Want an Underdog Doomed to Surviving in a Hostile Environment?

   Slow writing week, but I managed to read three books -- given added reading time while waiting for the Christmas cookies [gifts] to bake. Skimmed one book with flat character development but got drawn in by two Yasmine Galenorn books. Flight from Death won my reading derby this week because I thought the characters were more original, even though it's an Otherworld spin off. Maybe because Flight is complicated ghost story featuring a dragon and the other book felt like a predictable urban fantasy.

   Galenorn has a talent for creating three dimensional characters. She layers enough quirks and problems on her characters to make them live and breath. More important, their quirks add to the twists, turns, and suspense of the plot--even when the lsupernaturals land well within fantasy norms. Yeah. Galenorn's characters break cliches.

   What's more, even her secondary characters stand out as individuals. One example, the all important lore-resource character has flaws that both make him more likable and ratchet up the danger in the plot line when he makes mistakes in judgement So, much for the all-wise guru.  [Sorry if you think that's a spoiler.]

   Imagine. Shimmer, an orphan blue dragon exiled to the earth plane without most of her magic for a stupid adolescent-type prank/revenge on a bully, must survive in a world where supernaturals are tolerated on the edges. So, she broke the rules in a society that favors clan, lineage, and wealth above all. But being indentured to a vampire private investigator?????? I really liked that twist. The kid's definitely an underdog, errrr under dragon.

   Flight from Death the the first in a new series for Galenorn. Loosely set in the Seattle of her Otherworlds fae/multi-sup series, it looks like she is letting the book gets its legs under it without playing into the previous saving-the-world-from- the-nasties plot. The book takes us to Port Townsend, Washington where ghosts riddle the town, including the house where a former vampire friend of the boss wants to open a bed and breakfast for supes. Only there is something nastier than discontented ghosts haunting the place, and Shimmer proves she more than just another urban fantasy pretty face with attitude.

   Liked that Galenorn managed to recycle her Otherworld world so it felt new rather than a rehash.

   Recommended. Oh, I felt there were a few missteps where Shimmer exhibited fad/fashion knowledge too subtle for the length of time she'd spent on earth, but these were minor glitches. Overall, the read gallops. A great start for a new series with an intelligent protagonist.

Read excerpts and more reviews on Amazon and at B&N Nook.

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My Writing Rut

What writing?

   Granted I revised an originally drafted chapter to fit the Pillar, the current main character of On the Run. Since I had two such chapters in the que, it should've been a breeze to pound out both of them last week. Didn't get that done. Can only blame baking cookies. At least, I spend very little time in stores trying to find gifts for family.

   Still, it feels good to finally be using material written last spring when I had an entirely different main character for On the Run.

Piling Books Into Your Series - How Authors Keep Their Readers Coming

   My recent book store adventures continue. Found so many new books last time that a customer thought I was an employee as I walked to the coffee shop. She looked at the pile of books in my hands in disbelief when I told her the books were the ones I was buying. Yeah, I found several books by favorite authors with long series plus a couple new mysteries, including a writer I hadn't read before.

   Normally, I don't talk much about the authors I read automatically. But I've been thinking lately about characters and series and why/how they keep their wheels spinning along, a lot recently because my own reviewers keep insisting I write more about my different characters.

   The puzzle loomed higher while I was glancing through those favorite authors, trying to decide which book I'd read first. Ended up reading Christine Feehan's Viper Game even before Patricia Brigg's new Mercy Thompson. That surprised me, but then, Feehan featured Wyatt & Gator Fontenot's grandmother as a secondary character.

[Yeah, I'm into old ladies. ... Nothing prejudiced about me.]

   Romance writers have it the easiest when it comes to keeping their worlds alive, I think. They can give all those relatives, friends, and acquaintances a chance at finding their own "one true love". Mary Balogh and Stephanie Laurens do this  well. The children of Lauren's first batch of Cynsters are now in the process of finding love. Balogh is still mining the social network of the Bedwyns. Both of these are writers of Regencies, and thanks to Georgette Heyer and Nora Lofts, I remain addicted to a good Recency, though the number of fictional earls and dukes have long outnumbered the quantity of real ones in British society.

   Since when did reality have anything to do with romances, anyway? Still, I don't tolerate writers who don't/can't give a feel for the mental mind set of the Enlightenment lurking in the shadows of privilege.

   Back to Feehan. She keeps two paranormal series going--that of her enhanced military operatives and their female counter parts and her benign vampire series, the various Carpathians ruled by Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky. Viper Game belongs to the former series, this time featuring the brother of a former "book star". I like how Feehan has toned down the testosterone of her male protagonists; they were getting just plain annoying, even though she writes a good sex scene, around the middle of the series. Feehan's super villain is still lurking in the shadows, but the series may set up a new compound [aka fortress] of enhanced warriors and their mates. She left hints that another of her misfits might find true love--after some exciting adventures, of course.

    Patricia Briggs keeps her series going by emphasizing one main character, Mercy Thompson, a coyote walker in a world of werewolves. The latest novel, Night Broken, features the manipulative former wife of Mercy's werewolf husband coming to live in her house because she's stalked by a volcano demon/god. Added complications come from a fae walking stick which refuses to abandon Mercy and the need to conceal the powers of a half-fae friend. Yeah, Briggs piles a lot of supernatural into the northwest corner of Oregon, and her fans keep coming back for more.

    I sometimes think that Yasamine Galenorn's Otherworld series has become too complicated. Still, I keep coming back for more, including Panther Prowling, told from the point of view of Delilah D'Artigo, my least favorite of the three sisters featured in the series, though Galenorn has grown the character over the course of the series. Heaps of supernaturals are piled upon the reader in this series with the sisters bouncing around like ping pong balls trying to save Seattle and the human-based earth. Panther Prowling takes a breather from their arch-villain and concentrates on a possessed sword rather than a demon lord trying to conquer the mundane, fae, and demon worlds.

   One note on Galenorn's books. Her publisher, Berkeley, has decided to stop publishing her Otherworld series after ten years and 18 books, citing decreasing sales [if I remember right]. They want her to concentrate on her two new series. Sounds like she's going to. But...Galenorn has the ending of the Otherworld series in sight and is thinking about becoming a hybrid author.

   Interesting. The current publishing paradigm is provided opportunity for established authors as well as pip squeak writers like me to be independent.

All these books are written by master craftsmen. You are going to find tight, complicated plots and three dimensional characters, even among the secondary ones. I recommend the books as do thousands of other fans. Of course, I love Briggs depiction of the Tri-Cities area along the Columbia River.

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Interesting & Useful Links:

   What can be more useful than a laugh? Chuckles are nice, but readers of L. D. Masterson's blog often get a belly-laugh or two. I usually read her Hump Day Mish Mash Funnies on the week-end and don't comment as much as I ought. Maybe a link will make up for my lateness.

   Other stuff that pulls me out of my working schedule: The Passive Guy posted some videos on What the English of Shakespeare, Beowolf, and King Arthur actually sounded like. Take a click and see how much you understand. [I was thankful for the subtitles.]

   Then, I recently had a couple guest posts and interviews posted on various sites. You can take a peek at Pat Stoltey, The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Zoe Ambler, and  Savvy Book  Writers.

~~#~~

  I've been whining -- mostly to myself -- since last week. My critique group told me the back story [relating back to my short story, Noticing Jamilla] wasn't working in either of my two attempts to add to Cassy Mae's adventures. It just confused them. Suggestion was to rewrite the whole thing from beginning to the escape and go on to her escape from the Markham's wrath. 

   And, here I wanted to get a simple short story up so I could collect my Andor stories into a print volume. Oh, well.

But the Triumph!!!!! 

   After working on the revision of my author website since December, I published it last night...when I should have been writing this blog. Oh, I still have to do a lot of checking and optimization. But it's up! Finally!  You can see it here, says M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer.

Sorry to be late in posting the blog this week.

Does Your Backstory Clump like Lumpy Gravey

Back story can be a bitch. Inserting information smoothly, aka back story, into my story lines is one of the most difficult craft skills I'm trying to master. My Far Isle Half-Elven stories have over 400 years of history, and I explain too much too often.

I imagine setting up back story in the opening of a novel in a series is especially difficult. The more books in the series, the harder it is not to explain everything that happened before. Got hit over the head by this idea when I read Yasmine Galenorn's Shadow Rising. This eighth book in the DiArtigo sisters' Otherworld series tells its story from the viewpoint of Menolly, the vampire sister. [my favorite]

Demons threaten the Otherworld, but the sisters have their hands full with malicious ghosts erupting in the mortal world. Menolly must solve her personal problems -- her relationship to the Vampire's queen's son and her coming promise ceremony with her lover -- while the minions of the Lord of Ghosts attack on the sisters' mixed household of supernaturals.

That comes close to a log line, but it doesn't give the book full justice.  I love how Galenorn grows not only her major characters but many of the secondary characters within the story line. The plot line is filled with creative, twisting action.  Once it starts rolling, that is. Yeah, I found this volume a slow start with lumps of back story in the first chapters that sometime seemed like info-dumps.

The goal to reach for? A writer needs to scatter it through the chapters of his/her book like a rare spice. Too much back story slows down the read. I tell myself that over and over when I'm editing a story. Maybe that's why I stumbled over the back story because I'm trying to get Bad Luck Emma to read faster.

Rating: Galenorn's a master, but I only gave the book Four Stars at Goodreads because it didn't keep me up pass my bedtime.

===

What's going on with my own writing. I'm trying to find book reviewers for Troublesome Neighbors at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Transferred the first fourth of my ruler edits of Bad Luck Emma. Beating back Mac who wants her story started ... now, instead of dinking with the opening lines.

Some Writerly Advice for Writing Success

A while back the New York Times Book Review ran an article on writing by Colson Whitehead, a MacArthur award winning novelist. The piece gives writers some easy rules on "How to Write". I especially like the eleventh one: "There are no rules. If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it., too?" -- Yeah, I know I write genre and the NYT emphases literary. My position is good writing is good writing.

Does dialog = a cure for writer's block? Came across this quote on Advice to Writers by Jon Winokur, via  Writing News quoting Dave Mamet: Dialog is easier than plotting. Really struck a note with me, because when I hit a blank spot, I sit my characters down and have them talk about their reactions to the situation they're in, then have something disturb their colloquy. Then, I edit, revise, add setting, descriptions, movements and surprises. Seems to work for me in that I get words down on paper. How good the words are is something else.

Of course, there are as many kinds of winter's block as there are writers. Laura Lee Carter has another take on writer's block. She writes about how she no longer suffers from writer's block at her blog: What's Writer's Block and Why I Don't Have It.  If stress has become one of your writer hangups, you might check out Laura Lee's blog on a regular basis.

I actually block more on promoting my writing than actually writing my stories. Maybe that's why I always look for negative comments about book promotion. So, when does promoting your book become spam? Yasimine Galenorm wrote a blog knocking begging writers, in effect.  Her rather pointed comments made me feel somewhat guilty -- even though I try to interact with my few readers. Check out her blog to read a master writer's take on blogging, Twitter, and Facebook.

Then, when you get tired of promoting your books, Angela Scott, a YA author, gives you *Ten Ways to Promote Your Book and Get Sure-Fire Results*. 

How do I promote my books? How about a mention of my Half-Elven Facebook page:

http://on.fb.me/Ji16iT

I'd appreciate a few more likes on it. 

[I actually have one.]

While tooting my horn, my website is: 

http://www.half-elven.com

It comes complete with links to a couple free fantasy estories. 

 

Pssst! Want the Secret to Writing Success?

Now that I have your attention, Chuck Sambuchino does indeed offer the four keys to the kingdom of writing success. There's one caveat, I think. You must have a finished story to work on. I think these tips will help you revise your stories structure. Of course he talks about middle grade fiction. But, a good story is a good story is a good story.

Of course, all this comes with a disclaimer. If you checked the link above, you'll note that he lists a number of craft skills a writer must master. That's why writing is hard, time consuming work ... once you want to be published ... even if you publish yourself. Go back to Mac's guest post and count how many ways/times he edits.

If you need more detailed instructions for getting your story going, Margo Berendsen has an awesome list on getting started and keeping a reader reading. A real nice compilation of 17 tips to check for your revision. Berendsen has some other useful lists in her archives if you want to hone your craft skills.

After you've revised your story into a galloping read, you have to draw a reader's attention to it. That means you need a good cover -- even for ebooks, maybe especially for ebooks. What's a good cover? Here's a link to Yasmine Galenorn's blog where she reveals the new cover of her latest Otherworld novel, Haunted Moon.  -- I dare you not to pick up this book and not read the blurb, if you're a fantasy reader. Note how easy it is to read the copy on the cover.

Last but not least, if your cover is attention getting, you have to publicize your book -- because chances are you won't have a publicity department with deep pockets behind you. Katie Salidas in her 4 July 2012 blog at Written in Blood, gives writers some criteria to judge blog tour services. You better believe I printed Let's Talk About Blog Tours out for future reference.

###

So, after I given all that advice, I can just hear you asking how my own writing's going. Slow but sure. I seem to be getting my grove back ... in that my to-do list gets crossed off into oblivion until the next day. The secret to that? 

I'm getting better at writing things before doing social media things.

Where are your priorities?

PS: Maybe some of you clicked an empty blog with a similar title. This blog gives you the content. 

Going Back to to an Author's Roots

Roots make a great metaphor and can mean many things for a author. In Laurell K. Hamilton's case: Her new mass paperback, Hit List, mines the beginnings of her Anita Blake series when she takes on Mommie Darkest, whose minions are killing were-tigers in Seattle. The biggest- baddie-of-all wants to possess Blake's body. There's more arse-kicking than rolling-between-the-sheets.

Perhaps Hamilton's greatest achievement here is how she weaves elements from her previous Blake books ... even the erotica ... to give Blake the tools she needs to come up with a satisfying ending. This book is leaner than the previous few in the series, and I liked how the action moved as many of the characters from previous adventures were woven into the plot. Of course, those who can't be named -- the Harl***in -- make almost invincible opponents until Blake brings her talents to bear ... and no, I don't mean her prowess in bed. 

Personally, I like Blake's sense that "god" is a non-judgemental being, who doesn't deny her/his help just because Blake doesn't follow a prescribed religion.

Hamilton also indicates the series will continue. One, an except of the hard back book , Kiss the Dead, is included. [I was pleased to see that Zerbrowski was featured in the first chapter, though he seemed more serious than before.] Two, Olaf, the serial killer with a fixation on Blake, escaped and disappeared with another victim.

#

Have been struggling to produce more than 500 words a day, much of that rewrites. It's enough to make you wonder if you're doing the "right" thing. Like why am I doing all social networking stuff????

A blog by Yasmine Galenorn over at Life on the Fringe addresses much of that territory. Why not take a look at "Writing Tips: Just Do It". No hand holding here, just sound advice. You should be writing for yourself.

Then, there's L. M. Preston's blog on why she loves writing.

Finding New Authors to Read and Writing Craft Ideas

Fantasy Book Review:

Need a new author to read? Novella collections make a great way to discover new writers.  Hexed, which includes stories by Yasmine Galenorn, Ilona Andrews, and Allyson James about magic and mayhem, was no exception.  Granted it included two of my favorite authors and reminded me of another whose name I had forgotten [James].  Jeanne C. Stein was new to me.

While I usually don't care much for vampire stories, Stein hooked me with her Anna Strong in Blood Debt.  I've a soft spot for people who stand up to arbitrary authority, especially when they use their brains.  James even came up with an interesting "other" antagonist which hasn't been overused -- at least not in the books I've read.  So, I gave her four stars for creativity.  I think she lost a star from me for the vampire protagonist -- even if Anna Strong fights to keep her humanity and can walk in daylight. -- Hey, the vampire meme needs all the innovation it can attract.

Another reason I like novella collections is they can fill in the back story of important secondary characters in a series. Galenorn first hinted at a tragic past when she first introduced Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite, in her D'Artigo sister's Otherworld series.  Her story Ice Shards fills in the details.  Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews does much the same for a more minor secondary character in her alternative world of magical Atlanta. Allyson James reminds the reader that a relatively minor character can wreck greater havoc in a story than writers normally assign to them in Double Hexed ... if a writer pushes beyond the obvious.

I was sorry when the book ended.  Fortunately, I had rebuilt my to-read pile so I've a couple juicy reads to look forward to.  And no, I'm not going to comment on the quality of the writing in this collection.  These be master's here. -- Maybe I write half as well.

Grumping about My Lessons:
[Are we learning yet?]

Are you search engine friendly?  Like do you want to make it easy to find what you write whether blog or novel?  Chuck Sambuchino at the Guide to Literary Agents recently had a guest blog by Hollis Gillespie on How to be  Click Magnet. If your a writer, its a skill you must learn to improve your sales and/or the readership of your blog.  I know I printed a copy of the blog to study it.

Lesson:  Out of the ten tips, I picked up on writing titles.  I did notice my longer, more descriptive titles got more visits from search engines, but didn't think much about it.  Now I have a list of handy-dandy ideas to improve my blog readership.

Good thing I printed the article.  My eyes glazed over the first tips on getting most out of your titles.  Did you know Google only lists 65 characters in their search engine titles?  I didn't.  Now I know why so many search engine listings dangle in mid-idea. 

And, while you are writing that title, make it specific. I have to quote Hollis' example.  Newspaper speak:  "Senile Feline Enthusiast Dies".  Web speak: "Dead Crazy Cat Lady of Dayton an Undercover CIA Spy".  -- Rather nice that the old lady had an interesting life ... but, maybe, the red tape drove her crazy.

Did you read the article? Which tip seemed most appealedl to you?

Opening hooks have also been on my mind.  Since I've been curtailing my time on the web, blog opening lines have to hook me.  Then, I find K. M. Weiland's Word Play blog on hooking readers:  Is Your Opening Line Lying to Your Readers?

Found another gold mine, I think, on Twitter. Galley Cat did a blog on Find Reviews on the Book Blogs Search Engine.  This one's not a list of things to do.  It's a link to Fyrefly Books which has compiled a search engine about people who blog about books.  They also feature reviews you can search by genres.   

Trivia:

Remember.  No one ever said writing is easy.  I've notice it's also time consuming.

Newbery Books, Ghosts, and Other Things

The Reading Lesson:

A couple months ago, I thought it might be nice to read all the books that got the Newbery Award, but had already read most of them.  One I hadn't:  Ruth White's Belle Prater's Boy from 1996, if I read the copyright correctly.  The book was a nice dose of magical realism combined with a mystery.  Each character -- the narrator and her cousin, Belle Prater's Boy -- had a problem to solve.  Thought the book gave a good lesson in weaving two similar strength plot lines involving two different characters together.

Everybody likes a ghost story.  So, it's no surprise I picked up another middle grade book:  Mary Downing Hahn's The Old Willis Place: a Ghost Story.  The book was told from a ghost's point of view.  The three main characters are well drawn with an evil old woman's ghost lurking in the background, scaring the bejesus out of the kids, ghost and alive.  Hahn's setting the clues about the wild kids in the woods is masterful. --  Hop the younger step-grandkid enjoys the book when I give it to her for Mother's Day.

After reading the two books close together, I'm thinking more and more people trying to write publishable books for adults should read good middle grade.  It's so much easier to see how the writer's work their craft tools.

Web Promotion and Other Stuff:

I've been sending rough drafts of a short story out for critiquing lately, mostly because of time crunches.  This gives my critique partners an easy target where they get back at me for highlighting I've done of their use of "to-be" forms.  Only not all "was" forms are wrong.  Do you know when "was" is the correct word to use?  The Grammar Divas give you some hints, if you care to read them.

Tagging can get your or your friends books noticed in the great e-publishing swirl.  Karen Nut writes about a technique to bring your book to people's attention at the 1st Turning Point.

For those seeking agents, I thought I'd add this blog [from a link at Writer Beware's Facebook comments].  Jennifer Laughran of the Andrea Brown Agency commented on agency agreements at her blog Jennifer Represents.  While I'm not querying agents at the moment, I thought it interesting and filed it for when I get Emma revised, edited, etc.

Let's go on to imagine when we become a best selling author like, say, Yasmine Galenorn.  In her blog, Life on the Fringe, she blogged about how many pages she should produce each day ... and then goes on to explain there's much more to being a best-selling author than just writing, or even revising/editing, pages.

Progress:

Got the short short story [Devil in the Details] -- which is different from flash fiction -- back from the critiquers.  Sent it out to Betas after revising/editing it a couple times.  Wanna bet I won't revise it when I get it back again?  You'd lose.  --  It'll be nice to have something to submit to the professional-paying markets again.   

Also, I'm reaching the middle of the editing (yet again) of There Be Demons.  [Then, I'll submit it to a couple of e-publishers.  In the end, I expect I'll be self-publishing it.  The language is really rather strong even after I've been removing the f-bomb.  [Hey, it's my favorite expletive, though sometime I soften to "screw it".]  We won't talk about my bureaucratic angels, twisting of Catholicism, and wrong-aged protagonists. --  And, I thought it was middle grade?

Say, aren't I supposed to be creating something new?

Trivia:

I've been reading a couple romances and thinking about "happily-eve-afters".  I think the HEA comes after you learn to keep your mouth shut ... until you think of a neutral way to present your position.       

Which Character Do You Like Best?

 Fiction Lesson:

As much as I hate admitting not buying the last couple books in the Otherworld series about the adventures of the D'Artigo sisters,   I bought Yasmine Galenorn's Blood Wyne.   I just realized that the other books didn't feature Menolly D'Artigo.  That's the vampire sister.  Now, I'm wondering why that character motivated me to buy a book and the others didn't.  It wasn't because Menolly is the shortest of the sisters.  Being a vampire, she shouldn't engage my interest since I usually don't care for much for vampires.

So, why?  Galenorn's action is in top form as the sisters fight to save Seattle from murderous ghosts ... and a more murderous vampire with an original twist.  She solves a couple of the sisters' problems.  But, she also complicates Menolly's life with two new hassles:  one a dangerous love interest and the other a new terribly dangerous possible nemesis who she owes a debt to.  [Fae are interesting in that way.]  The only reason I can come up with to answer the question "why" is that I perceive Menolly has "trying harder" to pull her weight in the team.  

Guess I think of vampires as being handicapped by any thin stray pieces of wood flying around.  Plus, she's out of commission while the sun shines.  The other two sisters just get sleep deprived.  What makes you latch onto a character in an ongoing series?

Useful Promotion Info and Other Stuff:

This week's gem comes from Justine Musk of the Tribal Writer.  Basically, she takes on the question of should you blog or not and says it depends on what you want out of it.

She also gave a useful link for gathering an email list for my Half-Elven promotions MailChimp.  A link I am suitably grateful for.  You can learn more about my thoughts on the Half-Elven blog.

Am really looking forward to this year's Northern Colorado Writers conference.  I'll be pitching a Color-a-Comic pre-primer a friend and I did years ago.  We sold a few hundred even though we knew zip about marketing.  Maybe that's one of the reasons I feature how-to-promote  info so much?

Progress on My Writing Journey:

Producing words as been as painful as pulling teeth around here.  The silly idea that I could draft a new novel and revise a previous draft got knocked out of my head.  

Why did I think I could?  After all, there're tons of blogs out there of people who write 1,000 to 5,000 words a day.  Why couldn't I plog along at my usual 500 words and revise too?  ...  Tried it.  I can't.  Have given myself permission to only revise ... and jot down weird wisps of ideas as they drift through my brain on the other WIPs.  [Yeah, there's more than one.]

When I look at what needs to be done with Emma Kloken, Reluctant Hero, it's obvious much of the revision will be like drafting a new novel.  I took a class from Trai Cartwright at Craftwrite and learned a lot about scene setting and flow.   Now I done got ta do the work to make it happen in my manuscript.

Do you design your goals too big to chew?  I find I work best with flexible goals, broken down into small bites.  The pesky things are easier to cross off that way.

I should mention my Far Isle Half-Elven blog.   Yeah, I blog twice a week.  One here [on Thursdays] about general writing stuff.  The other concentrates on building building my writer's platform ... which I do kicking and screaming and not very effectively on Mondays.  --  Last Monday, I wrote about submitting my website -- The Far Isle Half-Elven -- to 1st Turning Point for a critique.

Trivia:

I hate it when I make a comment, proof-read it a couple times, publish it ...

then, discover a typo ... or two.     

Starting a New Series

The Read ...

My "cockles" were nicely warmed by the opening of Yasmine Galenorn's new series about the Indigo Court of vampiric fae -- Night Myst.  Frankly, I'm a little tired of her D'Artigo sisters.  [I'd still read them, but the competition for my time is too great at the moment.]  

The book set up might be considered a cliche -- a roaming family member (Cicely) being called home because of a death.  When Cicely returns home, she's discovers she's inherited the position of head witch in the town, and all hell's breaking  out.  Yeah, it gets off the blocks fast and keeps racing from one disaster to another.

That said, watching Galenorn set up the coming books in the series is a writing lesson in itself.  The end of the book leaves the reader anticipating several threads:

--Cecily inheriting responsibility for the safety of humans and witches in the town threatened by the Indigo Court, 

--The MC lover a captive of the Indigo Court queen, 

--A battle between two tribes of fae, one of which was supposedly destroyed by the Indigo Court,

--Not only can Cicely talk to a wind elemental by can turn into an owl which is the enemy of the queen of the Indigo Court,
--The Indigo Court of Vampiric fae out to destroy the Red Court of normal vampires, which are wickedly delicious and self-centered, the poster-people for unreliable allies. 
-- Cicely discovers her father is a fae from yet a different tribe, and

--There's a reincarnation thing going on.

 

Oh, there are some mild sex scenes and reserve partners in the wings to complicate future plots.

 

That's just what I remember from the top of my head.  I'll close my comments by thanking Galenorn for not sanitizing her vampires.

Media Buzz ...

Promoting Your Book:  The web has been busy catching my interest.  Maybe one of the most important posts I've read lately comes from Eric at Pimp My Novel -- an author's 12 Step Program.  Yay!  A nice step-by-step list of things you need to do to promote your books -- even if you hit the big time since publishers are publicizing less and less. 

I'm sort of stuck on #5 ... I skipped the agent bit on the list when I sold Taking Vengeance to WolfSinger Publications.  Laughed at the party suggestion.  I just went comatose when I got the email saying WolfSinger had accepted the novelette.  [Remember, this is super small time even if it's occupying enormous amounts of my time.]

Bureaucratic Sillyness:  I start out my day reading the New York Times.  [Actually, it's skimming the NYT.  The old man reads it.]  A recent gem was an article on how print books help avoid the "summer slump" affecting so many low income school kids, all of whom can't afford to forgot what they learned the previous year.  Seems their heads retain more if they have books to read.  Also seems, it works best when the kids pick out their own books.

With school districts cutting summer programs right and left because their tax base has evaporated, research has revealed a cost-effective solution -- give the kids books they pick out for themselves, even if the subject is "frivolous".  Hey, that might even get boys reading.

Progress ...

The site for the Half-Elven of the Far Isles is now up and under construction.  If you're curious, you can visit the site ... or the blog.  Did you guess I've put my other projects on the back burner to start another edit of Dark Solstice -- in spite of coming down with something with a fever?

Trivia ...

Got my desk cleaned off again ... Does that mean I'll start revising Voices??????  Maybe next week.  I'm still cleaning stuff -- both computer and print -- up.   The changes in Dark Solstice are minor -- so maybe I can do both.

Another Day, Another Half-Foot of Books

Trivia: Had to get greens to make a salad for the neighborhood potluck ... actually, turkey dinner and pinata fest.  Since B&N is only a half-mile away, had to stop by.  The old man thought I might like the Susan Boyle CD ... even though I said the plastic floors were enough.  Susan Boyle stayed in the store, but I got Carol O'Connell's' Bone by Bone plus others.

Can't remember the other titles, but the to-read pile is growing at an alarming rate.  Do I feel a massive reading frenzy coming on?  Just to add to the confusion.  The son sent a box of books with a new fantasy series.  Haven't looked to see which one yet.  I think he returned my Butchers too.  (Oh, my poor groaning bookshelves.)

Lessons from My Reading:  Picked up Yasmine Galenorn's One Hex of a Wedding, the O'Brien wedding book I mentioned not buying before -- from the grocery store on Friday.  (I had to by nightlight bulbs for a friend which sent me right by the books which I try to avoid.)  

The clue arc, where we learn the mystery of the book isn't focused on O'Brien comes right on schedule in the middle of the book.  That doesn't mean that O'Brien isn't the focus of another side mystery that turns her life topsie-turvie just before her wedding.  A nice read which demonstrates books in a series don't have to become repetitive. -- Of course, she hasn't written twenty books with this character yet.  

(Funny how I tend to like the characters written before a writer's most popular series.  In this case, the D'Artigo sisters.  On the other hand, the popular series means the publisher releases the older ones.  I find these more creative than the "break out" series.)

Runesmark is sitting on the pile with bookmark in place.  A problem.  I have O'Connell tempting me.  The new book doesn't feature Mallory, but a new character.  Still, the premise looks interesting with bits of who might be MC's long lost brother, starting to turn up on the front porch.

Progress:  Demons.  The polishing has reached chapter 20 with me removing typos, putting the correct quotes and spacings in, and other manuscript faults.  I don't know what to think now that I'm almost ready to submit it to a few agents.  Do I see the faults in the thing or not?  At least it's not boring me.

Emma.  Keep making notes to myself at the chapter headings of things that pop into my head.  It's a toss-up of who pesters me most when I "lap" the cat -- Emma or Maren.

It's Colorado, The Snow's Melting

Trivia:  It's Halloween!  We made the dentists happy and gave out candy to all the little beggers.  Actually, the old man did in his Basque beret.  I went upstairs and wrote.

Lessons from My Reading:   Thoughts on Series... Managed to read the next two of Yasimine Galenorn's mysteries -- Murder Under a Mystic Moon and A Harvest of Bones -- since my last blog.  The likeable characters had me ignoring the news and reading.  Of course, plot and a fast moving story line had something to do with it too.  Each of the important characters appeared in each book with an added dimension to their previous appearance.  Hey, even the cats get their due.   

Still liked the series enough that I thought about getting the next in the series -- One Hex of a Wedding.  Hints inserted into the Bones book suggest it'll be as interesting as the others.  However, the two bookstores I checked didn't have it so I was saved.  I get to mine my "to read" pile.

Since publishers keep doing series, I assume there are a lot of people out there who like returning to comfortable worlds, even if they have their scary moments.  The mystery and fantasy genres are filled with series -- which is great for me since that's what I mostly read.  From a writer's point of view, I'd think economy of effort keeps them going.  From a reader's, you know you're going to get a good read -- at least until the writer works their ideas into the ground and start repeating themselves. 


Galenorn's an interesting case for me.  I've read in two series of hers:  Emerald O'Brien (human psychic) and the D'Artigo sisters (half-fae witch, vampire, and shapeshifter).  I'm willing to read more in the O'Brien series, but not the D'Artigo one.  Reason:  The mystery in each O'Brien book is significantly different from the the previous ones while the half-fae story lines felt repetitive.  

My Progress (if any):  Critiques:  Critiquing amuses me since I am set up as having some expertise by default.  So far, my comments seem to be appreciated ... which feels strange to me since I never had an English class and wouldn't know a theme from a hole in the plot.

Tangled:  Lanquishes.

Emma:  Have revised the previous draft into a middle grade format.  On Monday, I get to draft new stuff.  The end.  Lucky me ... if I can decide what the ending is besides a bunch a swirling possibilities.

It's Snowing, Major Big Time

Trivia:  What a day to stay in and read and drink the coffee pot dry!  The Colorado weather people are hinting we may have a record setting October storm.  There's around a foot of snow here now and another ten inches +/- are expected.  Someone should have warned our stupid apricot.  It's standing out in the cold with drooping branches even though the old man knocked the snow off the leaves several times.

Writing Lessons:  Well, I got Hamilton's Burnt Offerings and Galenorn's Jade Dragon read.  [I've almost finished Galenorn's Mystic Moon today since I didn't do errands.]  While I liked both books, I realized that Hamilton constructs a more complex read, ie. multiple plot lines.  This may be one of the reasons I reread the Blake series and not Galenorn's.

Galenorn gives us a mystery set amidst a group of friends in a cozy small town setting.  O'Brien's paranormal abilities operate as a personality trait rather than something dark and dangerous.  Some people laugh a lot.  Some people scratch.  O'Brien sees auras, among other things.  

In this book, O'Brien must free herself and her kids from an ancient curse while protecting herself from the more mundane tasks of preventing more robberies and her son's kidnapping.  The writing follows O'Brien through her days in a linear sequence until she saves her son and converts a potential enemy into a friend.

In the middle books in the Anita Blake series, Laurens' plots tend to spiral around the various aspects of Blake's life:  her animator job where she raises zombies and fights with her boss, her contacts with the various lycanthrope communities and her role as the werewolf lupa, her uneasy relationships among the vampires, and her consulting with the police investigating paranormal activities.  

In Burnt Offerings, the major problem revolves around the attempts of Blake and Jean-Claud [the vampire master of the city and Blake's lover]  to save their people from the plots of visiting representatives of the vampire council to destroy them and their dependents.  Minor problems in the various areas of her life are directly affected by the visiting vampires.  As she solves the problems, Blake gains insights that help her in defeating the vampires for this round.  For all the supposed darkness of the Blake books [dealing with monsters of various kinds], the books offer a set of warm relationships every bit as cozy as Galedorn's.

[The lack of complexity as I draft Emma has been bothering me.  Maybe now that I'm changing it to a middle grade novel, I can accept the linear plot line.]


Progress:  I've started my critiques, one of which is lo-o-o-ng.  Much longer than our original submission agreement.  I'm going to be obnoxious and just do half it for the first session and the rest for the second.


Tangled:  It's sort of on the back burner.  Translation:  I'm not writing, editing or revising, but I think a lot about the characters.


Emma:  Is rolling along.  I'm almost to the end of the changes to my original draft. Then, I think it's 3-4 chapters to the end.

On Being a Bad Girl

Trivia:  The director of the Northern Colorado Writers has written a pertinent blog on focusing.  [http://the-writing-bug.blogspot.com/]  I even agree with her.  Strongly agree, in fact.

So, what am I doing?  You got it.  Unfocusing.  

I'm supposed to be finishing Yasmine Galenorn's Legend of the Jade Dragon, a beautiful little mystery I'm enjoying a lot.  So, on Saturday night, I started re-reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Burnt Offerings, an Anita Blake novel before the ardour (sp) reared its sexy head.  I was just going to check the opening ... to see how she placed her "hook".  It's Monday, and I'm still reading.  Still reading Galenorn too.

In the meantime, I skimmed through a "thesis" of a sort on medieval interpretations of out of body experiences.  Purpose:  to see if it  held any pertinent ideas for my interpretations of elves and fairies.  It didn't.

Writing Lessons:  While Hamilton's opening with the comparison of battle scars hooked me the first time I read the book,  this time, I glomed  onto another aspect of her writing -- her incorporating her descriptions in the course of the dialog.  Galenorn does it well too.

Random Hamliton (Anita Blake as narrator):

"'I'm so glad you've come,' he said.  'I tried to take care of them, but I couldn't. ...'  His shoulder had healed enough that he covered his eyes with his hand so we couldn't see him cry, but his voice was thick with tears, as well as blood."

"Zerbrowski met me on the steps leading into the squad room.  'If that dress was slit any higher, it'd be a shirt,' he said." 

Random Galenorn (Emerald O'Brien as narrator):

"'What a pretty box.'  I could feel a wave of emotion wash off Horvald as I spoke." 

"She pumped my hand like she was trying to jack up a car.  'Pleased to meet you.  Cathy Sutton. ...'"

Then there was: [Galenorn, again]

"'Oh, yes it can"  I told her about the two times we'd caught it in action.  'I was going to wait until we reached the resort to tell you about the visions, but I might as well tell you now.'  I detailed the two scenarios I'd witnessed while holding the statue."  

-- [I thought the above was a clever way of bringing another character up to speed without dragging in a lot of explanation.] 

Progress:  I did a re-review of a chapter of Tangled and submitted it to its critique group, but not much else.

Emma.  Ditto, except it was two chapters since they are so short.  I'm now working on Emma more than Tangled.  I'm tasting the end.

Now for the bad girl part:  I decided to revise a short story I had out for submission.  It's gathered some nice editorial comments, but no check.  

So, I went back and looked at it.   Aaargh!  While I try to write dialog like the above.  The first couple pages had several examples of showing the action, then telling what I showed.  Granted it wasn't as bad as the stuff I'm removing from Tangled, but still ....  You'd think I'd've learned to notice the fault the first edit around by now.

Temptation

Trivia:  Last week on a whim, I picked up two of Yasmine Galenorn's Emerald O'Brien series at the grocery store.  Read the first in a couple days, then was stuck with a decision.  Did I read the series or just the first and fourth novels?  Gave in to temptation and bought the second and third.  Now my to-read pile is piled higher and deeper.

Reading Lessons:  What a pleasure to read a 250 word book with short chapters.  My eyes didn't glaze over with excessive description.  More important, I could read a chapter during my after lunch coffee break and remember what happened.  I didn't have to go back and refresh my memory.  I wonder if this is a consideration for others with busier lives.  Maybe most people don't read by units as excessively as I do.  For me, plot specifics stick with me better when I read by chapters.

I'd read Galenorn's half-fae witch series, but got bored with it around the fifth or sixth book.  [The dragon was neat, though].  Really like O'Brien and her tea room (not shoppe).  An amateur sleuth with kids gumming up the works -- talk about magical realism.  A strong mystery provides the backbone that holds the book together.

I found Ghost of a Chance a book to go back and study.  O'Brien's complex backstory of the character is interlaced with the action.  Plot points -- a romance and a hint of competition, a second murder, nice red herring who stays unsympathetic, the motive of the real villain mentioned early in the book -- are all nicely strung together, better than most human spines.  The pagan foundation is presented in the course of the action with me appreciating Galenorn isn't dogmatic.  [Yes, some pagans are.] 

I read it in two days, but I think I'll be going back to it when I read the other three.  There's a lot to learn in the way she puts the book together.  Half-way into the second book, I'm already seeing hints at future plot points.


Progress:  Am up-to-date on my critiques.  All I have to do is review them to see if I still think the same -- and if I made myself clear.  Something I worry about since I'm so dyslexic.

Tangled.  Still chopping.

Emma.  Been spending more time here.  The reorganization to MG continues with me trying to add more emotional reaction as I go.