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?

Formatting and Being Well-Spooked

The Read ...

Abandoned the book I was reading again ... for the new book I ordered:  Mary Downing Hahn's The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall.  The clone of The Secret Garden mixed up with The Turn of the Screw and a host of other ghostly classics makes a good read even if written for young readers.  The other book only featured Mexican vampires doing vampire things.  I read a Crutchfield review somewhere and ordered it and was immediately hooked by the first paragraph while drinking coffee at the bookstore.

"Take good care of this girl," Miss Beatty told the coachman.  "She's an orphan, you know, and never set foot out of London.  Make sure she gets were she's going safely."

[Many writing gurus say you aren't supposed to start with dialog, but this works ... even if it breaks the "fiction formula".]

The book is early middle grade as you might guess from the reading level above, but it makes it all the easier to see the structure of the novel.  The introductions of the somewhat cliched characters and the bits that individualize them, the hints, and the growing power of the ghost all happen in the midst of the action.   The end result a scary story in the grand tradition that can hold the attention of an adult.

Hahn follows the "fiction formula" for story arc.  Looked down at the page numbers of the chapter where the new girl meets her secretive invalid cousin ... and it was indeed half way through the book.  If your having problems with you story flow, I suggest you buy the book and study it.  

Is Hahn worth studying?  Well, she's the award winning author of some 20 books.  [I may loan the Crutchfield Hall book to the step-grandkid, but I want it back.]

The book I abandoned?  I stayed up last night until after midnight to read it, but I won't be commenting.  Not only did it have a strange chapters long flashback (novella length) ... just when the story started to get rolling, but the characters weren't much more than cardboard stand-ins.  Two boys and girl, helped by an old codger, fighting evil Mayan vampires.

Web Stuff ...

For all the time I spend at the AW Water Cooler, you'd think there was nothing new to discover there but the daily posts.  Wrong.  While seeking tech info on formatting I found an article by one of the members on using Microsoft Word for quick edits covering such items as word frequency counter, and phrase frequency counter.  Carlson also gives instructions to highlight passive words and adverbs.  These come from Robert J. Carlson , and you can check his website for the whole story.

Of course, you smarties already know this ... but I flunked computers. Now I have to get up the courage to download the band-aids and use them.

Progress ...

Nothing spectacular or even much worth mentioning. -- Entered a flash fiction piece in the Jeffrey Archer/St. Martin's  short story contest.  -- Revising/editing of the Voices of Ghosts Creek continues, but I'm starting to worry because I like it too much.  --  Mariah is still pondering how to one-up Martonsfeld in the Half-Elven saga.  --  Still, thinking about sending out agent queries.  [Only have two books to submit.], but can't get interested.  

Yeah ... I really did have a piece of fiction that was more literary/mainstream and not fantasy.  (Thanks to a Northern Colorado Writers class given by fantasy writer Victoria Hanley.)   Got the contest info at AW Water Cooler too.

Oh, and I'm trying to format Dark Solstice, the most worked Half-Elven manuscript, to submit to an e-publisher.  Got the 1.5 spacing done.  Can't figure out how to get the extra space deleted from my periods.  Got some answers at AW Water Cooler and gave rep points.  Unfortunately, after I follow the directions, the form says it "made 0 replacements'.  --  Have I ever said I hate computers ... or is that Microsoft Word?  I never had such problems with WordPerfect.

Trivia...

Fall's happening.  

While the temperatures are dropping, the leaves have started to drop too ... right in my front yard.  Have never figured out why the Lindens (Lime trees in England) are the last to leaf out and the first to drop them. 

The jays have also moved in to harvest the acorns in the backyard.  One got territorial and dropped an acorn on the old man's head when he got too close to the tree.  I prefer the robin song in the spring to the jays' squawks in the morning.

Secret to Writing Bestsellers Revealed: Parnell's Formula and More

How to Write Bestsellers:  The AW Water Cooler yielded a golden nugget of wisdom for writing success today.  "If there's ever a passage that smacks of 'good writing', you must ruthlessly delete it."

This insight comes from Rob Parnell's blog "Easy Way to Write" [ http://easywaytowrite.blogspot.com/2...r-formula.html ]  **  I laughed so hard, I'd follow him in an instant -- if I could have discovered how.  [I don't like subscribing since I really don't check my emails that often.  --  Have I ever said here that I hate computers?]

To be serious, he gives a great modification of the snowflake prompts.

Addenda:  Contests are sprouting like weeds.  Guess Spring's coming, and bloggers wants more traffic.

1)  Chuck at Guide to Literary Agents is offering all you people with a potential best seller a chance to strut your your YA or adult paranornal urban fantasy romance stuff to an agent.  See: 

http://tiny.cc/vsiID

then, look for the Lucky Agent Contest.

2)  Then, the Dark Wyrm has a link to a contest to win an electronic reader:    http://tiny.cc/wsUPv  

The Read:  Finished Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper: Terrior last night and went to bed early.  The big revelation:  Pierce had snuck three plot lines into the story:  the disappearing miners of magical fire opals,  the kidnappings/killings of poor children for the one item of value their families' possessed, and the replacing of the "ruler" of the thieves of the Cesspool.  All three center around Beka's learning to be a "Dog" aka cop.  Pierce accomplishes this all masterfully using a modified "police procedural" structure.  The villains' plots collapse when greed pushes them beyond their capabilities.

I won't mention the usual YA line of an adolescent discovering their strengths and weaknesses.  Hate to inflict another sequel on you, but it's coming.

Progress:  It's the 30th or 31st or something.  The last day of Emma dinking -- with the manuscript.  Starting tomorrow, I slap my hand if I even think of changing something -- unless a person in publishing power (agent or editor) tells me to change something.  I can still modify my stupid query.  

The query has to be stupid because the six agents I sent it to, haven't jumped and asked for fulls ... or even partials.  Don't give me any excuses about the agency review time lines not expiring.  Two agents already sent form ejections of my 'best selling baby'.  -- Note I'm not saying agents are stupid for not grabbing it.  The fault is mine.  I didn't grabbed their attention by hitting their interests.

[Truth in Whining:  Previous queries have elicited a few partials which were eventually rejected.]

Now for Maren.  Was feeling a little smug about my "first" chapter -- until I did the critique class with Victoria Hanley (sponsored by the Northern Colorado Writers).  Hanley told me my first chapter was "underwritten".  I needed to expand it, basically into two chapters.  At least, she didn't say my weird opening was trash.  [She's too polite a person.]

Sigh.  I didn't leap into March with my defining chapter drafted and ready to complicate Maren's situation -- recovering from a coma after causing a massive explosion when she entered my never-never California gold country world.

Trivia:  Have to pay the unwanted bills today.  They're clamoring downstairs in the box, waiting to be sorted and paid.  Then, there's the checkbook that needs to be balanced so I know how much money I have available to spend.  --  I think I prefer to sink back into Maren's world.

** I tried to tinyurl this, but it didn't work.  Sorry.

Back to YA

The Read:  I was going to finish Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper: Terrior, a Tortall Legend, a YA fantasy with a double murder mystery, last night.   I watched the figure skating finals at the Olympics in spite of the commercials.  Yes, the skaters made me dizzy just watching them.  Skating wouldn't make me dizzy because I'd be flat on my arse on the ice.  --  Not a pleasant thought.  Hopefully, I'm not so far out of my league with my writing.

Pierce comes up with some interesting fantasy elements as Beka does her on-the-job training to become a cop (essentially), but is called a "puppy" as her "dogs" train her.  Beka has limited magical powers -- hearing the last thoughts of the dead via pigeons and dust devils -- and a lot of perseverance.  She even displays some character realistic weaknesses.  Shyness, anyone?

Oh, Beka's alienated from her surviving family but has a magical cat who talks and works magic.  (Mine just wiggles and does the usual cat things.)

The society is medieval without being a cliche and has a well developed under culture (criminal element drawn out of poverty).  The dogs know one murder culprit but can't find the bodies, and for the other one, they have the bodies (and survivors) without the culprit.  I still have some 100 pages of the book (out of 500+) to go and am looking forward to seeing how Pierce ties it all up.

I'm fairly sure I've read Tamora Pierce before but can't remember the books.  She joins Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson series) and Victoria Hanley (Violet Wings) among my favorites.  I'd mention J. K. Rowling, but I'm waiting to see if she'll ever write something besides Harry Potter.  (Yeah, Potter's world is great, but ... )

Progress:  Emma.  Am going to swat my hand if I even think of changing something in the manuscript unless an agent or publisher tells me.  My changes from italics to underlines are long done, but I keep dinking ... probably to no purpose.  I manage to keep my hands off Britt and company.  Why not Emma?  --  Hope it's because it's the newest.

Maren.  Have the the first chapter going -- even a segment (only three pages) polished enough to submit for a critique class (by Victoria Hanley) on Saturday.  I expect to get blasted for the construction.  A back story scene (I guess you could call it a prologue but it's only three paragraphs and a bit of dialog.)  A secondary character's comments on the headlines of the blast that Maren caused when she entered our world.  Then, I get around to starting the story about what should be done with Maren.

Trivia:  Got my bit of porn for this morning.  Two morning doves were mating in the Catalpa outside my kitchen window.  Can spring be far behind?   Or, do I have to wait for the squirrels to go squirrelly?

Marking Time?

or, why can't I seem to put "finis' on Emma?

 

The Read:  Finished Jane Haddam's Living Witness and felt disappointed -- even with Demarkian and Bennis getting married in the epilogue.  (Being a fan makes you think/do strange things sometimes.  Like stare at your overstuffed bookshelves and wondering if the first Demarkian novel where Gregor meets Bennis, in the midst of solving a murder, is somewhere behind the Anita Blake books.)

Why disappointed?  Well, for one thing,  I didn't guess the culprit soon enough ... or the motive.  Part of this was because I don't think Haddam gave enough clues -- or maybe, buried the clues in the polemics, and I missed them when I scanned.  We got the message that a sizable part of the population was against the secular humanists taking "God" out of the schools in the prologue.  --  I put "god" in quotes, because even the various Protestant sects can't decide on one interpretation of "god".  And, I don't even want to get into the goddess or hermaphrodite arguments.  --  I didn't think Haddam needed to spend such a huge amount of space repeating the same arguments over and over again.  What's wrong with a 300 page book?

Overall, I found the book a reminder to keep it sweet (or sour) and simple.  Less sometimes really is more.

Progress:  I think I'm going to get to the end over Emma's everlasting revisions.  I'm somewhere in the  middle of  "20s" chapters out of 33, I think.  Actually, it's going really fast (except when I think about Maren).  I even have a new query to send out ... with an emphasis on emotions rather than plot.  We'll see what happens when I send out another batch of queries.

So far, no one seems to responding to any of my submissions, and I can't do status queries until March.

Maren.  I've got a weird opening started.  I like it, and that worries me.  Whatever, I signed up for a critique class (sponsored by the Northern Colorado Writers) taught by Victoria Hanley, a young adult fantasy writer.  First I thought I'd learn more about doing useful critiques -- since I noticed my comments seem to get stuck in a pattern.

Now, I'm glad I did because I have some new writing to play with.  There are three people signed up so far so I'm looking forward to some really good discussion.

Trivia:  We are going out for lunch to amuse the old man -- Thai curry.  

Yesterday, I went to the Northern Colorado Writers coffee where we discussed time management and social media at length.  

Tonight, I'm going to my lackadaisical critique group.  I don't mean this as a put down, but it consists of women who have a lot of stuff going on in their lives, like the deaths of a parent and husband.  It's more they think submitting four pages is a big deal.

In My Comfortable Rut

What My Reading's Telling Me:  Finished Victoria Hanley's Violet Wings.  Must say I liked it better than other books of hers I read.  And, not only because of the short chapters.  Hanley has an interesting take on faery and a neat, non-conforming main character, Zaria, who ends up endowed with the highest level of magic to the consternation of the fairy establishment.  (Sounds like a cliche, but it isn't.)

Though she doesn't go into much over-explanation/description in the story line,  I'm assuming her fairies are human sized from Zaria's experiences in the human world.  Also, liked the way the back story was handled by quotes from a "history" text.

 

Hanley uses total desperation to free Zaria from the climatic confrontation.  The villain has Zaria confined in a Troll-magiked robe unable to use her wand's magic and all her friends give testimony against her as the villain manipulates the crowds and council.  In short, everything evil is Zaria's fault, and it is assumed the villain wants Zaria's magic.  More important, Hanley neatly foreshadowed the crucial pieces of information that free Zaria in the historian's discussions of food and the symbiosis of human and fairy worlds.

The wrap-up leaves a huge gateway open for a sequel.  I hope it's the book Hanley's been revising.  Though I'm cringing at the thought of buying another hardcover book.

Progress:  Emma.  Still revising.  At Chapter 4 still.  But I find I'm going over each chapter at least three times.  

Also, cleaning my "desk" (two card tables set together).  Only one of them is piled with print-outs and notes now.  I have a waste basket full of recycling the next time we go.  

Trivia:  Didn't do any work last night.  Watched a re-run of Castle.

Find I'm reading Jane Haddam's Cheating at Solitaire, with all it's rich characterization.  One down from the to-read pile.  Some day I should read all her Demarkian mysteries in sequence.  Won't be soon since they are scattered all over my disorganized book shelves.

In the Groove???

What My Reading Tells Me:  I forgot to mention something in my last post.  I took a YA fiction class from Victoria Hanley last year (2009).  I learned almost enough to know what I don't know ... if that makes any sense.

Anyway, on to the structure of Violet Wings.  The book has my favorite kind of protagonist/main character -- a non-conforming achiever.  All three of my kids fit the slot.  My friends' kids did too.  (Some of my favorite memories are of coffees where we dissected the public schools lack of support and understanding of our darling weirdos.)  

In Violet Wings, Zaria, the main character, ends up with an extraordinary amount of magic as does her self-centered friend.  More important, the friend is set up to complicate the story arc in several ways at the beginning, including contacts with forbidden humans.  You just know the kid's going to be up to her violet wings in hot water, -- or is that iron?  The first third of the book sets up most of the characters (I think.), and the action hints at a number of coming problems.  

In the middle of the book, the problems come crashing down on Zaria.  Also, the real antagonist appears from among the annoying authority figures.  The villain seems to have something to do with the disappearance of Zaria's family in spite of being a fairy council member.  More important she tries to control Zaria's learning how to use her magic.  

Only, sneaky sneaky Zaria has a hidden talent -- the ability to work spells independent of the archaic language formulas which only the villain is supposed to teach her.  (Wouldn't Harry Dresden love that!  No correspondence course Latin.)

The last third?  I'm still reading, but I'm looking forward to an interesting confrontation with Zaria, humans and the villain.  (Unwanted bills sucked up my time, but I still got the minimum revisions done.  I'm just sitting here wondering why I can see the structure in Hanley's book but am having problems seeing it in Emma. )

Progress:  Emma.  Have stumbled over the block presented by Chapter 3 without landing on my face, I think.  Problem?  It's the transition chapter from Grandmama's to new town.  Also have to convey a feeling of menace while introducing Hardscrabble. -- One consolation: a critique partner did see at least a hint of  foreboding.

I can just hear everyone screaming:  start the book with chapter three.  Only Chaps 1 and 2 set up Emma's antagonism for her grandmother, and the reason why she takes off into the hills with possible enemies later on.  ... So, what is a novice writer to do?  I'm leaving Chaps 1 and 2, like they are.

Demons:  Haven't heard a squeek.  As if I expected to over the holidays.  Hopefully, I'll slip in at the beginning of the line and get read before the agents get too yawny.

Maren:  Setting up my characters with their auras.  I'm going to try writing a fantasy thriller.

Have the first chapter in process ... with the protagonist in the hospital with main helper/interpreter watching with her knitting needles slithering away.  Madame LaFarge, anyone?  Only Faithful Alice Sweet is one of the good guys.  Also, I think waking up in a hospital bed is a cliche.

Short Stories.  Don't think I mentioned them, but I wrote several short and flash fiction pieces last year.  (One of which was the chopped prologue of Dark Solstice.)  All were gather mold at publishers.  Sent some of status queries, one of which hadn't any record of receiving  my story.  So, I resent.

Trivia:  New Year's Organizing.  New Year's Eve:  We did the recycling and took stuff to Goodwill, but didn't clean the linen/towels closet.  Got rid of some books to the Friends of the Library too.

Think we'll go out to eat for New Year's day.  I'm tired of eating leftovers.  Only we'll end up with leftovers if we eat out since the old man and I can never agree on what we want to eat.

Revising's Bouncing My Head Back and Forth

Learning from My Reading:  Out of all the books I bought over the Christmas holiday, I find myself reading Victoria Hanley's Violet Wings.  She uses an interesting structure of quoting a "genie historian" to fill in the back story of how fairy magic works.  Sometimes I kept it straight.  Sometimes I didn't and had to go back and check.  

Found it interesting since I used a similar device for Demons.  Only I gave clues to what the demons were plotting in the form of letters to the demon prince.  Wish I could say great minds travel in the same circles.  My using the structure was just beginner's luck.

Progress:  Started revising Emma.  No longer feel good about it.  Spent almost an hour on chapter 3 going over the same paragraphs until my head felt like a ping pong ball.

Maren.  Plan to start working on the characters tonight.  Nothing is on TV I want to watch so I might even get something done.

Trivia:  Company's gone.  Feels good to be writing again rather than talking.

Hippy, Hippy New Years