Marcher Lord Press, October 2008, 620 pages, $14.99

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"The Personifid Invasion is a standalone sequel (to a previously published book) that continues to explore life in a far-future society in which death is no longer an issue, at least to those who can afford personifid bodies.

In this novel, an adult brother and sister seek their other sibling, a sister from whom they have been separated since childhood. They find her location, but despair. She lives inside a domed city that is all but overrun by interterrestrials.

Interterrestrials are beings that ancient Earthlings called demons. These "inters," as they are called, have discovered it is much easier to possess the souls of humans who have transferred into personifid bodies."

The opener:

Prologue

The life ebbed from her body and she found herself drifting.

For an instant, she was touched by the warmth and heard it calling to her. But that passed and she was wrenched from the warmth by an all-pervading chill. She twisted and turned to evade the coldness, but it did no good.

Sharp stabbing needles pierced her being, freezing fingers that trapped her and held her down. She tried to scream, but her voice was silent. Unable to see, she was thrust into a dark space and felt herself slowly unfurling, a heaviness coming over her limbs. Her eyes opened and she was blinded by white light.

“Transference complete,” said a voice, sharp and new to her ears. “Please remain as still as possible while ascertaining security of placement.”

You can read the entire first chapter here.

The Personifid Invasion, R. E. Bartlett, Marcher Lord Press, October 2008, 350 pages, $12.99

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Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy is described this way: "What if the Catholic Church (or something very like it) existed in a fantasy world in which dwelt non-human intelligent races like orcs, trolls, and elves?

At some point in such a world the leading ecclesiastics would have to wrestle with the question of whether or not these demi-humans have souls and therefore ought to be the subject of evangelization by the Church.

Summa Elvetica is the story of the young priest whom the Church assigns to investigate the matter. Along the way toward his conclusion, he falls in love with an Elven princess and finds himself in the middle of a racially motivated war."

Here's the opener:

Chapter 1

Marcus Valerius looked up from the faded Numidican manuscript in irritation. The light from the study window was growing dim. Already he’d been forced to light a candle in order to make out the obscure scratchings of the historian Quintus the Elder, whose colorful accounts of his encounters with the pagan desert tribes were as dubious as they were vivid. The imperative knocking at the door threatened a lengthy interruption, one that might cost Marcus what little daylight remained.

“Come in,” he called, resigned.

The latch creaked, and a familiar, sun-bronzed face peered around the corner of the door. It belonged to his cousin Sextus, whose brown eyes were dancing with mischief.

“This better be good,” Marcus warned him. “I was just getting to the part where the tribal chief is about to sacrifice the centurion to his devil-gods.”

You can read the entire first chapter here.

Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy, Theodore Beale, Marcher Lord Press, October 2008, 320 pages, $12.99

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So, which of these stories sound the most interesting to you? I'm undecided about the second two, but I know I must get Hero, Second Class!

Tempest progression

2008-09-23T16:59:00.004-06:00

The past couple of days I have been trying to wrestle Tempest's outline into some sort of form that I can actually keep writing from. I had a squooshy kind of outline that was more like water-logged at the other end, but I think I've added some fiber to it and found the story's path. Or something like it, anyway. In the previous books I've written, I rarely keep to the outline, but I need it to find the general direction and to know the ONE path the story will NOT go. Like that makes sense. :p

I think it's back to that position, now, and I'll be able to take the writing life back off hold. I needed to do this before I could work on the Thinking Sideways class novel outline...or get involved in the novel crit I just agreed to do. It'll be good to get things moving again.

Day 2 Marcher Lord Press

2008-09-23T10:20:00.002-06:00

First off, Marcher Lord Press head dude, Jeff Gerke, emailed me with a correction to my post yesterday. There are two *free* downloads for purchasing ebooks on opening day, October first. Let me quote:

The first bonus book is Into the Breach: The Marcher Lord in History and Legend. It is written by castles expert Lise Hull, author of The Great Castles of Britain and Ireland and Britain's Medieval Castles.

This wonderfully illustrated book will introduce you to the real marcher lords of history who inspired Marcher Lord Press. In its pages you learn who these men were who stood alone In the Breach against all manner of chaotic forces. What were their lives like? Why did they do it? What mark have they left on modern society?

Filled with photos and maps and compelling text, Into the Breach: The Marcher Lord in History and Legend is the perfect primer on this fascinating chapter of medieval history.

That sounds extremely interesting to me, being as I write fantasy and the concept of castles and the frontier has crossed my brain on more than one occasion. So, you purchase ONE novel, you get the above download for free. As for the book my daughter Hanna is in, here's the scoop on it:

The second bonus book is A Marcher Lord Gallery: Speculative Art by Christian Artists. And you're not going to want to miss it.

Marcher Lord Press searched far and wide for the finest professional and amateur Christian artists working in the field of speculative art. The pieces they have contributed to this book will send your imagination soaring.

There is a section featuring original pieces commissioned specifically for this book. Each artist took his or her inspiration from one of the launch list novels or from the idea of the marcher lord itself. This original work is breathtaking, and these pieces will be available only through this book for a limited time.

This section of A Marcher Lord Gallery is followed by two-page spreads featuring other speculative pieces done by each of the contributing artists. You'll discover many new artists to stoke the fires of your speculative dreaming, and you'll meet the artists themselves through short bios, photos, and links to their online galleries.

A Marcher Lord Gallery: Speculative Art by Christian Artists is available for free download on launch day with the purchase of two or more Marcher Lord Press novels.

So--I guess I'm doing this backwards, listing the prizes first! What do you have to do to qualify these downloads? Buy a book from Marcher Lord Press on launch day to get Into the Breach: The Marcher Lord in History and Legend. Buy two books and get both downloads. (You know you want the download with my kid's art in it. YOU KNOW YOU DO!!!! So stick October first in your calendar and go buy two novels that day!)

Tomorrow I'll show you the one (of the three launch novels) I'm most interested in, but for today, I want to mention the concept of the POD (print-on-demand) press.

It's had a bad rap, being linked with vanity publishing (where the writer pays the publisher to publish a book). However, POD is merely a method of printing that prevents books from being over-published, and then returned to the publisher when the books don't sell (at a net loss for everyone involved). Books are printed as they are ordered.

This publishing model may be best used for just what Marcher Lord Press is doing--a niche market that is internet savvy. I know I won't be the only one watching to see how this new small press will fare. If you're curious about the ins and outs of how this press is structured, read this.

Check out the bloggers from yesterday's post to see what folks are saying about the books, the POD model, the downloads, and about Jeff Gerke.

Website Tour -- Marcher Lord Press

2008-09-22T10:38:00.004-06:00

If you've hung around My Little World for very long, you probably have noticed that Christian speculative fiction--in particular, fantasy--is dear to my heart. And while the market for it is growing, it's still a hard sell, both for the authors and the stores that may eventually carry the books.

It's kind of frustrating, actually. And so it is very cool that I've found a bunch of like-minded folk on the internet (many of their blog links are below) and the awareness of this niche market is growing. Without this gang of folks, I'd have missed out on a lot of great reading over the past few years.

Once upon a time a man named Jeff Gerke wrote a series of novels under the pen name of Jefferson Scott. After these were published, Jeff became an editor for a major Christian publishing house. He later switched houses to help spearhead an imprint, Realms, devoted to Christian spec fic. This didn't take off as well as hoped, so Jeff tried again with another publisher.

By this time Jeff was well known as a champion of Christian novels that were a little off the beaten path (no Amish romances for this guy!). He had also begun to believe that traditional publishing was not likely to ever meet the demand for the kind of novels he believed in. Too many variables, not the least of which is just trying to get the books all the way to the consumer who would buy it if they only knew it existed!

In 2006, Jeff began Where the Map Ends as a way to begin to consolidate information in this genre.

And on October 1, 2008, he will launch Marcher Lord Press, a POD press specifically for Christian speculative fiction. Over the next couple of days I'll be talking about the upcoming launch, but feel free to pop on over and sign up. He's giving away some great prizes!

AND last but not least, one of the featured artists in the Virtual Coffee Table Art Book is my daughter Hanna. This ebook is free with the purchase of one of the novels on launch day.

Here's what the other bloggers are saying:
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Courtney
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Greg Slade
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise
Tina Kulesa
Jason Waguespac

Looks like we have all hands on deck for this blog tour!

Third place in Genesis!

2008-09-21T15:32:00.002-06:00

Some of you may recall that The Girl Who Cried Squid (aka Krin, or Off Beat) became a finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis contest back in spring. The results of the contest were announced Saturday at the annual conference, and my novel placed third in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Allegory category.

The finalists are:
1st: Chawna Schroeder, Metamorphosis
2nd: Lynda K. Arndt, The Song of Blood and Stone
3rd: Valerie Comer, The Girl Who Cried Squid

Last year, Marks of Repentance went to the final level but did not place, so the improvement makes me happy.

Color Me Amused

2008-09-17T14:55:00.003-06:00

Today I'm wearing a cute burgundy short-sleeved knitted top that I paid something like three bucks for at Value Village. I hardly ever wear it, sadly, because it is one of *those* that needs hand washing and laying flat to dry. That rarely happens, so it usually lives at the bottom of my laundry hamper.

So this lady on the street corner says to me, "I love your sweater. Did you knit it?"

I laughed and said, "No, I wouldn't have the patience for something like that."

As I walked away, I wondered what she'd say if I told her I write novels? Probably something to the effect of: "I wouldn't have the patience for something like that."

I guess we pick what we want patience for!

Tempest ReOutlining

2008-09-14T20:50:00.002-06:00

Based on what I'm learning in the Think Sideways class, I've stopped writing Tempest. Why, you may ask... Well, I can see that the outline needs some help, and there doesn't seem to be any point in waiting until I revise this novel to address the issues I'm starting to see. I'm about a third into the first draft, and I'd rather write the second two-thirds having applied all the principles I can.

I've started outlining the new novel (for the TS class), tentatively known as Jiya after the main character. About 14 scene summaries landed on the page in little more than an hour, and I'm beginning to see the shape of the story. But where a few weeks ago I felt like Tempest was suffering from the split attention, I've changed my mind.

The pendulum is starting to swing back to Tempest. At the moment she is in the best position to benefit from the class, though I'll keep doing the lessons on Jiya as well, at least at a basic level. The class will, in theory, be starting to write the new novel soon, but I don't want to set Tempest aside in order to do that. I may try splitting the time, but if that doesn't work, then Tempest comes first.

After all, she grabbed my mind quite firmly back in June and demanded her tale be told. And there's a fair bit of it left to tell.

Thinking Sideways--plotting

2008-09-10T16:31:00.000-06:00

Tempest is continuing on. I'm trying hard to set aside my first work hour of the day to focus on this moving this story forward. Some days are quiet and my mind is clear(ish) and I get a thousand words. Other days I'm getting in the neighborhood of 600-700. I'm reasonably pleased with those days. Yesterday it was about 300, but I'd had a lot of interruptions: boss guys, customers, phone calls. At the end of the hour, I thought: I should keep going with this because I have so few words.

Did a bit of soul-searching on the concept of things I should do. The main reason I switched from a word count goal to a timed goal was because my time isn't always my own at work (go figure). Some days reaching a WC goal can take all day, and right now I have to divide my time, and not just with work duties. Tempest is a hard story to write; there is no comedy or fluff within its scenes. She is living a nasty life in a nasty place with little hope of relief, and things are still getting worse every time I sit down at the keyboard. (I'm about 1/3 of the way into the story.) If I spent all day every day on this novel, I'd get depressed.

Don't ask where it came from. I'm not a dark person. I don't like dark books. And this isn't dark in the sense of a horror story, but in its hopelessness. Because my life (thank God) is NOT hopeless, I have to struggle to immerse myself in her troubles in order to depict them, and it's not a pretty place. So, all in all, I'm glad I also have other things to think about, and why it's not a bad idea for me to be working on timed goals rather than word count.

Quite a bit of the rest of my time (around the work stuff, which is fairly busy this time of year) I'm spending on the Thinking Sideways classwork. (If you click the link in my previous post now, you'll notice that the brief window for signing up for the class is over for now.)

I can't begin to tell you how much my mind is being stretched with every week's lesson. It is being pushed and pulled and folded and then pulled some more--much like making taffy, perhaps. I'm so logic-oriented that it's amazing I write novels at all. I shouldn't be good at it. (And maybe I'm NOT good at it, but I enjoy it and have written seven of them to date, so there's obviously something in there calling me to the process!)

This week we're talking about plotting and I'm beginning to understand that I've blown off advice I've read prematurely. Holly Lisle talks about writing a Line-for-Scene outline, and I've always thought that I needed more information than that to remember what should go in that scene.

Today I've come to the sad realization that there is a difference between a focused sentence and the...junk...I write in my short paragraph or two. Because I've been writing AROUND the central issue, not being able to figure out ahead of time what the core purpose of the scene is. I can look at my scene and, I believe, tell you that it is important, that it moves the story forward. And I believe that I'm right! But I can't tell you WHY.

So I pulled Tempest back out. I just wrote a new scene this week, after all. It's still fresh in my mind. If I was having trouble figuring out a concise sentence for a vague idea of a scene for my yet-unfleshed-out novel, surely I could do better for the scene I had just written in a novel I know.

Or not.

This is a really really REALLY key concept. I can feel the importance of it. But catching a hold of it is like tackling a greased pig.

I may need something for my headache.

You are worth the time--youtube

2008-09-02T15:15:00.002-06:00

When you need to remember why the urge to create *art* (in whatever form you define art!) drives you so much, and when you wonder if you should take the time to feed that longing, watch this (about 7 minutes):

Thinking Sideways Sign-ups Open!

2008-09-02T14:37:00.001-06:00

Last week I posted about the writing course I'm taking, Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways.

For this week only, signups are available for the second session, which begins, I believe, in February. Looks like I'm not the only one struggling a bit to keep the pace as one of the options will be for lessons every second week, thus stretching the course to a full year rather than the six months that the first session will be completed in.

(**edited to say: The current signup is for a course that starts right away, so your first payment and first lesson would be within 24 hours. Or you can put yourself on a waiting list for later, if you prefer.)

Doesn't mean, of course, that I'll be done all the work for the course in six months. Folks are welcome to work at their own rate, just download each lesson as it becomes available and then read it (and work on it!) as you (I) get caught up.

I mentioned in the other post that I didn't expect the course to be so challenging right out the starting gate. I have a very practical mindset and wasn't expecting to get so much out of the mind-mapping aspects of early lessons. Instead, I've come to a better understanding of my brain (never a bad thing!) and am using clustering for a wider variety of problem-solving than the course even calls for. I'm really excited about the ideas I'm working with now and look forward to learning how to think sideways to include plot twists that the reader won't see coming--but still be logical.

All I can say is that it's worth every penny I'm paying for it (roughly $300 total--I pay in Canadian funds so the monthly amount varies a bit month by month.) The 12-month course will cost the same, just be spread out more.

If you'd like to kick your writing up a notch and learn new ways to create and plan projects, click through and read Holly's write up. I don't think you'll be sorry you did.

The course is touted as A Survival Guide for Career Novelists. Some folks in my session have never completed a novel. Several have been multi-published. Doesn't matter, as there are many things writers of all abilities can use.

Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer Day 2

2008-08-26T10:06:00.001-06:00

The novel Broken Angel has a lot of viewpoint characters. I have to admit I had trouble keeping them straight. As well, several chapters were letters that Jordan Brown wrote to Caitlyn to explain what was going on. The novel opens with one such letter:

We had agreed--the woman I loved and I--that as soon as you were born, we would perform an act of mercy and decency and wrap you in a towel and drown you in a nearby sink of water.

But in the motel room that was our home, the woman I loved died while giving birth. You were a tiny bundle of silent and alert vulnerability and all that remained to remind me of the woman.

I was nearly blind with tears in that lonely motel room. With the selfishness typical of my entire life to that point, I delayed the mercy and decency we had promised you. I used the towel not to wrap and drown you, but to clean and dry you.

As I lifted your hands and gently wiped the terrible hunch in the center of your back--where your arms connected to a ridge of bone that pushed against your translucent skin--I heard God speak to me for the first time in my life.

He did not speak in the loud and terrible way as claimed by the preachers of Appalachia where I fled with you. Instead God spoke in the way I believe he most often speaks to humans--through the heart, when circumstances have stripped away our obstinate self-focus.

From this letter (I just posted about two-thirds of the letter), we move into the prologue, and from that, into the story's present.

I'm not fond of letters such as this as story-opening devices, though I must admit the opening paragraph caught my attention. Did you catch what Caitlyn's big secret was in that letter?

One of the viewpoint characters, the purely evil bounty hunter Mason Lee, was easy to keep separate in my mind from the others. I am not fond of suspense stories to start with, but Lee's character seemed cliche evil, and watching him set up his torture chamber also felt like a device to show us his depravity--not in an original way. I'm interested what other bloggers who may like suspense better than I do may have thought of Lee's presence in the story.

Sigmund Brouwer is the author of 18 novels for children and adults.

Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer

2008-08-25T10:30:00.003-06:00

Speculative fiction covers a wide range of stories, and Brouwer's recent novel, Broken Angel, is fairly far out on the edge of suspense and intrigue for a reader like me.

This is one author's extrapolation of what might happen in the future if genetic manipulation is allowed free rein. In the future Sigmund Brouwer imagines, the country of Appalachia separates from the United States to protect its people within the confines of the Church. What happens in that land is anything but pure. Jordan Brown has fled to Appalachia to protect a child, but once she reaches puberty, he realizes that she has to return Outside--that her secret will never be safe. She has to be set free to become all she was meant to be.

Jordan makes the ultimate sacrifice to create a way for Caitlyn to escape Appalachia, to build an *underground railroad* for her with messages along the way. An agent from Outside has learned of her special characteristics and joins forces with the Appalachian government to prevent her escape.

What is Caitlyn's big secret? We'll talk about it tomorrow. Meanwhile, check out what other bloggers are saying: Brandon Barr, Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Jackie Castle, Karri Compton, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Mark Goodyear, Andrea Graham, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Christopher Hopper, Joleen Howell, Jason Joyner, Carol Keen, Magma, Margaret, Shannon McNear, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Ashley Rutherford, Hanna Sandvig, Chawna Schroeder, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Sean Slagle, James Somers, Donna Swanson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Laura Williams.

Writing Workshop--Thinking Sideways

2008-08-19T10:52:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I signed up for a six-month writing workshop put on by multi-published author Holly Lisle. She's the gal who founded my writing home-on-the-web, Forward Motion, and I've been following her weblog A Pocket Full of Words for the better part of six years now.

I've watched from the sidelines as she's pitched novels, sold them, written them, revised them. I've watched the misses, too. The pitches that didn't sell, the books that were hard to write. I've seen the determination and drive that characterizes Holly and her absolute willingness to be transparent with us all. I've bought several of her writing clinics from Holly Shop, and while not every one of them has clicked with me for every project, I've learned a LOT from her in various formats over the years.

When she began brainstorming a full workshop, I was intrigued, though I wasn't sure I could afford to take it as the various price points were debated. When registration finally opened at just under $300 for the six month program ($47US payable via PayPal every month), I jumped at one of the few remaining seats. And I'm so glad I did.

How to Think Sideways has been worth every penny from the very first lesson. Holly started off by looking at the things that prevent many folks from giving their all in any circumstance, writing included. From there we began clustering, which is something I've resisted doing as I just thought my brain didn't work that way. It was hard at first, but because I loved Holly's recommendation of Scrivener so much, I decided to download the free trial of Inspiration as well. It's a mind-mapping tool that allows you to associate words in any number of ways. Not only words, but many can be swapped out for clip-art and photos, to grab ahold of the more visual part of the brain.

Using the skills we had begun to learn in clustering, our next task was to *call down lightning* in the form of three viable story ideas that we would be excited to write. If you've been reading much here, you'll know I've been struggling with this for several months. And while I don't currently have THREE solid ideas, I did come up with two pretty decent ones. The fourth week taught us how to refine those ideas into something we couldn't bear NOT to write.

(Yes, this is making focusing on Tempest a bit difficult, but I'm managing some words every week there, too!)

I'm really quite excited for the next few weeks as we take those ideas and learn how to transform them into novels. So far the experience has been better than I'd hoped for, and we haven't yet begun to touch on the core reason I, at least, signed up for the course.

The core reason? The thinking sideways part. Holly's good at convoluting and twisting the plots of her stories so that they are very hard to put down. If I can begin to learn how to do that, this course will be a total success. Right now, I'm very optimistic about the five months yet remaining.

She's currently planning on repeating this workshop, and I'd encourage anyone who wants to write tighter books to consider signing up.

Merciless by Robin Parrish

2008-08-19T10:26:00.003-06:00

Merciless is the culmination of the Dominion Trilogy by Robin Parrish. The Christian Science Fiction Fantasy blog tour reviewed book one, Relentless and book two, Fearless. I took part here and here and here.

All that to say that while I've read the first two books and enjoyed them, especially the first one, I haven't read Merciless yet. I've had it on my TBR for over a week and somehow got the dates mixed up with another book I was reading for review. Sadly, I should have read them in reverse order as it turns out the other book isn't due until next week. Sigh. That is SO like my life this week.

So, what's the series about, in a nutshell? Random people who discover they have superpowers, then find each other, and then find out where their powers came from--and why they have them. The world as we know it pretty much came to an end as Fearless closed. Merciless looks to be post-apocalyptic in nature. And the first few pages, which I've read, look to put this novel in the category of reading that is not suitable for bedtime. At least not for wimpy Vals!

You can read the first chapter here.

Haven't been posting much

2008-08-14T15:56:00.003-06:00

I guess there are a few reasons. One is that you all don't seem to be answering much!

Life is quite randomly busy. Home is busy because there is a hyper puppy who ALWAYS needs walking and attention, a garden that needs weeding and harvesting, a daughter and son-in-law who are considerably less demanding than the puppy!--but still there. I've been going to Aquafit Tuesday and Thursday evenings as Hanna is teaching. I enjoy it, but it does shoot the whole evening all to pieces. I've got book tours coming up and almost no time to read.

There've been stressy health issues in the extended family, my own recurring back and hip pain, a hubby working too much over time, and an electrical breaker that keeps shutting off in my kitchen.

At work there's been a transient camped out between the store and the building next door (moved on, with aid, this morning), lots to juggle in ordering and freight, and it seems to have been the week for bizarre and random questions.

Writing-wise, I'm slowly getting words on Tempest, teaching a workshop at Forward Motion, and signed up for a six-month paid class offered by author Holly Lisle called How to Think Sideways. Right now it's a challenge to think at all: frontwards, backwards, let alone sideways.

I needs a vacation. How come December is so far away?

Brody Goes Camping!

2008-08-05T10:18:00.005-06:00

A little puppy I know had a great time camping. We spent three days at Frozen Lake, a little lake site with a primitive camping site (outhouse and a couple picnic tables) in the Flathead region of BC, just on the Montana border. Two and a half hour of non-pavement driving, and roads that went from good gravel to washboard gravel to pot-holes to rocks to dirt to dirt with grass growing up the middle. Very dusty and bumpy, but good fishing at the other end. Apparently that's what it is all about!

For Brody, he just wanted to romp and play with the kazillion other dogs that met at Frozen Lake for the weekend.

I did get him to stop a couple times, long enough for a photo or two. You'll find more photos at Facebook (and my hubby's Facebook).

DragonKeeper Chronicles Day 4

2008-07-30T06:30:00.001-06:00

Day 4, you say? Why yes. Last week the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy Blog Tour also toured DragonLight. I hadn't finished reading it yet then, so I talked about some of the earlier books in the series. But Sunday afternoon I got finished with DragonLight, and therefore the entire series of five books.

Donita K. Paul has written a great fantasy series for young adults, and I've read three of the books in the last ten days, so they're the ones most clear in my mind. (I read the first two a couple of years back.)

I have to share with you the opening paragraphs of this novel. They show quite well the light humor that Paul sprinkles throughout the tales.

Kale wrinkled her nose at the dank air drifting up from the stone staircase. Below, utter darkness created a formidable barrier.

Toopka stood close to her knee. Sparks skittered across the doneel child's furry hand where she clasped the flowing, soft material of Kale's wizard robe. Kale frowned down at her ward. The little doneel spent too much time attached to her skirts to be captivated by the light show. Instead, Toopka glowered into the forbidding corridor. "What's down there?"

Kale sighed. "I'm not sure."

"Is it the dungeon?"

"I don't think we have a dungeon."

Toopka furrowed her brow in confusion. "Don't you know? It's your castle."

"A castle built by committee." Kale's face grimaced at the memory of weeks of creative chaos. She put her hand on Toopka's soft head.

The doneel dragged her gaze away from the stairway, tilted her head back, and frowned at her guardian. "What's 'by committee'?"

"You remember, don't you? It was just five years ago."

"I remember the wizards coming and the pretty tents in the meadow." Toopka pursed her lips. "And shouting. I remember shouting."

"They were shouting because no one was listening. Twenty-one wizards came for the castle raising. Each had their own idea about what we needed. So they each constructed their fragment of the castle structure according to their whims."

Toopka giggled.

"I don't think it's funny. The chunks of castle were erected, juxtaposed with the others, but not as a whole unit. I thank Wulder that at least my parents had some sense. My mother and father connected the tads, bits, and smidgens together with steps and short halls. When nothing else would work, they formed gateways from one portion to another."

Can't you just imagine a castle built by a committee of wizards? It makes me laugh.

Thinking about the fact that this is the fifth book and that it's unlikely that anyone will read it that hasn't gone through the other four (except, perhaps, for book tours like this!), I think it's easy to see who the characters are and the current situation, and even a glimpse of how it ties to the past. We know Kale and Toopka clear from book one, but we haven't met the castle before this. We see that it's been at least five years since the end of the fourth book. And we're reminded that Toopka is from a species that is short and furry...and apparently has a bad memory!

The best part of the story for me was seeing the development of Toopka's storyline. She's wafted in and out of the previous stories, but this novel brought her to the forefront. And ironically, one of the negatives for me was the same thing--Toopka's story. Though the viewpoint characters were Kale and Bardon (as throughout the series)--primarily Kale--they had little to do in the story's climax but watch Toopka pull it all together.

Another negative for me was Gilda's story line. Gilda is a meech dragon--a superior humanoid type of dragon, and very rare. (Donita, if you're reading this--what DOES a meech dragon look like?) And whereas in DragonFire (the fourth book), I got tired of Kale whining, I found that Gilda's attitude really got on my nerves throughout DragonLight. To give credit where credit is due, Gilda learns the error of her ways and gets pulled down a peg or two, so the inclusion of this character development was purposeful.

Still, I think that the series has more positives than negatives, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend all five novels to young adult readers of either gender.

Tempest

2008-07-29T10:27:00.004-06:00

I'm making reasonably steady progress on Tempest, though not as rapid as I'd have liked. Still, it seems that it's better to think a bit here and there than to rewrite/rewrite/rewrite. Of course I'll probably still have to! It might be that this story just didn't have as long to percolate, so there wasn't a huge build-up of words just waiting for the starting gate to open (think the rush of the first hour of Nano!). It might be that my muse is a bit reluctant, being as this is definitely a bit darker story than anything I've written previously. Or it might be that this is just the perfect pace for this story!

I'm doing in the neighborhood of a chapter a week, and they're averaging over 4K each. So if I can just keep the wheels turning, it will get itself done in a few months. That's fine.

I'd been thinking that I'd go on another round of revisions of some of my older stuff once I got rolling with this story, but it's not happening yet. I'm teaching another workshop at Forward Motion in August, and I've recently signed up for a six-month writing course put on by author Holly Lisle, How to Think Sideways. Even after only one week, I'm beginning to see that this investment is quite likely to pay off in a practical sense.

So it'll be at least September before I start revising again, and it's a toss-up still whether it will be Joy Comes in the Morning or Off Beat. Off Beat (aka Squid) has finaled in the Genesis contest, but I won't have the results of that until mid September. I'd hoped to enter Joy in the 08 contest as well, but didn't have time to revise the opening pages to my satisfaction, so I'd like to enter it in '09. A whole new category for me: romance!

And if I'm going to get chapter five written this week, I'd better get rolling!

DragonKeeper Chronicles Day 3

2008-07-22T22:06:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I blogged about the third book in the DragonKeeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul. I forgot to say that I think DragonKnight was my favorite of the four I've read so far. On Facebook, I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 while the first two earned 3s. Once again, the tour is all about DragonLight, which I haven't read yet, but I'm getting closer! I actually started it Monday evening. But today I want to talk about the fourth book, DragonFire. Sadly, this was my least favorite (2.5).

As a series develops and the characters age, they should change. And if you start with them as young teens, then progress them to young adults, it seems that they ought to become more mature. Of course they won't be perfect, but moving forward would be good. Because I read the first two books in the series two years ago, and the third book was mostly Bardon's story, I may have forgotten Kale's personality. But in the fourth book, I found her to be petulant and whiny. I didn't much like her, and I have a sneaking suspicion that if she'd had the same attitudes in the first book, I wouldn't have been as willing to keep reading.

DragonFire takes place seven years after the first book. I'd've liked to see a more mature Kale fighting personality battles a little more suited to a 20-year-old than the 13-year-old she was. (Actually, I don't remember the exact ages, but I think I'm close!) Did Mrs. Paul make the choice she did because the series are for young adults and this way, they could identify more closely? I don't know.

I'm hoping to see a more mature Kale close out the series in DragonLight. Check back in a couple weeks and see what I think once I've read the book.

Meanwhile, some of you may recall my excitement last year that four Christian fantasy authors (Sharon Hinck, Wayne Thomas Batson, Chrisopher Hopper, and Bryan Davis) toured the east coast of the USA in July. This year, for an encore, the tour has been doubled to eight authors and is on the west coast in October. I'll let you know more about it as it gets closer, but if you live anywhere from San Diego to Seattle, you'll want to keep this in mind.

Why am I mentioning it here, today? Well, Donita K Paul is one of the four additional authors for this year's tour, called Motiv8. In fact, more than half of the authors are YA authors, so if you have kids that like fantasy, you really need to plan to attend one or more of their booksignings. They put on a good show last year, and this year should be double the fun.

Had to share!

2008-07-22T16:11:00.001-06:00

What do YOU think of all the fonts out there? College Humor decided to let us know what goes on at a Font Conference.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

DragonKeeper Chronicles Day 2

2008-07-22T05:47:00.002-06:00

So today we're going to have a wee look at DragonKnight by Donita K. Paul. This is book three of a five book series, and technically this blog tour is for the fifth book, DragonLight. However, I haven't read it yet. It's sitting on my bedside table and maybe I'll get a chance to start it tonight.

So yesterday I told the tale of my quest to read this series. If you are--or know--a girl in her young-to-mid teens who loves fantasy, the DragonKeeper Chronicles is a win. But it's not just for girls, for sure. Though Kale, a girl, is the main character, Bardon, a boy, is nearly as major a character throughout the series. Mrs. Paul has created an imaginative world, Amara, with lots of different species AND a bunch of different kinds and sizes of dragons. What's not to love?

I talked a bit about the basic plot of Book One, DragonSpell, and Book Two, DragonQuest, on my blog here a couple of years ago.

Book Three, DragonKnight, is mostly Bardon's tale. He is expecting some time off to meditate and plan his life...wait, let me show you the opening few paragraphs!

"People. Always too many people."

Only the leathery beat of Greer's dragon wings answered Bardon's observation. Cool air rushed against Bardon's face, blowing away the cares of three intense years of training and study.

He squeezed his knees into the riding hooks and leaned forward across the major dragon's neck. Brisk mountain air rose off the snow-topped mountain and blew his dark hair back from his pale face. Soon he should be able to spot the valley Sir Dar had recommended. He needed time alone. The first part of his sabbatical would be spent in isolation.

Bardon put a hand on Greer's purple scales and communicated his desire to locate a lake shaped like a boot.

Looking down at the forested slopes, he speculated on how many of the seven high races populated the area. A smile spread across his face. It was likely that not one civilized being walked this southern part of the Morchain Mountain Range for a hundred miles in any direction.

He saw a ropma scurry across a rocky stream.

"Don't worry, fella. I won't bother you if you don't bother me. I'm taking a break from everyone, both high and low races."

Greer rumbled in his throat, and Bardon placed a hand on the amethystine scales of his dragon's neck. "No, I'm not running away from you, my friend. And in truth, I'm not really running away from civilization. I just need a sabbatical, a long sabbatical."

Well, after all that set-up, you can be certain that Bardon does NOT get a break at all. As soon as he lands by that boot-shaped lake he discovers that he is not alone and that, in fact, he is expected to go on a quest to help an old lady and her young granddaughter to rescue the son/father. Albeit reluctant, Bardon realizes that as a squire who serves Wulder (God in that world), he can't turn these females away in good conscience so he agrees to help.

The coolest thing in the book is the granny, I think. Her name is Granny Kye and she paints, even when they are in danger and should definitely be doing something else, such as running, hiding, or fighting. When she feels compelled to paint, she sets up her easel and paints away.

What's cool about that? Granny Kye is willing to explain. Here's what she says (p. 78):

"I paint the people as I see them. But when I finish, there's more there. While I'm painting, the expressions on their faces and the colors around them become clear in my mind. Some people say that the finished picture looks like the inside of the person instead of just what is seen on the outside."

...some chitchat, then Bardon says:

"What else do you paint?"

"Landscapes, houses... They rarely turn out well." Her face brightened. "Once I painted a neighbor's house, and in the painting, we saw an odd object under a bush. We went to look, and there was the bracelet she'd lost months before."

"So you saw something while you painted that couldn't be seen just by looking?"

"Yes!"

Quite a talent, and one that is useful several times.

At any rate, the quest carries on, they find the missing knight...and many others. Who are the other knights? It wouldn't be fair for me to give that away here in this review, so I won't.

Suffice to say that it brings Kale back into the picture for the last few chapters, and that she and Bardon...oh well, never mind. Once again, too much to give away!

Tomorrow I'll have a look at Book Four, DragonFire.

DragonKeeper Chronicles Day 1

2008-07-21T10:24:00.003-06:00

Once upon a time, about two years ago, the CSFF blog tour talked about DragonKnight by Donita K Paul. I joined in here and here.

The problem then was that I'd bought the first two books in the series, DragonSpell and DragonQuest in preparation for the blog tour for the third book. I read the two books, blogged about them, but DragonKnight never arrived. Though I liked the stories, they're Young Adult and I'm not, and my life went on and I read many other books, and I forgot that I hadn't read the third book in the DragonKeeper Chronicles until the blog tour for the last book in the series, DragonLight, was announced.

A few weeks later I had a few minutes to spare in Hastings in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, saw a Donita K Paul book I hadn't read, grabbed it and bought it. Thought, "Aha, I will now read the intervening book and be ready when my copy of the final one arrives in the mail."

Small problem that I discovered as soon as I started reading it: it didn't make sense. Yes, it had been two years since reading the other two, but I thought I'd remember if *this* major a change in the characters' lives had been hinted at in the second book.

Turns out I'd bought Book FOUR, DragonFire and that the book tour was going to feature book FIVE, DragonLight.

I was still missing Book Three. The series is five books long, not four. Time was running out, and I wasn't getting anywhere near a store that might carry DragonKnight, so I ordered it in via InterLibrary Loan. By now Donita K Paul's books are all over BC Libraries (they weren't two years ago!) and so it arrived and I read it. I've also now read book four, but the fifth book is on my bedside table, yet unread. And of course it is the one due for this week's tour.

Dilemma. What to do? I can only read so fast, and this summer has been busier than most recent ones with hubby living at home again, Hanna and Craig home for the summer, and the new puppy.

So here's the deal. Tomorrow we're going to look at Book Three, DragonKnight and Wednesday I'll post about the fourth book,
DragonFire.

None of which are the books I'm *supposed* to talk about this week. However, in a couple weeks the CFBA tour is also blogging about DragonLight, so I'll catch the final installment book then.

Whew. I have a plan.

If you just can't wait a couple weeks for me to read DragonLight and review it, check out what these folks are saying about it:

Brandon Barr, Justin Boyer, Jackie Castle, Karri Compton, CSFF Blog Tour, Gene Curtis, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Beth Goddard , Mark Goodyear, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Christopher Hopper, Joleen Howell, Jason Joyner, Carol Keen, Magma, Terri Main, Margaret, Shannon McNear, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, John W. Otte, Deena Peterson, Steve Rice, Cheryl Russel, Ashley Rutherford, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Robert Treskillard, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Laura Williams

Puppy Time

2008-07-20T08:58:00.004-06:00

The last time we had a puppy living in our house was 1991. Kyleigh was a golden retriever and lived to the ripe old age of almost 14 before dying 4 years ago. Jim's been wanting a puppy for a couple years now, but with him working at the mines, the timing wasn't right. Well, he's had a local job for six months now, and he began looking for a puppy a couple of months ago.

Meet Brody:

There are a few more photos of him up at Facebook if you're curious.

His mommy is an unregistered black lab, and his dad...well...you know how these things go. He's part border collie and part shepherd and part who-knows-what! Brody carries a lot of the lab as you can see. He's 7 weeks old and is a fat little porker.

And he spent ALLLLLLLL last night crying. Six hours. Yes. ALLLLL night.

I'm tired.

Good writing day

2008-07-16T16:51:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what kept the customers out of the store today--yes, I remembered to unlock the door AND flip the sign to Open!--but I had plenty of peace and quiet for writing in.

Tempest's story is almost to fourteen thousand words, which averages out to about a thousand a day since I started writing. That isn't a mind-boggling amount by any standards and yet it proves that slow and steady will definitely get you somewhere.

For Tempest, that many words have landed her in a heap of trouble, and it's still a looooong way to the other side.

Social Networking

2008-07-14T16:55:00.002-06:00

My friend David Bridger has been researching Social Media and shares his new wisdom here.

If there's anything you want to know about Facebook, Shelfari, MySpace, Twitter, and a whole bunch of other social sites, some of which I'd never heard of--what the heck is *Plurk*?--check out David's review.

Oh, and feel free to friend me on Facebook if you haven't already. That's the only one I'm active on! Though David may be convincing me to spread out a little more. It's something to think about.

Poor Tempest

2008-07-14T14:31:00.003-06:00

The story is just short of 10K now, and I have broken Tempest's heart. She doesn't see how things can get any worse. But you know--80,000 words to go. It CAN get worse. I'll let her cry under the apple tree a bit longer before I show her how.

August Workshop at Forward Motion

2008-07-11T11:58:00.003-06:00

A group of moderators has been running writing workshops every month so far in 2008. I've been involved in facilitating several of them thus far, and just completed the first draft of Interactive Description which I'll be teaching in August.

What do I mean by interactive description? In a way, it is much like showing instead of telling, providing an emotional experience for the reader instead of a bare-bones report. We'll be spending a week working with characters, a week with settings, and a week with actions. Then putting it all together in a scene. Really, we'll only be skimming the surface of the topic, but I'm hoping it will be enough to springboard the participants into recognizing when they've achieved that level of interaction in their writing.

If you're a member of Forward Motion, feel free to join in. If you're not--and you're a writer, why not? FM is the web's premiere website for writers. A great place to call home.

Tempest clears 5K

2008-07-09T11:03:00.003-06:00

Tempest's story is up and running, though not without a couple of false starts. I'm still amazed I'm actually writing with only a couple weeks of worldbuilding and outlining under my belt!

I got about 700 words into the second chapter on Monday but it felt sluggish. I re-read it and couldn't see the problem. There wasn't an over-abundance of backstory or thoughts (two things that can grind a story to a halt in no time, especially in first person narrative), there was tension and the story was moving forward. In the evening I poked at the outline a bit to see what was missing. And the goal for the scene was too vague. I was in the right place, going the right direction (I think I only wound up tweaking half a dozen words), but with a blindfold on.

Tuesday I flew through the rest of that scene and well into the next one before the customers started coming. In the afternoon I basically designed flooring for a renovation and a whole house, so perhaps there is an excuse for not finishing the scene!

It's interesting--I'm not sure where this story came from. It's not a particularly happy tale. Sometimes when I'm working on a novel I can almost see the characters trying to hide from me--they don't want to go through what I've planned for them. With Tempest--definitely my darkest tale yet--it's like she's pushing me to tell it. It's like she knows she has to get through it to get to the happy ending, and just wants to push through.

So I guess I'd best get back to the writing!

Life on the farm

2008-07-06T15:53:00.003-06:00

Is NOT kind of laid back. I'm not sure where John Denver got his ideas from, honestly. We've been slowly cutting back the size of our herd of cattle for the past few years, and planning further cuts. With occasional discussion of selling all the cows and finding something else to do with our forty acres.

At any rate, on Friday hubby noticed that a couple calves had pink eye. He phoned and talked to the vet, then asked me to pick up meds on the way home from work. So I did, but when he had a closer look that evening, he realized that the problem was more wide-spread than he'd thought. We bought MORE meds (basically a type of penicillin) and rounded up some help for this morning. It took a couple of hours once we got our system going, six of us working like clockwork (okay, not QUITE that smoothly!) and dosing cows and calves alike with intramuscular shots.

Hubby did get on the wrong side of a retreating cow a couple times and will doubtless have a few bruises to show for it later, if not a cracked rib. He's in a tad of pain but is also in the middle of haying, so he's back out on the tractor now, driving in circles raking the crop he cut a couple days ago.

We'll see in a day or two if the belligerent bovines are improved. Sure hope so. I don't want to do this again, or call the vet down for actual farm consultation.

Tempest begun!

2008-07-02T17:17:00.004-06:00

I got a decent start on Tempest today: 1565 words and a complete scene. Actually I deleted the first 250 or so words and started over, deciding to introduce two other characters a bit further in. Four seemed too many for the opening scene, and left Tempest narrating instead of engaging. So now we're starting with Cadence in tears and Tempest trying to comfort her, when what she really wants to do is rail at the injustices in their lives. Trust me, Tempest's story is not going to be a ball of joy. There is a LOT of injustice in her little world. I'm actively looking for places to lighten it a bit along the way, but it's a tough story. I'm not sure why this one called to me so insistently. I'll likely find out.

Tempest's basic need is for safety and security, so I guess that tells you what isn't in her life at the beginning. But she's strong. She's a survivor. And unlike some characters who stand there wringing their hands at what the writer is planning to do to them next, Tempest is all about me bringing it on so that she can get to the other side and her happy ending.

So we've started. I'll try updating my progress in the sidebar, so keep an eye!

Tempest is ready to roll

2008-07-01T12:14:00.005-06:00

It's only been a couple of weeks since Tempest erupted in my brain with her sort of complete story synopsis. I tried to ignore her for a couple of days, thinking I knew best. When that didn't work, I jumped in with both feet. By the time I'd fleshed out what I knew of the synopsis, built a story world that allowed this story to live in it, then expanded the outline based on the story world (leap frog, anyone?), I found myself with a full, though nasty, culture and a handful of characters with their own ways of reacting to it. And a lot of random characters who may or may not come to play in a larger way.

Of course some of that original synopsis turned out not to be accurate, but it was surprisingly close being as I've never had a story start that way for me before this.

I have quite a full Scrivener file--high five to Scrivener!!--and plan to start writing the novel tomorrow.

You know how long it's been since I've rough drafted? Nano '06 (The Girl Who Cried Squid, aka Off Beat). Yeah, it's been awhile. I hope I remember how. I never intended to have such a large gap.

At any rate, here we go again...

Cacoethes Scribendi

2008-06-24T11:24:00.002-06:00

In doing some research on Latin terms, I came across a complete listing of Latin phrases on Wikipedia. Cacoethes scribendi means "bad habit of writing" or "insatiable urge to write." I guess I need to keep going down the list to see if there is an antidote phrase...

Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione by Chuck Black

2008-06-23T10:08:00.003-06:00

Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione is the first book in a new children’s fantasy series by Chuck Black. I’d never heard of him before this tour, but it appears that he’s had six books, The Kingdom Series, published before this. The series is an allegory that encompasses the main story of the Bible and the history (and future history) of mankind in a setting of knights, castles, dragons, and lords.

The new series, The Knights of Arrethrae, is planned to be a companion series to the original in a similar setting, teaching solid values for kids age eight and up. The first novel, Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione, was an enjoyable (quick) read following the story of two knights: experienced Sir Kendrick and the novice, Sir Duncan, whose impetuousness got them into trouble and yet saved the day. While the themes of the story are quite obvious, at least to the adult eye, they aren’t belabored.

Any parent (grandparent, aunt or uncle, teacher…) who wants to provide wholesome reading for growing kids and young teens will want to look into these allegorical novels by Chuck Black.

Tempest

2008-06-20T12:27:00.003-06:00

Apparently switching gears was the right thing to do. I got 16 scenes jotted down in reasonable depth in just a couple hours yesterday afternoon. Today, so far, I've gotten 5 more, plus written down a bunch of background info on the commune. It's like I'm not even making this stuff up. It's all in my head and I just have to write it down. I don't think this has ever happened before. (Okay, I KNOW this hasn't happened to me before.)

Story Compost

2008-06-19T14:01:00.003-06:00

The Matchmaker world needs to be quite complex for a couple of reasons. First, I can see several novels taking place in it, so there needs to be plenty to explore. Second, each novel should be 100-150,000 words. That's a lot of story, to the uninitiated. Longer than the average novel. Why? I figure if you're going to think at all, you might as well think big, and so this world and novel are being designed with the Luna imprint in mind. Luna is a division of Harlequin that features novels in a fantasy setting with a strong female protagonist and a romantic subplot.

The first draft of Majai's Fury (aka Marks of Repentance) came in about 93K, my longest ever. The re-re-revised version that is currently seeking its fortune is 101K. The matchmaker novels could/ should come in at one and a half times that.

Gulp. That's a lot of story. That's a lot of world.

I've been *seeing* this world for a couple years now, catching glimpses of Kaesa, the first heroine to have her tale set here. About a month ago I decided to focus on her story and see if I couldn't get her ready to write in just a few short weeks.

Insert maniacal laughter here.

I've followed my mind into whatever paths seemed to entertain it and possibly pertain to the Plan. I've played with mythical flying beasts and Yiddish matchmaking sites. I've downloaded Scrivener and created characters and twists and plot cards.

There are many layers composting in the Scrivener binder called Matchmaker. Trust me on that. There is a very cool story in there. Somewhere. But many holes remain. What I don't know is if the projected length of the project is messing with my mind or whether there's something else wrong. I'm pretty sure it's fixable, but I can't quite grasp the problem.

Metaphorically speaking, I've added layers of leaves and vegetable peelings and rotted hay to the compost. I've sprinkled it with water, and I can see the steam coming off the pile, so I know something in there is doing its job. I've taken the pitchfork and turned it over a few times. I've spread it out on the story seeds, but the sprouts are small still. Nothing can hurry growth. You can apply light and rain in the appropriate amounts--add a bit of fertilizer--but a strong story needs time to grow, to reach its roots into the good stuff in the compost and be strong and green and beautiful.

And the Matchmaker novel isn't ready to do that. Not this week, anyway. I'd welcome that flash of inspiration that would pull the threads together, but it seems it has to come to me--that going out and looking for it isn't quite working.

Enter Tempest, stage left.

She presented me with a complete, if skeletal, synopsis on Sunday and I've been trying to ignore her ever since. Today I gave up and created a new binder in Scrivener for her. It looks like her story should have no trouble coming in at 80-90K. I'll let it land there if it likes as I'm not sure it's really a Luna story anyway, though it meets the other basic requirements. I guess we'll see.

I hate abandoning projects, and I feel like I've been doing a lot of that lately. It does feel better when I tell myself that they're just composting. Let's see if I can convince myself.

Deep in the Heart of Trouble by Deeanne Gist

2008-06-16T10:12:00.004-06:00

If I remember correctly, the very first book tour I was involved with was for A Bride Most Begrudging by debut author Deeanne Gist. If you’ve been reading here for very long, you know that my first love is fantasy, not historical romance. However, I enjoy Deeanne’s writing so much that I’ve made it a point to watch for any new releases.

Deep in the Heart of Trouble is her fourth novel, and it continues the story of Essie Sprecklemeyer of Corsicana, Texas, that was begun in Courting Trouble. While getting to know Essie in the previous novel would certainly bring a richer appreciation for this tale, I truly believe that it wouldn’t be required. Essie herself fills in just enough of her previous story as the reader needs, as she needs it.

When the book list for June came out several months ago, I knew without a second thought which books I wanted to order from it. Later that day I was working in the yard when my mother-in-law came over (they live on the same property) and asked if I’d seen the list yet. I said yes, and I’d ordered the book. She said, okay, she’d just read mine then, rather than have the publisher send two copies. I said that would be fine. Later on I realized we’d never confirmed which book--there were 8-10 selections for the month--because it hadn’t seemed necessary. I knew which book she meant!

My daughter is another avid fan. When Deep in the Heart of Trouble arrived the other day, Hanna smiled sweetly at me and said, "I’ll have that finished before you even have time to start!" And she was right. And now it is over at my sister-in-law’s house.

What is it about Deeanne’s novels that appeal to (at least) three generations of women? While her stories are historicals, they’re not the typical wagon train romances. From tobacco brides (in Virginia) to sunbonnet girls (in the San Francisco gold rush--The Measure of a Lady) to an oil baron’s daughter in Texas, Deeanne seeks out eras and locations that are not over-used in the genre. But the true appeal is in her spunky characters and her own voice.

The characters are bigger than life, full-blown on the page, not precisely typical for their era, yet believable. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each novel thus far and expect that to continue as I watch for more novels by Deeanne Gist in the future.

Deeanne's blog link has lived on my sidebar for several years. Recently she shared with her readers how the very cool cover for Deep in the Heart of Trouble came to be. Check it out!

Father's Day

2008-06-15T21:33:00.006-06:00

We went for a drive up the lake today in order to hike along Lockhart Creek.

This was a much easier hike than the hike we did a couple weeks ago! It was pleasant along the creek, sunny but in the shade with a bit of breeze.

Then, because we weren't ready to head home yet, we drove up another dirt road and I hollered, "Moose!" just as he disappeared into the trees. Jim quickly set the camera to continuous while I opened the sun-roof and stood up. Then he drove up the road and sure enough, Mr. Moose crossed a meadow beside the road. I took maybe 20 pictures on continuous before he disappeared. I'll just give you one.

From the top of that road we looked down, back over the lake: beautiful! A pleasant relaxing day.

Revised layout--finally!

2008-06-15T19:57:00.002-06:00

I'm sure you all were wondering when winter was going to leave my blog! At first it was inability to log onto HasWeb, then it was lack of time, then it was lack of time to figure out how to work the photoshop on the Mac. I know Hanna's going to complain that the header is still over-running the edge. I fixed it. Then it did it again. When I don't have a headache, I'll work on it again!

She took this picture of me in Victoria about five weeks ago.

Scrivener

2008-06-09T21:22:00.005-06:00

If you're writing on a Mac, hie thee over to download the trial version of Scrivener. Seriously. There's a decent video there to show you why you need it.

Here's why *I* needed it! I often plot/ outline with physical 3x5 notecards, but I have issues with them. I like color-coding things, but committing to writing plot points on a green card is difficult. Green cards belong to the MC. What if I later I decide to write the scene from another character's POV? Then it should have been on a yellow card! Or even a pink card. You can imagine the dilemmas this causes. Seriously. I've sat and stared at the cards, afraid to commit.

Okay, so that's silly. I can just use white ones, and once I for sure decide whose scene it is, I can run a highlighter across the header to match the character. That helps, but I still lack space to spread them out at work.

And then there is the issue of what to do with the random bits of information that I'm not sure what scene it's going to belong in. I see a setting, but what will happen there? So really, I need to know quite a lot about the story before I pull out the notecards. And then...I may as well go straight to Word or Excel, eh?

Only the cells in Excel really aren't big enough for all the information I might want to have in them--notes for each scene. And sometimes they're a pain to rearrange. I've lost stuff doing that.

Back to Word. There each scene takes as much space as it needs. I can list the POV character, the setting, etc no problem. But there still is that random stuff that might become a scene if it found the right other information to collide with.

And with the matchmaker, I've gone round and round in Word and Excel and was pulling out the notecards a couple days ago (in desperation!) when I remembered that I now have a MacBook.

You'd think I couldn't forget such a thing. I've overcome much of the learning curve and am no longer panicking every five minutes that I don't know how to DO whatever it is I'm trying to do. (That's now reserved for like once a day!) But with the remembrance that I now use a Mac, I remembered that Holly Lisle uses Scrivener. (Ha. You thought I'd never get to the point.)

So I asked around a bit and then downloaded the trial version this morning. By the time I'd gone through the tutorial I had a bit of a headache. So much information! But then it was lunch break and I went for a long walk, came back, and decided it was time to see what would happen when Matchmaker met Scrivener.

I think they're in love.

First, importing files from Word is easy-peasy. (And they're still there in Word, too, should I need them in that application.) Scrivener arranged things fairly intuitively. I only moved a few things to new locations, and it was easy to do. So on the left of the screen, it's like an organizational tree program. There's tons out there, several of which I've used from time to time and quite liked. But this does more.

It has a virtual corkboard with 3x5 notecards! :D And because I am not actually wasting notecards by changing my mind later what color I want them (lame, I know...), I can randomly type whatever I want on a given card, and change it later.

Each card has three *levels*. There's a title, which shows in the tree down the left side. Then on the actual card itself, below the title, is enough room to write a decent synopsis of the scene (about the same amount as on a physical card). BUT, for all the little details, you can add them basically behind the cut. All of these can be color-coded and rearranged to my heart's content.

Which is cool. At the moment, I'm resisting the urge to title the cards in my outline section of the file, though of course I've labeled them in the character section. I'll save the title slot for numbers when I have them the way I want them. But one synopsis section simply says *picnic*. Because I think one scene will take place on a picnic. But I have no idea what will happen there that is significant, and I don't know if it will be early in the story or late. But for now, I have a card for picnic. Later, hopefully, one of the other cards with some other random word will decide it wants to hang out with the picnic card, and I'll combine them. Eventually, I hope, I'll have 80-90 cards with actual scene synopses on them.

The few cards that I know for sure belong to the beginning of the story--ones where characters meet each other, I've tinted light aqua. I've reserved pale yellow for middle scenes and pink for climax/ending scenes, but I haven't used any of those yet.

A person can easily write the entire novel in Scrivener. (Exporting back to Word is just as easy as importing, for the final formatting and such.) I think it would be especially cool for folks who write scenes out of order, because you can rearrange all the scenes simply by moving their cards around. So far I've always written linear, but this setup loosens the cells in my brain a little and makes it okay to play. I don't know if I will, though!

So, after one day, I'm really excited about some of the odds and ends that are stuck to my virtual corkboard and how I might arrange them and add to them. I've still got quite a ways to go to have a full and complete plot, but it's really looking positive at the moment!