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.     

Finding Something to Read

The Read ...

Yeah.  I've been reading ... and putting the book down ... and reading ... and putting the book down.  Did I finish anything.  Well, yeah ... but the book I read puzzled the heck out of me.  What puzzled me more was the books I put down.  

I remember being an avid reader of Patricia Wentworth back in the day.  She had a British spinster sleuth in the Miss Marple vein.  She told a several good tales [it seemed from what I skimmed] about the vices of the gentry, but I couldn't get interested in them.  Maybe it was the amount of telling in the story line.  I'm guessing screen writing has had a greater influence on my reading than I thought.

What did I read?  C. S. Harris' When Gods Die which opens with Prinny [George the IV while his father was still alive] talking to and clutching a corpse.  The characterization was so sharply drawn, Harris drew me into her story of would-be revolutionaries capitalizing on the Napoleanic Wars, the main character/sleuth's discovery that his mother is still alive after he thought she'd died when he was a child, and other subplots that keep the action popping.  Harris really knows her Regency history, unlike a thousand other writers I can't name.  More interestingly, she gets her characters out of the drawing rooms and into the sewers ... literally. 

So why did this surprise me?  Well, I bought three books in the series on the basis of a review ... and put the first one on the to-trade pile without getting more than a couple chapters into the book.  Read the second that had been languishing at the bottom of the to-read pile.  Started to read the third, and it went on the trade pile.  There's a fourth where the MC solves a crime with the daughter of the MC's nemisis.  It looks intriguing, but I doubt if I'll go looking for it.  Stephanie Laurens did something vaguely similar in one of her later Cynster novels.  

Web and Other Stuff ...

A  Twitter link underlined one of the questions rotating in my mind.  What the heck should I blog about to interest people.  You might read Dawn Rae Miller's blog about:  you shouldn't be writing about writing.  Miller has some serious credentials on building platforms, so I think her opinion is worth thinking about.

If you've been pressed for time [like I have been], you might check out Brooke Favero over at The Writing Bug, the blog of the Northern Colorado Writers.  She's gleaned some good posts from the blogosphere from last week.

If you want a second opinion, you might also check out Patti Struble's blog, The Writer's Bump.  Patti offers her on take on the week in her Friday Mash-Up.

One last promotional thing:  N. R. Williams has been doing a blog book tour for her new fantasy book:  The Treasures of Carmelidrium.   You want an example of good promotion?  Go spend some time at Nancy's blog reading her posts and following her links.  She made me tired just twirling my mouse. 

Progress ...

The more I work, the behinder I get.  Or, at least it seems that way even though I finally figured out a framework and did the revision for another Renna's Tale.  Check it out.  It'll take you a lot less time to read it than it took me to figure out how to write it.

Had a 2000 word first chapter for Maren and was all set to jump into chapter two.  Only new ideas kept popping out of my brain.  Of course, I ended up making revisions as I inserted the new ideas into the text.  The chapter is now over 3,000 words long ... and I still have some scribbled notes for additions.
 

Trivia ...

Spent waaaaay too much time in nursing homes ... checking out the facilities.  At least, they let me out again. 

Book Review: Odd Series Losing Steam?

The Read ...

Read Dean Koontz's Odd Hours after a short break from the series.  This time around, I found Odd's simple soul a little annoying ... even though the character isn't unrealistic in his thoughts on the world.  This time Odd's living on the southern California coast and uses his "magnetism" to stop the delivery of nuclear bombs to be detonated in the USA to create a "new world order".  The book wasn't badly constructed ... even had some interesting characters, but the whole feeling felt like watching a deus ex machina at work. 

The highlight of the book, for me, was the ghost of Frank Sinatra acting out as a poltergeist.  Usually, Odd's observations cause me to chuckle out loud often.  This time.  Just lip twitchings.  As such the book was a disappointment.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Am seriously considering how I might promoted my novelette, Taking Vengeance, when it's published.  One of the things on my list: running a contest (prize undetermined as yet) to have people retweet info about the trailer or some such thing.  Then, my thoughts got punctured if not shot down, by Rowena Cherry's blog on 1st Turning Point about "How to Run a Contest".   Yeah, there are differing state laws that apply to contests and sweepstakes.  Have you heard of any of bloggers falling a foul of such laws?  Or, does the insignificant value of the prize change the rules?  Guess it's another area where lawyers stick their noses in our lives.

More on being careful of contests.  Jane Smith gives us a long blog on how important reading the rules of a writing contest are over at "How Publishing Works".  In this case, the operator of the contest seems to gobble up the rights to all the submissions to the contest.  Others have mentioned not to enter the contest.  If you haven't heard of the First One Publishing contest yet, you might take a click over there. --  Writer's Beware also did a blog.  --- And the AW Water Cooler also has a long thread on its forums discussing the contest.  ----  I'm wondering how long the tempest will last.

Roni Loren came up with another super-useful blog -- on defining how "High Concept" works.   Since publishers and agents want high concept material since it supposedly sells lots, you might want to wander over to her blog. 

Progress ...

Actually, I felt like I was stuck up the to axles in mud.  Yeah.  I did get two ten page stories rewritten and submitted.  But.  And it's a big but.  I spent more time on writing less than 100 words for a trailer script for the Half-Elven story: Taking Vengeance.  Visit my Half-Elven blog if you'd like to see what I came up with.  --  At the moment, I'm feeling building a writer's platform is more work than writing/revising the blasted book.

Now, I have more productive things to concentrate on, like maybe Maren?  Then, I really should write a new free Half-Elven story or edit the mess I wrote last month.

Trivia ...

The grey cat has come up with another cutsie habit.  He wants to be twirled in an office chair.  This is in addition in taking rides on the Cardio Glider that lives in the basement.  Never thought I'd get exercise by amusing the cat.