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.

~~#~~

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.

Found: Useful Writing & Twitter Ideas

For someone who writes short stuff, I read precious little short fiction. Tried to remedy that when I bought Warriors Fantastic, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers. The collection had some stories with great twists on fantasy tropes though I skimmed through a fair share of the stories.

Sad part. I had never encountered many of writers before and don't think I'll go searching for them. Part of it is because I like more depth to my characters. But the stories just didn't hook me into their worlds.

As a writer, the collection offered me some great lessons on using the three-act structure for stories: introduce your characters and setting, throw the characters to the wolves or other evil-doers, and then, let the MC win or lose. [Since this was genre fiction, the good guys usually won, and the bad guys lost.] You've probably heard that saw repeated so much you consider it a cliche. But it's a useful one.

I've been struggling the last couple of weeks with the two short stories I've been trying to write while doing the final, endless edits on The Ghostcrow. [Thanks to my beta readers, the whole focus changed by adding deeper MC motivation. The story's more complicated than Dumdie just escaping from a demon now. She's going to walk away with a better understanding of her ability to see ghosts.]

Oh, I have nice little outlines for both the Cassy Mae and Highgrim stories. But they just weren't jelling. At the moment, both consist of a hodgepodge of disjointed scenes. Further problem: I couldn't decided what details to put in and which to leave out. Result: I've two unorganized messes in my computer.

Yeah, the light bulb went on while reading the last few stories in the book. Locate your projected word limit and divide: 2000 words for intro, 2000 words for complications, and 2000 words for solutions. If I add any deeper motivations, the story can grow. One thing about self-publishing; I don't have to fit my story into a word-box.

As for Warriors Fantastic, it was a pleasant read, what I read of it. [The editors led off with the best story,[an original take on Valkyries by Alan Dean Foster, which is why I bought the book in the first place. Have decided most of my dissatisfaction with the stories was the lack of character depth. But I'm also thinking these were mostly guy stories about people who like to fight. As such, there are some interesting takes on fantasy paradigms that make the book worthwhile. I'm giving it a hemming & hawing recommendation.

~~#~~

Interesting & Useful #Twitter Blogs

In the early days of my critique group, one of our most common comments was "You're Telling". Just as I use my crit group to improve my writing, I've been reading blogs on improving your #Twitter presence. One of the most pertinent: a blog by MMJaye on Google+: "Show, Don't Tell, on Twitter" If you despair of anyone looking at your Tweets, you might take a look.

One of the best of the commentaries on making your tweets more effective was Richard Stephenson summery on points to use and habits to avoid. Take a look at The Indie Author's Guide to Twitter.

  Then, if you are compulsive enough to want to measure your results, you might look at Peg Fitzpatrick's blog on The Philosophy of Hastags .

  No, I don't measure my results other than checking my click-throughs on the the url-shorteners. But, Fitzpatrick gives lots of info on how you can better market with Twitter. With those automatic retweeter services, I pay less attention to retweeters though I always follow them. Thanks to the notifications I can scan the names and check out the new ones.

~~#~~

   Anyone else reading the comic book Mercedes Thompson story, Hopcross Jilly, put out by Dynamite? It's now in the fourth issue with Jesse, Mercy's step-daughter, being featured in a parallel story line to Mercy's involvement with some gruesome burials. Jesse's  getting bullied in school while a witch stalks the bad kids... again. The overall arcing mystery is the discovery of strange graves with the kids skeleton's lined up with their heads in the cardinal directions. Oh, and their fingers and toes are missing. How's that for a premise to work against the cliche of high school mean girls?

My take? The artwork is dark, which is okay, but all too often the panels are murky rather than sharp.  My other quibble is the advertising. No, the 90-pound weakling hasn't returned to haunt us. But the garb they've put on the revived Red Sonja must be uncomfortable to the extreme. Guess I'm getting old or, maybe, I'm not a day-dreaming adolescent boy.

~~#~~

Miracles of miracles. I've actually been writing in the mornings ... after I read my three comics and check my most important emails. Perhaps the most liberating change in attitude: I've decided since I'm not selling anything ... just giving my stories away ... so why am I wasting time checking stats? Then, someone on Barnes & Nobel bought four of my books at once. Or, at least, I sold four different estories there on the same day. That was a nice, warm fuzzy for a pipsqueak writer.

Hey, what's not to like?

My cut from a Nook is bigger than a sale on a Kindle.

Have also been taking time to learn how to build my own banners for #marketing. Have tried a couple tools, but PicMonkey seems to work for this computer klutz. Here're a couple banners I've created all by myself. I won't tell you how many attempts and redos it took to get to the finished product.

Yeah, they still some editing. But they say adding pics to tweets helps them get noticed. I'll be converting my reviews snippits to banners as I have free time.

Murder Most Feminine -- Are All Mysteries with Female Main Characters Cozies?

Psst ... Wanna know one of my guilty secrets?
I like tepid, cozy mysteries.

While reading Cruz Smith's mystery, Rose, I was also reading Thrill of the Haunt by E. J. Cooperman. A lovely cozy romp about a lady who sees ghosts and uses her resident ghosts to lure guests to her not-bed-and-breakfast. All the time I was reading Cooperman, I kept hearing a long-gone friend snort in the back of my mind. She had nothing but contempt for cozy mysteries that trivialized the high crime of murder. Like she thought Miss Maple was an abomination.

Can't say her opinions influenced me much. I continue to read cozy mysteries for the worlds they create. So what if all to often some of the "villagers" turn murderous? I still think Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple movies are laugh-out-loud funny.

But back to the cozy mysteries.

Read It and Weep by Jenn McKinlay reminded why I sometimes get impatience with cozy mysteries. Liked this mystery about who is trying to disrupt the production of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream. The theater fundraiser imports a big time actor/friend who becomes the target of a murder plot that's meant to ruin the production. The solution was ingenious and unusual, but the klutzy romantic complication dropped a star off my rating. -- Four Stars.

As for the above mentioned, The Thrill of the Haunt, A Haunted Guest House Mystery, had me grinning most of the read though two people get offed in what seem at first to be unrelated murders. Cooperman soon adds clues and red herrings to tie the dynamics of a local vendetta against Alison Kerby and a floundering love interest force the MC to acknowledge her ability to see ghosts and solve the crimes, all against her druthers. -- A pleasant, well-crafted read -- Five Stars

By way of comparison, Patricia Briggs recently offered a nice little mystery-thriller which offered a kidnapping and mass murder, Frost Burned. A secret organization manages to kidnap almost the entire Tri-Cities were-wolf pack. Mercy Thompson, Briggs' ingenious shapeshifter hero, proves her worth by saving the pack's ass when a car accident delays her return to the pack's headquarters. While there are no murders to solve, Mercy must rescue the pack who looks down on her and her mate, the pack's alpha. There is a glorious massacre of the bad guys and a twist which leads to an interesting ending. [Yeah, I can get a little blood-thirsty at times.] -- Five Stars, even though, having driven through the area many times, I can't imagine multiple traffic jams ... even when Christmas shopping.

So, why do I put all three books in the cozy category? All three books are set in well-defined communities where even the secondary inhabitants capture readers' interest. So I read them and make no apologies. Can't help but be a little envious though.

###

My own writing is still bogged down in edits. Part of it is that I'm suffering the effects of working with a small "Mom & Pop" publisher, more kindly known as an indie publisher. Actually, The Grumpy Dragon is doing well by their authors, but when the main editor [and editor of my book] is laid low by winter flues and such, timelines drag on. The other project I decided to edit, The Ghost in the Closet, a languishing short story. It's in process for cover and other end of the line processes to become a self-published e-pub.

The other project in the works is another short story which has been fermenting in my computer. It's been rejected multiple times ... but suddenly if reconfigured itself to be part of There Be Demons' world of Andor. How did this happen? Was sitting petting the cat as usual in the morning, when Cassy Mae put her cup of coffee on Britt's table in the college coffee shop and told her to stop staring at the demons. Told Britt to tone down her magical ambiance before the demons noticed her. Surprise. Britt listened to her.

So, I now have three book in the Britt Kelly series ... and simplified the number of worlds in my computer.

To Tell or To Show -- The Secret to Why Writers Lose Readers?

Recently got burned in a critique because I told rather than showed. Granted it was a first draft of a work in progress, but the comments started me thinking about the great show vs tell debate. Can a writer tell a story anymore? Or, are they forced to follow the movie paradigm to get published?

Since I needed to review Patricia Briggs' recent mass paperback Fair Game, I thought I'd look and see what she'd done. Why review a best seeling author? Well, if you believe the comments on Goodreads, her fans pant in anticipation for her new books. ... I assume you wouldn't mind some hints on being a big time author too.

Fair Game, the fifth in Brigg's Alpha and Omega series, gives a twist on the werewolf's obsession to protect his mate. The storyline features the Marrok's enforcer and son, Charles, taking a back seat while his mate, Anna, is sent to the east coast to help capture a serial killer. Her special calming skills as an Omega wolf are needed to keep the werewolves and other preternaturals from exposing their more violent habits when trying to work together. In spite of his problems with his own demons, Charles must give Anna enough space to work with the local werewolves, Feds and local cops to solve the crime without her becoming a victim of the murderer.

Setting up characters in an on-going series is a balance. The writer must introduce each continuing character without an info dump that'll turn a readers off. Many long term writers have been sinking into the morass of giving too much back story thereby decreasing the tension. Briggs doesn't. Let me give you some examples of how she introduces characters without an info dump.

On introducing Anna at the start of the book: "Go home," Bran Cornick growled at Anna.
      No one who saw him like this would ever forget what lurked behind the Marrok's mild-mannered facade. But only people who were stupid--or desperate--would risk raising his ire to reveal the monster behind the nice-guy mask. Anna was desperate.
     "When you tell me you will quit calling on my husband to kill people," Anna told him doggedly. She didn't yell, she didn't shout, but she wasn't going to give up easily."

Actually that introduced two characters in action [plus demonstrating a bunch of other techniques commented on in writing blogs]. 

On introducing Charles: "Anna knew exactly when Charles drove up, newly returned from Minnesota where he'd gone to take care of a problem the Minnesota pack leader would not. If she'd been deaf to the sound of the truck or the front door, she'd have known Charles was home by the magic that tied wold to mate. That was all the bond told her outright, though--his side of their bond was opaque as he could manage, and that told her a whole lot more about his state of mind than he probably intended.
     From the way he let nothing leak through to her she knew it had been another bad trip, one that had left too many people dead, probably people he hadn't wanted to kill."

On introducing secondary character, Leslie Fisher, who was featured in the prologue: "Special Agent Leslie Fisher stared out the window that looked out over downtown Boston. From her vantage point she had a lovely, very-early-morning view. Traffic was still light, and though it would get a lot heavier as people came to work, lack of parking kept the streets from being as crazy as Los Angeles, the last place she'd been assigned. In the FBI, she got to move every few years whether she wanted to or not, but she'd always thought of Boston as home."

That described two characters if you consider the setting as a character. It's the integration of Brigg's prose that captures and holds my interest. I think she tells in the story, but her mind doesn't intrude as she lets the characters react on the stage. I can only admire because I know how hard that is to do.

After thinking about this, I'm still not so sure showing's all that much better than telling. I considered much of the text quoted above as telling ... and I don't mind it. So, I'll say who cares. Info dumps are another complaint.

Overall Rating: Five Stars. The mystery-thriller aspects of the Mercy Thompson world now outweigh the romantic and fantasy.  More important, Briggs keeps the tension tight as she juggles the motivations of her various characters.

===

About the long break between blogs: Have been stewing since I returned from visiting family in California. The trip was lovely ... with a day's long drive through empty hills covered in green pines and grey, leafless oaks. As my mind dislocated, I found myself musing about what I want to do as a writer. Still don't know, but I'm working on it.

Middle grade novel morphed into a trilogy. Progress? Have a third of the middle book drafted. Have almost a third of the new first book down and am reworking and reworking the new second chapter that introduces Mac as a teen ... older than I first envisioned her. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Also have some nice review comments up on my websites if you care to look. Even have a couple five stars ... and the three stars complain the Troublesome Neighbor novella is too short.

Mini-Vacations Don't Necessarily Refresh

Just as I resolved to blog more often, umpteen jillian relatives descended on us. ... Okay, ten of them, which is a good share of all those we have. So instead of blogging, I was sitting on my behind yakking and eating too much. I even got infected by knitting again since I was surrounded by knitters. -- Have knitting needles ready at my chair now ... and am hoping they keep me sane while watching TV.

So, did I learn anything while they were here besides keeping my mouth shut? I did snatch some time for reading late at night. ... Actually, I've a pile of books I haven't mentioned in my comments. So, since I've got a trade pile almost ready to dump, I'll share some quick observations about what I read recently.

First grabbed: Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates, a local author. Can't believe I didn't review this when I read it. Cates also writes under the name of Cricket McCrae. Whatever the name, I enjoy her touch with leading her MC from clue to clue. In this case: Katie Lightfoot who not only must prove her uncle innocent of murder but must also confront the fact she's a witch after her mother tried to suppress her talents. There's a lot going on in this opening of a new series. -- Well worth reading.

The Light and the Oracle by Victoria Hanley, another local author whose books I've been reading for years. The YA book has an often used plot: a humble teen thrust into the midst of corrupt officials, in this case teachers, when she's sent to the Temple of the Oracle to learn to control her magic. The obstacles and solutions are both realistic and fantastical. -- I think reading about a MC discovering how to make their way in their world keeps me reading YA. Believe me, Hanley creates a three-dimensional world.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs carries on the adventures of a coyote shifter caught in a world of werewolves. In this sixth Mercy Thompson novel, Mercy finally marries her werewolf to the consternation of many of his pack. Briggs was wise to change the locale of this book, using the couple's honeymoon as an excuse. Of course, they park their trailer in the middle of a series of murders. One nice touch, Briggs uses usually frolicking otters as her villains, but I was a little annoyed she pulled Old Man Coyote out of her hat as Mercy's father.

After all that talk about getting rid of my trade pile, all three of these are keepers ... no matter where I find a space to stuff them. -- Unfortunately, we talked so much we didn't get to organizing the bookshelves.

#

Did get some writing done ... if slowly. I'm working on a prequel to The Price of a Pig. thought it'd take me a couple weeks. Hah.  Tried writing in first person ... until I got tired of all the "I"s. Changing the text while revising all sorts of stuff took even more time. Guess, I must resigned myself to being a sloooow writer. -- Am starting to get itchy about revising The Price of a Pig since the most of the critiques have finally come in.

What do you find easiest? First person or third person viewpoint?

Killing Your Villains

The Read...

Villains have a bad habit of sneaking back into the story line after they have been killed, especially in series.  Patricia Briggs' Wolfbane gives us a great example of this plot element, one that greatly increased the tension about half-way through the book -- since the main characters were still seeking answers but you, the reader, had been given enough clues to know a disaster could be in the making.  About two-thirds of the way done, the characters not only knew the major villain had found a way to return from death ... but he was "haunting" the secondary semi-villain who had the power to see that the main characters were killed for "breaking the rules".

Brigg's gives a writer a lesson in introducing several possible villains to increase the tension in the story line.  After all, isn't tension the means of keeping the reader hooked?  This book is again on the NYT Best Seller List ... and deserves to be ... even if it's a relatively light read.

I think I like Briggs because of her light touch -- which goes a little ways towards explaining why I've reviewed so many of her books.  --  Also, the Mercy Thompson books are set in the eastern corner of Washington/Oregon where I've spent many a lunch time while traveling to the Cascades.

Web Links and Comments ...

Just got home from the seasonal shopping and decided to kill time before cooking dinner by reading blogs.  

Kevin Hearne's blog, "Write More" sat at the top of the blog roll.  It's a blog you need to read if you think you've got it made ... if your revisions on your novel are done ... if you got an agent ... if you've published a couple books.  --  From what I've read, I think there are fewer secure author perches than there are bird perches on our feeder.

Guess I can't run away from querying agents.  Want to clarify your thoughts on the agent-finding-thing, Kaitlen Ward at YA Highway has an untitled post giving lots of insights into the process of finding an agent.   --  Yeah, I'm ambivalent about the process ... but I also think a good agent is necessary if you want an enduring career as an author.

Christmas is chewing through my writing time, but I did want to mention something  --  in case the New York Times puts their Science News on the web.  Today's section has an article explaining why the USA gets so little health care for money spent.  You do know that US citizens spend more on health care than any of the other 200-some countries of the world?  I get mad every time I realize we have now sunk to 49th in delivery of health care on that list.  That means a fourth of the countries in the world get better health care for less money.  --  Okay.  The cheapskate's rant's done.

Progress ...

I really recommend you join a local writer's group if your area has one.  Went to the Northern Colorado Writers' coffee this morning -- another reason why I'm behind.  But it was worth it.  I put a question on the table about the parts of a writer's website they wanted to read most -- to those attending.  Several people said at once: the author's bio.  

So, if you're contemplating a writer's website ... remember that tidbit.  I've gotten it from other people as well.  --  Result?  I expanded my bio and put in a link to this blog.

As for writing, I'm critiquing more than writing.  But, I did get my Dark Solstice manuscript edited again.  Ended up making about five to ten changes a chapter ... mostly tightening verbs.  Why use flabby verbs, even if they aren't passive, when English gives you so many pin-pointing choices?

Trivia ...

The Christmas baking is upon me ... and my hips ache.  Good thing I only have two more batches of cookies and the baklava to go.  [My Christmas shopping's done ... and I managed to do it all locally!!!]

Publishing, Better the Second Time Around?

The Read ...

Mid-list authors get no respect.  At least, that's the impression you get from many of the writing blogs and forums -- but there are exceptions.  Writers who persevere and end up writing a popular series.  Their publishers reward them by reprinting their back list.

Okay.  A second chance happens to best-selling authors and people who get back their e-rights all the time.  [But, that's another story.]  

Today, the read's about Masques, Patricia Brigg's first published novel which had gone out of print.  Her introduction is well worth a trip to a mortar-and-brick store to read the introduction where she discusses the process.  Her Mercy Thompson series [about a coyote shapeshifter caught in a world of European werewolves, vampires, and fae] opened the republishing doors for Briggs. She revised Masques and was rewarded with a pop onto the New York Times best seller list.

Oh, the book.  Imagine the damaged son of a power-mad mage finding a magic-wielding mercenary who helps him defeat his father before he destroys their world.  Actually, the book is written from the mercenary's viewpoint and was a good read deserving of being on the best seller list.

Problem:  She gave me an excuse not to market.  I need to revise.  Yeah, I do.  See "progress" below.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Promotion has been pushing to the top of my mind for a while, so all the articles about book promotion ... and other writing too.  Arielle Ford, a publicist and writer, recently did an article on "The Rule of 5 for Book Promotion." in the Huffington Post.   Bottom line: she likens promoting your writing to a marathon rather than a sprint.  --  This is courtesy of Writer's Beware who listed it on Facebook.

If you think an agent will solve all your post-writing problems, think again.  Rachelle Gardner (agent blog Rants & Ramblings) ... talks about what happens when an agent fails.   Actually, the blog links to a series of blogs by Wendy Lawton, another agent, in Books & Such who had the courage to tackle the ticklish subject.

More on promotion:  Author K. C. May give a nice idea for using Kindle to promote your book in her blog:  Writer in Training.

Progress ...

Write?  Market?  Promote?  All three at the same time?  

After realizing my first attempt at fiction -- written to amuse myself --  was over 400,000 words that could be cut into three books [the Far Isle Half-Elven] plus leftovers, I went on to write three more self-contained book manuscripts.  The YA/MG stuff which is laying around in various stages of revision.  

Even developed a nice writing pattern.  Draft a manuscript in the first half of the year.  Revise the manuscript in the year.  Then, I discovered the usefulness of critiquing and beta-reading, where I played with the manuscripts, changing them over time.

Problem:  My writing skills for long stuff kept improving.  Now, I'm staring at four manuscripts wondering how I'm going to retool.  [Plus, I have all that draft material lurking in the computer files.] --  I think I've found my excuse to a void marketing.  *heh.  heh.  heh.*

What makes me think I'm not procrastinating?  Well, There Be Demons was very nicely beta-read, thank you.  Lots of revision done.  Thought it really was ready to market.  Even have been compiling a list of fantasy-liking agents who might like the kind of fantasy I write.  Then, I happened to revise the first 300 pages of the Prologue.  After it was reduced to 250 words, I read so much better.  --  I think I've found a wondrous Mobius strip to play on.

Trivia ...

Something's wrong ... major big time wrong.  The last three books I've read showed up on the New York Times best seller list on Sunday.   [Dark Slayer (Feehan), 61 Hours (Child), and Masques (Briggs)]  Things I like usually don't become main stream popular.


Oh, I've made it to 300 Tweets.  [@kaytheod]

Creating Characters that Stick

The Read:  I bought Cynthia Peale's White Crow about seances, murder, kidnappings, and romance at the Friends of the Library book sale, and my immediate reading pile got so low that it rose to the top above odd Thomas.  More important, while the book was copyrighted in 2002, I remembered the MC, Caroline Ames, from the previous two book, printed before 2002, which I had read in the past.  

Yeah, I have a soft spot for cozy mysteries with lots of cultural background.  --  Unfortunately, Nancy Zaroulis, the real name of the author, doesn't seem to have published any books after 2003.  But, I've read lots of cozies with and without paranormal overtones.  Why did Caroline Ames stick in my mind enough for me to buy the books and then read it?

Caroline Ames is a complex character who has several problems going on in her life at once, just like a real person.  She's a proper Victorian Boston upper crust lady who has a knack for finding herself in the middle of murder investigations and, worse, getting her name in the newspapers!  She also has a self-centered brother who she caters too, by making his home life too comfortable, against her druthers.  She's fallen in love with their boarder, a recovering-from-knee-surgery retired army surgeon on a small pension, who loves her back, but Victorian conventions get in the way of any declarations or actions.  She's got tons of relatives and contacts that firmly place Caroline on the outskirts of Boston society in spite of her poverty.  All that fodder, and I'm left hanging dry without any sequel.

I made a quick check, and the most recent reference to Peale was:  she was working on the fourth book in the series.  As far as I can tell, it was never published.  Darn.

Web Notes:  The Dark Wyrm playing Satan to my wallet by giving Patricia Brigg's signing schedule for her new hardcover of the Mercy Thompson series, Silver Borne, featuring Samuel, a former love interest of Mercy's and Mercy's problems in returning a fae book she borrowed, on her blog. [How's that for a run on sentence.  We're all college graduates, aren't we?] 

Why is this important?  Well, Silver Borne is out in hardback, and cheapskate here is faced with the dilemma of "to buy or not to buy".  So far, I'm not buying.

Then, Dark Wyrm, one of the few book review blogs I visit regularly, listed Patricia Briggs signing schedule

[ http://darkwyrmreads.blogspot.com/2010/03/wheres-patricia-briggs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DarkWyrmReads+%28Dark+Wyrm+reads...%29 check it out in case you're a fan. ]

To get back to the subject of characters, besides creating one of my favorite characters of all times, Patricia Briggs, in my opinion, sums up the basics of character writing in one of her recent blogs:  "Mercy wasn't as happy with me but happy people don't make for good stories."  
[http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/silverBorne.shtml ]

Progress:  Are you kidding.  I can't git the beginning to jell.  Maren's viewpoint still hasn't appeared, and I'm into the fifth chapter.  Gads!  [Actually, I'm thinking something more profane.]  At least I don't have a critique group meeting tonight so I can write.

Trivia:  It snowed -- maybe 12 inches at our house.  It's a little hard to tell since first it rained and then a lot of the first snow fall melted.  Still, my old man brought in the first adventurous daffodil, stupid enough to bloom, and put it into my only champagne flute.

Gotta love the Spring,

the snow's melting! 

Too Cheap for Hardbacks

The Read: Sunday, the number 1 son (actually, the only) said he saw Patricia Briggs Bone Crossed in mass paperback.  Now, I've been salivated over the hardbound for what seems forever.  With my inclination to dive into worlds I know and enjoy, you can imagine my dilemma.  My cheapness and and lack of shelf space ruled.

Monday, I bought the book with the intention of maybe reading it by Tuesday.  Finished it Wednesday night because I really am concentrating to trying to do a rough outline for Maren (not title in sight).  Can't say I "loved" the book, but I sure read slow while I savored it. 

On the cover, Charlaine Harris says:  "An increasingly excellent series... I love these books."  The "increasingly excellent" comment got to me.  The books so far are mining a rich lode of werewolf, walker, vampire, fae lore with non-duplicating plots.  What I liked about Bone Crossed is the plot within a plot with two villains chasing Mercy -- one she'll fight with another day (the local vampire master) and one she didn't kill, but caused to be killed by a wooden fae staff who follows her around wielded by a oakman (a type of fae) victim.  Hey, there's only so much a 30 pound coyote can do.

Guess others would latch onto the progress of her romance with the local alpha werewolf (which also added an additional complication since not all the werewolves welcomed a coyote into the pack).  I'm more intrigued by the 2" diameter oak tree that suddenly appeared by Mercy's trailer -- especially since the next episode in the series features a fae book (grimoirie?).

So back to salivating.

 Progress:  Bone Crossed made it more difficult to outline Maren.  I was thinking I only had problems figuring out where to start it.  (I've some 4,000 words of mostly backstory ... or beginning which seem to be retarding my writing speed (lack thereof, actually).  Now I have to complicate my plot.
 
Already did that once with the shifter who followed her into our world being captured by the bad guy and have a section where she rescues him against her better judgment.  But I still have to comb my research for a unique combination of traits and powers for the ultimate villain who controls the people who were going to be my first villains.  That doesn't make much sense, but I'm still working out the details.

Emma.  One rejection down.  Super fast in two days.  Ain't email wonderful?

Trivia:  The New York Times had an article about readers complaining about the new pricing agreement between Amazon and Macmillan.  Kindle users are complaining about paying more than $9.99 (a loss leader price) for a book.  They've taken to leaving lousy reviews of the book in protest.  While I don't like the rigidness of the Kindle/Amazon paradigm, I think the readers are being more ossified than Amazon.

Actually, the readers are just showing their own ignorance.  They were quoted as calling the writers greedy for setting the price of their books so high.  Granted I haven't published a novel, but I didn't realize I got to price my book if I ever do.

Twirling Around

Trivia:  The leaves swirled around us while we were running around in bigger circles.  The coming cold front will probably end Charlotte Armstrong and the red rose's blooming for the year.  Want to be the zucchini survives another cold snap?

Reading:  Interrupted my Charlaine Harris reading kick.  When we learned the local museum charged to enter, we went to a bookstore to kill some time.  Ended up spending $30+ instead of $6.  One of my goodies was the hard bound Patricia Brigg's Homecoming.  Enjoyed the story though I thought the artwork too similar to the Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake one by the same publisher.  Maybe I mis-remember, but I thought there was a greater stylistic difference in paper covered comics.  (I'm sure some artists did more than one series.)  -- If I get ambitious, I might do a little research to find out.  Doubt it though.  I'm lazy in my old age.

I did finish Grave Sight, the first of Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series.  Must say I like her southern kick.  Also like her turn of a phrase:  "...people used to shedding authority..."  and "...shooting accusations...", to name a couple.  The who-dun-it was also intriguing though she kind of telegraphed the ending when she mentioned the sheet of paper with the blood types.  No evil master-minds here, just bunglers trying to hide their mistakes by digging themselves deeper into the mess.  Harris satisfies my interest in small group dynamics.  Also, her main character got struck by lightening to gain her ability to locate the dead.  Nice to see the different character twist.


Grave Sight was published in 2005 after Harris published multiple books.   Maybe sales give you permission to use lots and lots of passive tenses.  Or, maybe passives are an easy target for critiquers on the boards, like adverbs, and editors don't necessarily throw up their hands in horror when they see a passive.  Is there a "do want I say and not what I do" phenom in publishing as well as parenting? 


Writing:  Plodding along.  Can't fine tune my writing schedule though.  The problem of "what to do when" disappears only to reappear.   I'm getting Tangled chopped, but progress on Emma is slow.  I'm going to try working on Emma in the mornings to see if I can get more words written at a sitting.

Progress:  1500 words chopped from chapter 8 of Tangled.  Maybe, thanks to my critiquers, I'm learning to catch all my duplicate descriptions.  I'll probably remain too wordy for current publishing standards.

Question:  If I write fantasy, why do I read so much mystery?

Can't Win for Losing?

Trivia:   The recycling's done for this month!  We have to lug it to a station with eight truck-sized bins lined up in a row, each taking their own blend of garbage.  Plastics.  Newspapers.  Glass.  Cardboard and the stuff in between.  I wonder how much "improper stuff" is dumped in each bin.  Whatever, the place is in constant motions, like ants.  As soon as one car leaves, another takes its place.

Comments:   The Republicans are having another hizzy-fit over Obama's address to the school kids.  Both the sainted Reagan and Papa Bush did the same, but I guess only the righteous right has the privilege of "indoctrinating" the kids to do well in school.  --  Again, I wonder when the conservatives will wake up and address the real question facing our society and offer some workable solutions instead of grandstanding.

Wanna bet the lumpin-politik will forget the corporate fascists are responsible for getting rid of the regulations that allowed the current economic mess to happen?  A fifth grader should know:  if it's possible to milk the system, someone will line their pockets at others' expense until someone makes them stop.  Madoff, anyone?  At least, no one talks about privatizing social security anymore.


Reading:   Finished Patricia Brigg's Hunting Ground.  A satisfying read which I did in two days.  Liked the Seattle locale since I knew the environment from before the "freeway" disrupted everything.  The last time we were there I hardly knew the Pike's Street market with all the spendistas hogging all the parking spaces.

Can't wait for Brigg's new Mercy Thompson book to come out in mass paperback.  My kids would giggle over me being a cheapskate ... if they knew.  My lack of bookshelf space is the real reason for me not reading it yet.  I have two bookshelves (badly in need of pruning) to contain all my books.  I won't mention the books under my bed.

The library?  After a day, I can't find them under the piles of owned books scattered around the house.  Fines accumulate fast around here.

Kindle?  I don't wear a purse.


Writing:   Do I even want to talk about my lack of progress?  Actually, I am writing and accumulating copy.  Just not as much as I wish.  I'll be sticking out the slowness of Emma's journey into Faery and ignore the other ideas churning in my head.

I indulged in another vice beside solitaire to avoid writing last night -- watching the trailers about Christine Feehan's Dark series on YouTube.  Liked her comments, quoted from Romantic Times, I think, about writing slow but steady.  See?  I have an excuse for doing what I'm doing.