Twisting the Reader's Expectations

When Excalibur landed on John Taylor's Nightside table, I expected  A Hard Day's Knight would be the lead-in to a mini-series within a series. The first novel: Excalibur finding where King Arthur might be, then finding King Arthur, and last, the grand battle against some evil or other. Simon R. Green took care of all the options in one book in his usual chuckle-out-loud style.

The book was the perfect book to read while I was too sick to cope with Carol Berg's dense novels and too aware to wadtch TV. Actually, I went from sleeping to watching a few True Blood DVDs to reading Green. Was slower than usual, but I got the book read. 

One of the things I liked best in this book was Green's use of portals from one imaginative world to the next.  Not only does Green have London hosting the Nightside, but the whole world of the descendents of the Knights of the Round Table. Nightside is also the gateway to many other worlds, curtesy of the Doormouse. Green also managed to eliminate elves by sending them to a new un-inhabited world where they can fight among themselves in peace -- after Puck kills Queen Mab, that is.

So, writers be warned. Queen Mab is finally dead. I wonder if Jim Butcher's heard?

Do have one bitch about the book. I saw the book in several places but never bought it because the first chapter was familiar. I thought I'd read the book already. Luckily, before I went into the hospital I picked it up to maybe send it too a friend. Ended up reading the book myself, and will keep it if I can find the rest of my Green books on my chaotic bookshelves.

Was going to spend my afternoon, working on a new story. Guess where I am ... fiddling with my blog. Think it's because I'm feeling a little guilty about not writing my review of A Hard Day's Knight  on Sunday or Monday. I'm really toying with the idea of only blogging once a week -- at least until my energy level re-appears. Problem? I notice my readership drops off.

Have you wondered about the readership levels of your blog? Do you wish you had more participants? [If so, you're more gregarious than I am.]  Whatever, if you're looking to increase your blog traffic, you might check out Lisa Dale's blog about Six Ways to Resuscitate a Dying Author Blog.

I have been reading lots of blogs. Perhaps, the one I like best was Jessica Faust's Is Your Promotion Making Sense?  I savored its permission not to social network. [Actually, that's a twist on what she said. I think she was really saying that you need to be sure your efforts are productive.   

So. What do Agents Feels About Queries?

Several blogs back, I mentioned Janet Reid's formula for a good query ... ie. one that might give her a positive attitude when she reads your sample ... provided your query lures her on. A query that's low on description and high on action.

I was trying to use her formula for my new query for "Dark Solstice", using Linden as the focus rather than Mariah. So, I had been thinking about queries a lot before NaNoWriMo, trying to get away from describing feelings to show action. Still, I've talked to several people who think writing queries is a waste of time, too hard, or ????? Since self-publishing is so easy, they say, I should just go that route.

Jessica Faust gives an agents viewpoint on why a query is important in her Bookends Blog: The Archaic Query. She considers it just another craft skill which writers have to master. The upside? It allows agents, and probably publishers, to work through their submissions faster.

While we're thinking about queries, agent Rachelle Gardner wrote a blog on interpreting "agent euphenisms": Decoding Query Rejections. What I found interesting: she linked to Janet Reid's Query Shark as a place where writer's can get a specific reaction to their query -- if their query is lucky enough to be chosen. Though I should warn you Janet Reid isn't as nice as Rachelle Gardner.

Then, there's the other end of the process, getting some publicity for your book -- whether traditionally or self-published. The Passive Guy gives some good tips on using Good Reads to reach a targeted market of readers. He makes such a good argument that I may have to go back and visit the site regularly in addition to Facebook and Twitter. After NaNoWriMo, of course.

How am I doing with NaNoWritMo?

I'm behind, of course, but not by much. Sunday threw me off my count when I went to Denver, and I was short yesterday too. Still, I've discovered a completely undreamed of character who is central to the mid-story conflict that launches my main character into deep doo-doo, only I don't know what she's going to do to get out of the mess her contentious attitude gets her into.

PS: Got a good laugh when I discovered all my typos after I published an except of "Combine Mythos" yesterday.  Oh, I'm also thinking of calling the story "Combine Blues".

Magic in Paranormal Fiction, etc.

Fantasy Book Comments [aka Review]:

Is there a greater cliche in fantasy than "magic"?  Ilona Andrews Magic Slays and the other books in that series has one of the more interesting concepts of magic I've discovered.  The stuff ebbs and flows, making everyone -- nulls, weres, vampires, magic workers -- cope.  In Magic Slays, the coping becomes more complicated because a bunch of nulls is taking advantage of disaffected magic workers to create sleeper cells dedicated to destroying magic.

Do you catch the hint of social commentary there?  Yeah, the team writers, known as Ilona Andrews, make some interesting comments about the "human condition"  within the context of the story.  What amazed me was they stopped before the commentary became tedious a la Edward Bellamy's Looking Backwards.

On the writerly level, Andrews trims all sorts of dangling loose ends as they complicate Kate Daniels' first job as a private investigator.  Yeah, its a delight to watch how the flaws in characters come back to bite Daniels in the behind with fangs longer than a were's.  The reader is even treated to some back story about her family which doesn't clog the action flow.

Never fear, even though lots of complications are resolved in the Magic Slays' story line, there're plenty more to carry the series forward.  This is a series that hasn't bogged down ... yet anyway.

Grumping About My Lessons:

Barb Drozdowich at the Indie Book Collective has blog on book blogger/reviewers, simply titled "Reviews".  The reason I mention it is to kick myself in the butt ... or is that "but ..." ... because I've been ignoring the "email for books reviews" on my to-do list.  But then, I've also got this little item about formatting for Amazon and Pub It that's languishing from list to list.

Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and ask "followers" on Twitter to do it.  --  My Facebook pages are for people I know/met so I really don't want to beg there.  --  I think my dislike of marketing could very easily rub off onto social networking.  --  What do you think about begging for reviews?  Personally, I don't even care if they're bad.

I'm glad I don't expect to make any money as a writer.  It saves me from lots of disappointment since I'm so deep in an accounting hole, I may never see black again on my Schedule C.  Then, I discovered a fascinating blog by Ellery Adams "Bares All" ,giving us the statistics on the life of a mid-list author.  While he makes some money, he seems to be getting about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield.

Guess I should say I found him doing a guest blog on Jessica Faust's Bookends blog.  No, Faust isn't a slouch as an agent.  Adams has three mystery series, at least one of them published by Berkley.   Still, he doesn't make enough to make the IRS sit up and pant ... unless he didn't file his taxes. -- It's just that most authors don't make the best seller lists.  It's statistically impossible.  So, forget the leather elbow patches and pipe.

[How's that for a sexist comment?  

Whatever, the article is fascinating ... or did I say that already.]

Is there a cure for paltry sales?  Maybe the WANA? Don't know the term?  Maybe you should read about Kristin Lamb and her approach to social networking. It's a little self-promotional, but has some great insights on increasing your ebook sales.  Basically, it gives some pointers on not promoting alone. Kay rating:  worth printing so you can underline the pertinent parts.

Doesn't all that sound good?  Unfortunately, I think I'm more congenitally geared to growling than glad-handing ... even if I'm only pressing keys.

Trivia:

The dumb cat has decided it likes to be twirled in my computer chair.  I get up to touch my knees so my hip doesn't ossify, and he's usually there meowing for a ride.  Today, he hissed at me when I tried to remove him.  He soon got the message he's not the boss.

Archetype or Cliche or ??

The Reading Lesson:

All too often Archetypes turn into Cliches.  This is a major problem for fantasy writers and readers.  Like, who wants to read another vampire novel ... or zombie ... or fairy ... or ???  You name it, and you can probably come up with examples where hundreds of writers followed the cliche and still got published.  You also know why I laughed out loud when I encountered Alison Pang's leg-humping unicorn in A Brush of Darkness.  [Shades of Chihuahuas!]

I've often thunk that Disney & Company should be prosecuted for stifling people's imaginations.  Fortunately, writers' imaginations can still counter the commercial norms.  While we want to make some money from our books, many of us streeetch people's imaginations in the process.

Off the rant.  Pang creates a very credible fey-touched urban fantasy world with a no-nonsense hero --  acting as a gatekeeper between worlds for her boss who has gone mysteriously missing.  The plot centers on finding the boss and other missing people.  The love interest is dangerous [read succubus] and is looking for his sister who has gone missing too.  The peril is developed from the concept soul capturing.  The cast of characters come from faery, heaven, hell, and human, all mixed together in unexpected ways.

Back to the unicorn who remains silent after the hero rescues him from a demon and takes him home.  She even tolerates him sleeping in her underwear drawer.  While she protests, she doesn't kick his ass out the door but fixes him breakfast instead.  About midway, though the book, she learns he's more than a pet ... with knowledge of Faery that helps save her behind.  The beast gives a great example on how to handle a secondary character who makes a major contribution to solving the plot's major puzzle.

A romance?.  Not really.  Urban fantasy is how it's labeled, but it's a dark one.  The love interest disappears in a fit of rejection. Fortunately, I think the book's a trilogy.  At least, there's a second book.  Guess I should read Pang's blog more carefully ... besides checking out the pictures of hunky men. 

Web Promotion and Other Stuff:

Stumbling over query writing?  Jessica Faust at Bookends is running a query critique on Wednesdays.  Granted it only  one agent's opinion, but you might also take a look at Query Shark.  Between the two, you might find a way to improve your query efforts.  I've been printing them off to study, but it's too soon to know the results.  I haven't sent out a new query -- to agent or publisher -- in ages.

[These sharing agents should be at the top of your blog reading list.  I only wish they represented the stuff I write.]

Maybe this should be under "progress" but I finally got around to cleaning up the 1st Turning Point marketing blogs hanging in my email.  Here are a few ideas I thought especially useful.

1)  Hank Quense ran a series at the beginning of the year on making your book stand out in the marketplace.  Can anyone say Amazon or Barnes and Noble here?  This is the third article, but there are links to the first two.

2)  Misty Evans gives some great tips on marketing your series ... and maybe gives you reasons why you should write a series.  There have been a lot of comments in the stuff I read that you'll sell more if you offer more than one book.  Guess once you've made one sale and they like it, the buyer will come back for more without another hard sell.

3)  John Klawitter writes about your book blurbs:  "Blurb Right or Die".  Hey, you wrote the book -- you have to market it even if you have a traditional publisher -- so write a good blurb.  Again more and more traditional publishers are making the writer to more and more of the marketing.

Progress:

Got a short, short story off to my critique group.  It borders on science fiction ... or at least uses SF parlance to explain the linch-pin situation.  Need to make sure I sure the vocabulary right.  Fortunately, one of critiquers is a scientist.

"Devil in the Details" started out as a flash fiction piece.  It made the first cut in a couple publications but didn't sell.  Thanks to an idea in a blog I read, I came up with an added danger and 500 words.  --  Next week I'll learn if I improved the story.

Bascially, I'm in revision mode.  Back to Emma ... plus I have Kaffy Anne waiting in the wings.  Then, I need to decide what to do with Britt.  I still have some agents I could send queries to.  Unfortunately the book straddles the line between YA and Tween.  Maybe I'll just try submitting it to publishers.  I'm very good at indecisive procrastination.

Trivia:

It weird watching a family squabble over an estate when they were left out of the will...

Book Turn-Offs?

The Reads ...  A given.  Not every book you start to read -- even in your favorite genre -- will hold your interest.  While reading how to survive when the economy collapses, I kept taking books off the to-read pile and transferring them to the trade pile.  Two authors who got caught in the shift, Lori G. Armstrong and Anne Ursu, both popular and respected authors.

Why didn't I read them?

Lori G. Armstrong had lots of potentially interesting characters running around in the beginning of Blood Ties and an interesting premise.  Hey, I bought the book, after all.  The protagonist is a no-nonsense, take-the-bit-in-her-teeth kind of gal with some convoluted family issues which aren't the worse others in the cast of characters must face.  Still, I did no more than skim it.  My internal editor just wouldn't turn off, and the "red pen" got a little heavy.  

Anne Ursu's The Shadow Thieves, the first in her The Cronus Chronicles, didn't even get a skim.   This was a contribution from the NYC fantasy readers, and I was looking forward to reading a middle grade novel ... after putting Emma on the shelf.  I didn't get beyond page 7.  The telling voice just ... plain ... turned ... me ... off.

What kinds of things turn you off when you settle down, expecting a reality-suspending read?

Must admit that, Beka, Blood Hound finally came in.

Web Stuff ...

All  writers need support ... and northern Colorado writers of all levels and genres have the Northern Colorado Writers thanks to Kerrie Flanagan.  Members, like me, enjoy many benefits like coffees, classes, conferences with big-time agents/editors, a Yahoo group, newsletter ... and an informative blog.   M-F, five different writers offer helpful info and insights about writing.

Fridays are especially valuable for writer's without much time to scour the web.  Brooke Favero of "The Writing Bug" does the slogging for you.  This last week she included outstanding info on querying agents, building platforms, and improving your writing craft skills.  --  To tell the truth, she's always includes outstanding information from some of the best bloggers on the web.

And then, there's Facebook.  After a couple months of experimenting,I recently limited my Facebook page to family and real friends who I might even talk to once in awhile.  For the life of me, I couldn't comprehend how a my page would help me as a writer.  Maybe you wonder the same thing?  Well, Jessica Faust in her Bookends blog gives some pointers on how build a business platform on Facebook.  She uses one of her clients, Ellery Adams of A Killer Plot, as an example.  Check it out.

[For me, it came at an opportune time.]

Progress ...

The Voices, the Voices ... got new chapters tacked on them last week ... in spite of me having to write promotional material for Taking Vengeance.  I think my decision to just write 1,000 words a day -- no matter what kind of cr*p it is -- might work.  I knew I had to go back and add description as soon as I noticed I was staring at my end-of-chapter hook.  The chapter also has that unusual problem of "telling" rather than showing the action.

Then, there are the Demons, Gargoyles, and Britt ... have loads of changes to make, thank to my lovely beta reader.  [Now, if she'll only send me her chapters.  Hint.  Hint.]


I'm getting a down and busy view of the publishing world.  No more day-dreaming.  Have sent my contract, bio, and back cover copy to WolfSinger Publications.  [You might check them out at Amazon or Barns & Noble.] -- No, my teeny effort (We're talking 12,000 words.) won't be published until sometime in 2011.

A reality check on the odds of acceptance.  I'm assuming a couple hundred submissions were made last year.  I'm one of 11-2 contracts offered for 2011.  WolfSinger also publishes a couple e-magazines.  You can check the guidelines and contracts out.  Sorcerous Signals closed to submissions on June 15th.

Trivia ...

The robins were squawking up a storm yesterday morning.  I woke up to something chirring back at them.  I opened the blinds to the robins dive-bombing something with a bushy tail disappearing over the fence. --  I don't think robins like raccoons.  (Another good reason to keep the cats indoors, as if the hawks weren't enough.)