What Keeps You Reading?

The Read ... An anonymous person, standing in line in front of me, hooked me into reading a new, if ponderous, author.  Her arms were filled with Raymond E. Feist books, an author I'd never heard of even though I used to read lots of sword and sorcery fantasy.  After listening to her glow about her find, I went back  to see if anything used was left in the stacks.  The one used book I found was Talon of the Silver Hawk.  -- Through most of the book, I wondered why the heck I was reading the book.

Feist offers a standard story line:  a youth survives the massacre of his village/people, is rescued, and then, sets about revenging his people.  Talon of the Silver Hawk is the how he is trained and seeks his revenge.  Of course, the story isn't as simple as that.  His rescuers just happen to be the agents of a coalition of mages who seek to overcome an evil group whose agents destroyed the boy's people.  In this case, it's a journey through familiar territory, but still an enjoyable read.

The opening hook starts with a small problem:   "He waited."  One sentence, but the next paragraph was dense with images which let you know the boy was on a vision quest for his adult name.  Once he has he adult name, he returns to find his village under an attack that destroys every one except him. 

The writing is dense and ponderous in its movement forward.  One random example:  "Fate spared him for a reason," said Robert.  "Or at least, I'm trying to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity.  He's ... got something.  I think had this tragedy not befallen his people, he would have grown up to be simply another young Orosini man, a husband and father, warrior when the need arose, farmer, hunter, and fisherman.  He would have taught his son the ways of his ancestors and died of old age satisfied at his lot."

To me this is belaboring the obvious [and I would have cut it from my own manuscript].  The book is filled with similar pages.  Yet, Feist drew me on and I finished the book, all 400+ dense words.  But then, I have an anthropological bias, and Feist tickled it well.

So, what'll keep you reading ... in spite of ...?????

[In case you were wondering, turns out Raymond E. Feist is the New York Times and Times of London best  selling author who writes about the world of Midkemia.] 

Progress ... Spent the weekend revising There Be Demons.  While I cut 100 words of one chapter and 50 from another, my blind spots remain.  I can't find any major problems.  Time for the super-critiquer to make her appearance.

Tonight, I swear, I'm going to finish a third-written chapter of Voices.  Five or more (?) empty except for notes chapter headings wait for me to supply some scenes.

Trivia ...  Thinking I need to drag my bum hip onto the sidewalk and make it walk at least a half a mile.

Spoiled Expectations?

The Read ... almost wasn't a read due to spoiled expectations.  Picked up Allyson James' Stormwalker  with high expectations without looking at it because the Dark Wyrm  http://tinyurl.com/2eacf3o gave it a thumbs up.  Then, I opened the first page to the not-so-hook:  "It was already dark by the time I zoomed out of the mountains, heading east toward the desserts, and the town of Magellan."  So?  Not until that last third of page two did what I consider a real hook appeared -- nasty mama.  All in all, the first chapter was stuffed with back story which almost made me throw it on the trade pile.

[My infernal, internal editor would have started the book somewhere in the middle of Chapter 1.] 

Beginning with Chapter 2, I found the book well constructed with two interesting story arcs:  1) the book's arc about finding a missing young woman and 2) a possible series arc about controlling nasty-goddess mama.   First third introduces an appealing cast of characters while dealing with the discovery of a dead body.  Second third complicates the situations of the first third highlighted by a hard-hitting surprise about the love-interest.  Third third gave a very nice resolution with the main character growing up a bit.  -- If only I could do it half so well.  [I still think my openings are better than this one, especially after my new critiquer tore into Britt.]

Web Notes ... 1st Turning Point caught my attention the longest among the blogs again with a post by Judith Laik on Promo Primer for the Unpublished.  Lots of good basic info which I'm mostly ignoring.  Primer for the Unpublished  I definitely need to go back and study it.

If you haven't noticed, you might check out the Nashville Relief Auction:  http://dothewritethingfornashville.blogspot.com

Janet Reid offered a critique that I drooled over, but it was already up to $750 when I first looked at it.  Personally, I'd love to pay Janet Reid to rip apart even a part of one of my manuscripts.  I do have a bid in, but it sure is hard to find it among all the good offers.  Check them out.  You can find many offers of professional critiques by authors and agents -- if you're ready for them.

Progress ...  Squeezing in revising first three chapters of Britt while working on Voices.

Trivia ...  The sun shown for Mother's Day ... and there were lots more vendors at the Farmer's Market.  [A good snickerdoodles!]  Also found a Dorothy Gilmore book, used, at the lunch-coffee-bookstore.

Stuffing Action in Your Story

The Read:  Lee Child keeps winding up the action to his plot for Gone Tommorow ...  or maybe his plots move fast because Jack Reacher is a synonym for action.  Example:  Setting up the suicide that starts the book moving takes twenty seven pages and six chapters.  Reacher must then connect the pieces after some freelance goons give Reacher two names that connect the suicide to a senate candidate and a Ukraine reporter.

It all feels like tumbling rocks:  all those bits and pieces of plot moving from one scene to another, changing color and nuance as they go.  I'm now in the middle of the book, and the puzzle pieces are tumbling at a greater place.  Big surprise: our governmental agents (people connected to the US Defense Department and down the chain of command of the presidency)  sudden turn into the goons Reacher and allies must escape from because they want Reacher to stop poking the hornets raised by the suicide.  The goons try to swat him, but he escapes and we know Reacher will come back and annoy them ... and the senate candidate whose aide was on the train when the suicide occurred.  (Reacher recognized the aide in the publicity photos when he visited the candidates office.)

Oh, the minor goons, who gave Reacher the senate candidate's name, who got a medal for service in a secret operation, and the ex-Soviet piece, who claimed to be a friend of the suicide and who claims she wants and explanation from the senate candidate for offenses committed, have been offed with possible identifiers removed rather messily.  At least, some of the possible villains have been removed.  But, Reacher is still in action over his head.

(If you think the above sentence was complicated, that was a simplified version of what is happening in the book.  Like I said, action uber alles.) 

Web Notes:  An example of why social media are important.  I'd have never learned about 1st Turning Point without the silly computer and one of the blogs I read. 

To the point:  Lillian Cauldwell has a much needed blog on writer business cards and what to put on them:

ttp://1stturningpoint.com/?p=3513

You haven't published anything, you say?  Well, put your pitch on the back, she says ... along with a lot of other good advice. 

[ My cards now have my blog info on the front and blank backs.  When I replace them, they'll have pitches for whatever books I have ready at the time. ]

Another Note:  You should subscribe to Kristen Nelsen's newsletter?  You don't?  You should.  Sara Megibow gives three items all good queries should have in their March issue.  Go the the blog and get on the list.  A link is in my Useful Places. 

Progress:  Maren is finally coming to the fore ... and learning English.  Fortunately, she's smart and was gifted with magic.  According to the critiquer #1, the chapters move too slow.  Just what I was worrying about.  So I'll be combining chapters ... when I get around to it ... someday.

Trivia:  The sun is shining before the storm ... probably rain this time around.  At this point, it's raining a lot of pennies on Susan Weschler.  The cheapskate here decided to commission one of her mosaics after I found some bare wall space.  

Mentioned that a rose was the center piece, and the kid thought I was commemorating their Tata.

Stuck Procrastinating

The Read:  To be truthful, I'm not reading.  Remember the Witchblade DVDs I was watching ... and gave up for boredom?  Well, I'm skipping through them to see if I can pick up my interest.  No such luck ... so far.

Guess they made the argument for not repeating your storyline with different endings --  unless you want to get rid of your readers.

Progress:  Have to get my critique done.  I'm still behind from when my system went on vacation.  Have to excuse the desktop, though, since it was the monitor that died.  --  At least, I was able to find someone to come fix it.  A former graduate of the Berkeley Music school who supports his family fixing computers.

Emma.  Maybe I'll be able to ignore her after I finish printing a hard copy.  I'm thinking that changing the title  --  "The Bad Luck Magnet" from "Emma Kloken, Hero" --  may lay her to rest. 

I wonder if other writers have such a hard time thinking up a pertinent title.

Maren.  After all the nagging, she's slumped against a broken cart wheel in the middle of a battlefield ... and won't budge.

Trivia:  The clouds fly high and forget to deliver on the promised rain.  Guess there are worse things than being a writer.  You could be a weatherperson.

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.

Maybe I Shouldn't Read Older Works ....

Happy Valentine's Day

(Another of those American manufactured excuses to give presents.)

The Read:  When I took in my trades, I found the complete Hawk and Fisher books by Simon R. Green, including two books of three each.  Eight books for the price of three.  Sure a good enough bargain to thrill my cheap little soul.  Only after reading the first, Hawk and Fisher, I'm beginning to wonder if it's such a good deal.  --   I bought them.  Right.  Does that mean I have to read them?

Another dilemma presents itself.  The books were writen in the 1990s, with the first one having a copyright of 1990.  Twenty years ago.

I thoroughly enjoy the Nightside series.  Have even reread it.  Like the Hawk and Fisher for what they are -- a nice linear mystery with a locked room puzzle and two different killers with two different motives.  But there was the other stuff.  The excessive adverbs (enough to grate), head hopping, and a lot of back story disguised as dialog.  I don't think this is a Brit thing.  Just earlier in a career at a time when such things were more permissible. The shallowness of the characterizations also bothered me.  Green does much better with sparse descriptions in his Taylor series.

Having said that, I'm wondering why I can't get comfortable with my last critique due for discussion on Wednesday.  I've got their critiques of Emma which found some embarrassing nits.

Progress:  In one day?  Actually, there was some.  Emma.  Sprayed the nits.  Or, is that, corrected my mistakes.

Maren.   The pile of paper on the card table is growing.  Most of it has useful info on it.  My suspicions of yesterday are firming.  I think the first third of the book I planned to write is going to be 40-50,000 words.  In other words, a novel by itself.  -- One of the reasons I like YA.  The books can be shorter.

Oh, have I said that Maren's name is Maren Valentene.

Trivia:  Made the old man happy.  I cooked a recipe from a cookbook he lugged up from the basement.

[Have I mentioned that my house is anchored by the books in the basement?]

Anyway, I tried a new recipe for an onion stew.  I don't think I'll cook it again.

[Sorry, can't resist.  As far as I know, the old man's kisses begin with "Kay".]

A Simpler Way of Writing?

Do I need to post a spoiler alert?

The Read:  Took to my to-read pile after devouring Brigg's Bone Crossed, and Charlaine Harris' Sweet and Deadly was on top.  A nice quick read which I finished yesterday before I watched Witchblade DVDs until after midnight.  (Nice action, and some character development)

Sweet is a linear mystery in which there isn't so much as a villain as a scared antagonist who doesn't want his disease to be known.  -- Which brings up the silly ways the human mind works.  Personally, I can't see why anyone would kill four people to hide the fact of leprosy.  There comes a time when you can't hide it.  Or, is it possible that "southern" brains work differently than others?

The book, a re-printing of a 1981 book (perhaps Harris' first published), was like reading a time capsule taking you to a mindset where commercial fiction was simpler in its construction.  At least from what I've been reading, the times did change with more complex plots.  Sweet's only subplot was the romance with the MC's boss, again almost a no-no now days.  Most of what I've been reading seem to have more than one problem to solve or develop more complex characters.  

Makes me wonder where I sit with my linear story lines.

Progress:  Emma.  Two rejections down.  Still, a couple out.  I'm switching Maren to one critique partner.  My local critiquers will still get Emma until the end.  They keep coming up with ways to improve it -- slightly.  What they are saying is more like editing.  Example:  putting more tags in the dialog sessions with five people so it's easier to follow.

Maren.  I think I'll start writing in earnest on Monday instead of the beginning of March.  The itch is getting to intense.  Oh, I'm starting in the mage-world before she lands in ours.

Demons/Britt/Gargoyles.  It's out there in limbo, but it's too soon to send a status query.

Trivia:  Enjoyed the illusion I was reducing my to-read pile when I trotted 3+feet of books to my favorite trading places.  My self-satisfaction lasted until I returned with another foot of books to read -- Simon R. Green's Hawk and somebody series.  The complete set (but I won't bore you with the complete series).  --  At least the coffee was good, and the water filter on the sink no longer leaks.

To "e" or "not-to-e"

Publishing:  A major storm hit the blogs over the turf wars between Amazon and Macmillan.  Then, in the middle of the fight, the new multi-tasking I-phone appears.  Somewhere in the hot air, someone must have mentioned my opinion, but I'm going to puff anyway.  The question is: to book or to machine and who gets to make the most money.  

Both print and e technologies have their place, but I was most disturbed by Amazon dropping the Macmillan listings on their service.  Granted it's a stretch, but I still consider that a form a censorship.  Granted you can burn books.  But they can survive, tuck away in a corner, without electricity to keep them going.  I worry about the infrastructure collapsing around us. Rolling black and brown outs happen all to often even at today's usage, and batteries have to be charged somewhere, sometime.

Another thing bothers me:  proprietary technology.  As I understand it, you can only legally buy books to read on your Kindle from Amazon -- and thanks to their software, you can't share.  I don't know the restrictions on the I-phone.  Haven't gone into the details because the technology is too early in its development to get excited.  Sort of like buying a Timex computer or maybe a Commodore 64.

What am I waiting for?  Devices similar to CD players.  I buy the machine, and I can buy the "disk" or download from whomever publishes the thing.  (I'm not holding my breath.)

Progress:  Definitely going sideways, but I still think I'm going forwards.  Emma.  My critique group took a couple chapters, which I thought were done, apart.  Why?  Not enough emotions from Emma in a scary situation.  Oh, I had her trembling in her boots -- once.  Not enough they said.  The other was too much internal dialog.  Since I was looking to chop words out of the long chapters.  I chopped Emma's internal comments about what was going on around her.  Another critiquer is finding also finding ways to improve the manuscript.

So, still revising Emma.  Will probably continue even after I start submitting the idea to agents.

Maren?  My journaling is taking a definite distopian twist.  Worse, Marcus Kloken, Emma's little brother, seems to be the sheriff of Hardscrabble when Maren appears.  May have to give him another name.  Why?  Emma happened a hundred years ago.  Either Maren is also historical (70s or 80s, or maybe 60s) or it's contemporary.

Still, having problems on where to start -- When she's still in her birth world or when she's appears in a modification of ours.  Questions.  Questions.  At least my villain is solidifying, and it's not who I thought.   Oh, the decisions!

Trivia:  I'm still reading, but decided to wait until I finished the book to comment.

Correction ...

Have you heard the comment "Always check your facts." before?

Well, I didn't.  I just repeated what my old man said as he munched away on smoked salmon.  Sockeye is a true salmon.  What we were eating was Steelehead.  Whatever it still tasted good.  I'll eat it whenever the relatives share.

Progress:  Still catching up on my critiques, if I ever get my errands run.

Also got a class tonight at the Northern Colorado Writers -- on becoming a more organized writer.  Something probably everyone can use.

PS.  I think only people in the North West would think the difference important.  Whatever, another little tidbit.  When the old man was a kid, the people in the upper Skagit ate canned salmon.  The thought of eating fresh salmon after smelling the rotting carcasses after spawning turned them off.  The eagles and bears enjoyed though.
 

Finished ... Tra-lah-lah!

Yeah.

Got Emma's Revision Done.

Now I gotta think.

To market or not to market.

Think I'll let her ferment for awhile.

Current Read:  Still working on the books I bought during my Christmas splurge.  (I let myself buy everything in sight.  Fortunately, my tastes and vices center around books rather than shoes.  Ferragamas anyone?) 

 

My current reads were a book of short stories which ended up on the trade pile.  I don't know where Shirley Damsgaard's The Seventh Witch -- an Ophelia and Abby mystery -- is going to end up.  I've read some titles in the series before.  Enjoyed them.  But don't think I shelved them.  I also didn't remember I'd bought the series before until I got to around page 10, and Damsgaard mentioned Ophelia's adopted daughter, Tink. -- Which goes to show the power of the back-of-the-book-blurp.  Of course, it hit my soft spot for Southern Gothic and sensible witches.

But, I'm thinking structure now.  I've got Maren chewing at me.  She's only in the "journaling" stage.  But, I have to think about where I'm going to start her book.  Damsgaard starts with a prologue featuring the villainous family, aka the opposition.  Maren has a short-story-length back story which would be hard to include in snippets to explain where she came from.  At the moment I'm thinking dividing the book into four or three parts, books-within-a-book so to speak.  Sort of what Jane Haddam did in Cheating at Solitaire.  In short, a series of interconnected novellas. --  Decisions.  Decisions.

As for the progression of Witches, the complications in the plot happen at regular intervals with new characters appearing (well-foreshadowed) as they are needed, including an ratcheting up of the romance between Ophelia and an FBI agent.  I also liked the relatively short chapters, and the lean writing style that brought the book in at just under 300 pages.  The book also offered a good object lesson -- what festering jealousy can do to family relationships.

Progress:  See above.  No, I didn't sprain my arm patting myself on my back for finishing my revisions of  Emma by the end of January.

Demons/Gargoyles/Britt.  Funny things happen after a manuscript is done.  Grandson told a story about Jessus, angels, dragons, and getting your chores done.  He reminded me of a crucial fact.  If angels have feathers, they must shed.  So I wrote another 600+ words (Freezing myself at 3 AM because I couldn't sleep without the scene appearing and reappearing.) having Britt counting coup against the demons and gaining a talisman.  I also intensified the romance between Britt and Cahal a bit, under the baleful eye of Britt's mother.

The only problem I see here is that I've really opened this up for a sequel ... series? ...  and I don't think I want to deal with the demon society I hinted at.  Too much of the demonologies are just avatars for Christain seven deadly sins.  --  But, as Scarlett said, I'll think about that another day.  I haven't sold the thing yet.

Maren.  I threw out the back story to the mercies of a critique group.  Unfortunately, the idea sailed -- the idea of an adolescent from an agrarian, magical  world being thrown into ours.  Talk about food for thought ... and of course, how to structure the thing.  Also, is this a cliche?  I looked on the shelves at B&N and didn't see anything on that order.

Trivia:  We are in salmon eating season.  First, NW coast siblings sent home-smoked, Indian-style salmon.  Then, another sibling sent Myers lemons to encourage us to eat fresh salmon.  In both cases, Sockeye which isn't really a salmon. Still, yummmm.

 

Getting Lost in the "Read"

The Latest Read:  Romping through Simon R. Green's Just Another Judgement Day, was like a warm fuzzy homecoming -- in spite of a self-appointed vigilante deciding to clean up the Nightside.  So what if the secret part of London is a pit of depravity.  Does that mean you can't find any "good" people living there?  Does it mean the good people automatically become depraved when they don't jump ship for holier climes?  Green seems to answer those questions when John Taylor, the defender of those the system fails, survives his confrontation with God's enforcer, the Walking Man.

Frankly, I thought the Nightside series ended when the Eddie Drood series began.  Judgement Day was a welcome sight ... and there is another hardcover (#10) waiting in the wings to become a mass paperback.  Guess Green drew in a new breath of wind and set Taylor off on another series of adventures while he contends with whether or not to become the director/enforcer of Nightside when the current one (Walker) dies.

Must confess, I jumped so deeply into the story that I didn't notice the execution.  So, Green uses "was-constructs" a fair number of times.  Adverbs.  Some repetitive descriptions.  Who notices them while Green invents or morphs the nightmares of our culture into grotesqueries for Taylor's sense of humor to deflate and destroy.

Progress:  Emma.  Still revising ... and making progress.  I may very well finish the revision by the end of the month -- before I pay the bills.  Then, I have to revise again.  (The moaning you hear is coming from Maren, who is tired of waiting in the wings.)

Maren.  Sent my first draft/first chapter to my mixed critique group to discuss how to structure the thing.

Critique Groups:  Yeah, I belong to two plus one.  One is a serious speculative fiction local group.  The "one" is a very insightful young man, who I linked up with at Absolute Write.  The other group is sort of a default critique group I'm in because of a friend asked me.  I'm odd man out, but the ladies usually manage to put their fingers on things I should have noticed myself.

Demons/Britt.  Was rejected again.  Still, several queries out there.  May pitch it at the Northern Colorado Writers Conference in March.

Trivia:  Am disgusted with the US Senate.  Someone should send them back to kindergarten until they learn how to play with each other.

Note the Changes

They say change is good.

Hopefully, this change will better reflect what I'm trying to do here.

What I'm Reading:  Finally bit the bullet and started James D. Doss' Spider Dreams, one of his Ute reservation mysteries featuring his detective Charlie Moon.  [ I know.  The number of mysteries I read may seem out of line, but I like my fantasies to solve some puzzle or other ... usually that means a murder or two. ] One of the problems, I've been having with Doss' more recent books is the omniscient, often first person, view point.  Yeah, it's just as annoying to me to read as many of the comments at AW say it is.

But.  And it's a big But.  For years, Daisy Perika, Charlie Moon's aged aunt, shaman, and general grump, has been my main lady.  Who else, while shopping for Campbell's chicken noodle soup in a supermarket, would ask a ghost with a slashed throat if she was looking for the Band Aids?  

Doss does carry the absurd a little further when the ghost then appears to Daisy's apprentice as a face on a piece of ginger root to ask for help.  Sarah is so shocked she throws the ginger root away, knocking over a stack of Vidalia onions.  Yeah, I chuckled, but I had to wade through a lot of unfunny pages to get there.

Doss' writing is often funny but often flakes off into "dear reader" territory.  Again, while sometimes snide or funny, he is just as often rambling and pompous.  Pat Stoltey's cozy mysteries have more excitement than I've found in the first half of the book.  Think I'll be skimming for Daisy's scenes before the book goes on the trade pile.

Not that I've been tempted, but guess I'll stick to either first or third person viewpoint.  Wish I could write humor though.

Progress:  Not.  Oh, I've been revising my fingers off enough to make my back complain.  Still, Emma is stuck at chapter 26.  I've been slipping in various sentences here and there to supposedly heighten the excitement.  Also, have been looking for the scene that my main critiquers objected to.  Couldn't find it on my first run through of the chapter before I gave up and went down to read.  Maybe, I had already revised it.  I hope.

Thought I'd be done with this revision by the end of January.  Now I'm beginning to doubt it.

Trivia:  Nothing going on worth mentioning.    

It Snowed ...

Lectures from my Reading:  Have gotten all the way into Jane Haddam's Cheating at Solitaire to page 120-something.  As I said before, it's a dense read.  Not only are her paragraphs long, but the sentences too.  I didn't do a readibility analysis on the text (Too lazy, and I don't think it's important enough for the effort.), but I'm betting it's way up in the upper high school grades.  --  (I naturally write about the sixth-seventh grade level with short paragraphs.)

Example from when Haddam is describing a media feeding-frenzy (which I found funny):  "And Al Jazeera," Stewart said blandly.  "Great story about the decadence of the West with a great excuse to run pictures of girls in their underwear."  --  (That was a quote from dialog.  Note she got away with the dreaded adverb.)

Haddam must of had great fun poking (skewering ?) the celebrity scene complete with legitimate news and the paparazzi chasing the same non-story.  No chihuahuas as yet, but I think they've all been exported to Colorado to find normal homes.  (Local readers know that Denver shelters have been getting shipments of unwanted chihuahuas from LA for adoption.)

As always, the writing is for savoring as Haddam puts her characters on a POV carousel, each commentary inching the action forward.  I know the clues are embedded in each character's soliloquy, but they're rather difficult to find.  So far, I've caught only one dissatisfied loner who might meet the culprit profile.

Progress:  Emma.  Am up to chapter 10 and should get more done today.  No TV programs I want to watch tonight, outside the news.  Did get critiquers comments transferred too.  *ducks head in embarrassment at the mistakes*  (Honest, I did proof the stuff before I submitted.)

Critiquing... Got caught out doing a bunch of stupid mistakes.  Maybe not stupid, but things I know I shouldn't do ... or know better ways of doing.  --   I wonder if anyone has ever written a marketable book making every craft error imaginable.

Maren ... I've given up on actually trying to draft the first chapter.  My brain can't handle the two projects at once.

Trivia:  Chickened out of driving fifteen miles in the snow to have breakfast with a friend.  We rescheduled for lunch tomorrow.  The old man is amusing himself chasing a persistent squirrel out of our linden tress.

Puttering, Muttering, and Baking

Trivia:  Welcome to December -- the busiest time of year and the worst for writing.

The baking of the koulourakia is coming to an end -- or at least, the end is in sight.  Still have at least three more batches.  

(Don't think Christmas is over for us when the baking's done.  There're the pesky cards/once-a-year-letters [even with email] and the wrapping of the presents [shudder].  We have decided that the plastic floors are my Christmas present, and I don't have to wrap them.  *smile*)


Lessons from My Reading:  Am about 2/5ths through Runesmark.  The story has really picked up with a smidgen of multiple viewpoints so we know what the bad guys are thinking.  Not very much telling going on anymore so it'd read much faster if I had time to read.

The books reminded me of a couple things.  1) I hadn't thought of the word cantrip in ages.  Spells, flaming sigils, etc., yes.  But cantrip, no.  Harris uses it regularly, but unfortunately she tends to mention the word with around three synonyms together.  Makes me want to get out my red pencil as I read.

(Mostly because it's too similar to my worst habit:  Showing something -- putting a comma -- then telling what the action was supposed to convey.  Redundancies, anyone?  I can give you plenty, but I usually just delete them.)

2) Using the word "colors" (or is that colours?) for auras.  I'm using auras in Maren.  It's the one "paranormal ability" that was hers.  Since auras are indeed tell-tale colors to those that can see them, I think I'll use the word "colors".


 Progress:  Emma is resting.  Waiting.  Fermenting.  Generally being ignored, except the local critique group met today.  Generally, they think the middle chapters submitted are okay except for some minutia that need to be tinkered with.  Discussed it, but won't put my notes into action any time soon.

Have to love this comment:  "Nancy is a complete bitch, almost unbelievably so. I think you may need to tone her down just a smidge."  Sorry, she's strong willed and has a grudge which she bitched about in her first appearance.

Demons is being edited again.  First, I edit the first chapter.  Then, I edit a subsequent chapter.  Currently, I'm on Chapter 5.  When I get half way through, I'll query a couple agents.  

I don't know if I have the nerve to query my favorite agent.  (Before you think I'm crazy, the book is only peripherial to her interests, even if it was written well enough.  No, I have never been an optimist. ) 
 

Busy Day ( for me that is )

Trivia:  Going to the chiropractor so I can continue sitting in front of the computer.  Had to change the standing appointment, though.  We're taking a friend to a birthday party at an "independent" living center for another friend -- in worse physical shape.  Oh, the joys of being old!

Lessons from My Reading:  Am searching for a book to read.  So far, I've taken down about five from my to-read pile.  (I'm saving Doss's new Snake book and Daisy for a real emergency.)  It's really bad when I can't find a book.  A new series with Zoe somebody fizzled and after one more try will land in the trade pile.  (Two new books.  Ouch.  But, a 25+/- woman sounding like the kids in the food court?  Give me relief.)
  
Almost bought another author with cover art that was vaguely iconic.  Had a real interesting scene with the MC confronting at old lady with a globe hanging over her head and a savage dog -- as the promo page.  Then, read the first paragraphs of the book and she's cooking too much food for her father?  Sorry.  I must confess I mis-shelved the book on my way out the door.  (My son would shoot me since he once worked at B&N.)

So, what am I reading?  An anthology called, Winter Moon.  Not really reading it.  More like skimming during the news.  Got through Mercedes Lackey and Tanith Lee, since I do occasionally try to write short fiction.  C. E. Murphy hooked me with a cop with reluctant psychic abilities.  The story?  Banshee Cries, which is set in between two novels.  I think I'm going to have to look them up.  I know I've passed over this author before.  Guess I'm going to have to take another look.

Lesson:  Write good characters with baggage that're doing something besides obsessing.  (Leave that to those literary folk.)

Progress:   Critiquing.  Really savaged them this time around.  Mostly for being too wordy and/or not presenting their characters with a clear danger.  There was other stuff, but that sums up the larger faults I found.  Typos excluded.  I mention them -- only because it's so hard to find them yourself when you read your own manuscript.


Tangled.  Sending another chapter to my out-of-town critiquers.  I'm going to have to start chopping some new stuff soon.  Still, they both are showing me where I've left dead wood.


Emma:  I'm writing new stuff, at about 500 words a sitting.  Progress!  Turns out I was closer to the end than I thought.  The ending of this chapter has my adventurers escaping from a dungeon.  Then, maybe three more chapters.  Encountering the elves.  Rescuing the Hobgoblin.  Confronting her grandmother. 

Thought of a wonderful ending, but didn't write it down.  (Stupid.  I know.) Hopefully, something similar will pop out of my brain.

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. 

The Books Pile Higher

Trivia:  I did a bad.  While going down the grocery aisle to the light bulbs, I got snared by the books section.  Walked away with three more to add to the to-be-read pile.  Including a Lori Foster (of Gaby, the Paladin fame.)  It's part of a short story collection with another author who I can't remember at the moment.  (Multiple author collections are one of the ways I add authors to my must-look-at file.) -- Oh, there isn't a zombie among them, I don't think.


Learning from What I Read:  I skimmed through another 100 pages of Laurens' Temptation.  They've gotten to the heavy panting stage, but the MC still is looking for "the highest of the high" among the gentry.  I'm half way through the book, and not much has happened except the "staring-at-each-other-across-the-mall" stuff.  (At least they don't giggle.) Only they didn't have malls in the 1820s, just village greens ... where they don't hang out. 

I'll be skimming this book ... mostly because I'm still looking for the mystery.  Also, she has failed to draw me into the world to the extent I accept whatever the characters do as being the right, even if it's stupid.  Besides I have Christine Feehan, James Doss (with Daisy Perika, my main lady), and Lori Foster waiting on the shelf among others.

If Laurens was a beginning writer, I'm sure someone would tell her to begin where the action begins.  Maybe all the coy posturing and growling possessiveness is standard for romances.  If so, I'm hopeless as a romance reader.  After all, I decided to marry the old man because he had the same blood type as me.  (An important factor when you're Rh negative, and kids enter the equation.)

Writing:  I think I'm writing too much.  Not only am I reading for only about a hour+ a day, but one of my critiquers is pounding me over the head because Tangled has too many characters.  According to the norms of most of the books on the shelves, she's right.  But, Tangled is part of the Half-Elven story which I wrote for myself at the beginning.  

So, the primary story is written in front of a tale of political intrigue involving the ruling family and their enemies ... and potential allies.  --  Yeah, it's funny.  The novice writer starts out with a multiple viewpoint story in which everyone has their two-cents to contribute, and I let them say it.

Another criticism about Tangled:  I "tell" too much.  Yeah, I do because it simplifies the telling when presenting multiple interpretations of events.  So will I listen?  Well, yes, sort of.  Still, I think it's interesting when people look at the same facts and come up with different conclusions.  Also, I don't flick out the cross when someone tells ... as long as it isn't an info dump.

Emma?  I'm going to start rewriting what I have from a younger point of view the beginning of the week.  Not that there will be that much, mostly changing facts here and there.  Hopefully, I'll add some depth to the characters along the way.


Progress:  Not much.  

I'm going to have to go back and look at a couple of short story submissions from June.  I think it's time to send some status queries.

The World Upside Down

Trivia:  The cats are upset.  On Thursday, their favorite lounging chairs went out the door to be recovered.  The monkeys have uncomfortable replacement chairs (in comparison), but cats don't do uncomfortable.  Worse, they can't curl up in the same chair and sleep all afternoon.  They don't fit.  -- Monkeys don't have to have wings to be evil in some universes.

Reading:  I've given up on Barbara Hambly's Traveling with Vampires.  The bookmark remained stuck at page 60-something.  I scanned a couple chapters, but the book didn't draw me back in.

So, what goes wrong when a favorite author writes a book you can't read to the end?  I'm not looking for the "wow" factor -- when you end up reading until 2-3 in the morning because you can't put the story down.  All I want is an enjoyable read to give me a break from writing, cooking, TV, and whatever.  One thing:  I'm not into the vampire thing -- good or bad or both.  

I've been thinking about it for a day and came to the conclusion it was the characters.  They all went in the cliche column.  

Must say in the positive column, train travel added a different dimension [in contrast to carriages], but she didn't exploit the captivity of traveling by train.  Corsets presented another problem.  The character struggles with them, but avante guarde Edwardian ladies did without them.  So, the protagonists ran all over Europe (Turkey included) chasing vampires and their henchmen (women).  Eeh.


Now I have to find something else to read along with Rutherfurd's The Forest.  Maybe Kootz's Odd? 


(Aren't I supposed to be reading young adults and/or fantasy?  I'll have to settle for another episode of the Omega Factor [old British TV program].)


Writing:  Emma and crew are stuck in a smelly cell, waiting to be rescued.  I have to flesh out the spriggen nastiness, but that'll probably end up after I finish the draft.  At this point, I want to get an ending on the book.


Tangled?  It's still getting chopped.  


One of my critiquers on this made a comment that changed my perspective on my Half-Elven.  I decided to concentrate on Kerry (a child) because she was the vulnerable member of the cast.  She still is, but the emphasis of the books is more abstract -- dealing with societal changes.  Yeah.  Really, marketable, huh?


Whatever, now I'm going back, yet again, and changing things.  Isn't learning wonderful?


Progress:  Not much.  I'm playing as much solitaire as I'm writing.  (Not counting the blog.)

Crutches

Trivia:  It snowed on the last day of summer.  It didn't freeze hard enough to kill the zucchini, so it will still flow onto my kitchen counters.  If I had the courage of my convictions, I'd yank it up by the roots.  I don't.  So, I wait for the frost to do my dirty work.

Writing:  I've decided that beta readers/ critiquers are a crutch.  One I rather keep in my life.  I've learned so much about my writing from them, not all of it good.  (I make the dippiest of mistakes that even I know better to make in the heat of the writing.)  More important, they catch the stuff my eyes glaze over.  I read it but my brain doesn't catch it -- even though I catch the same thing in other books.  Even published ones.

I wonder if other unpublished writers get discouraged when they see "beginner mistakes" get published.  I don't get discouraged per se, but if there are too many, I put the book down.  My internal editor stifles my enjoyment of the story.


Progress:  I got Emma off the hill and into the arms of the villeins!!!  Or at  least, into their castle which is rather stupidly made with two towers opposite each other -- instead of building their bailey in the center of the fort on raised ground.  That's a plot point I had no idea about.  I'm going to have to use it in some way.  Until then, Emma gets to contend with the lady who lured her into Faery in the first place.


Tangled is still getting chopped.  Up to Chapter 7, and the pace remains almost 1000 words a chapter.  (So far the multi-character plot progresses.)  But the times I say the same thing twice, only a little bit differently!!!  Thank you critiquers for pointing them out.  Also, when I use the same word three to five times on a page.  I don't always catch them myself.  -- Only one chapter got eliminated, but I may be able to turn it into a short story or novella.

More of the Same

Trivia:  My husband seems to be coming to the end of his picture project -- turning his 30+ years worth of slides, which gathered dust in a box, into prints.  He's been putting the prints into albums, one for each of his trips.  

The personal pictures end up on the dining room table for me to put in albums.  I thought I got the things in order by year (about five inches stacked) -- when he scatters another bunch on the table.  Guess, it's nice to get them organized into albums, but I suspect they'll still gather dust.  

(I'm behind at my end of the project, but it's nice to see pictures of the kids when younger.)


Comment:  David Brooks, of News Hour fame, made an interesting observation in the New York Times  yesterday (15 September 2009) in his column. He discusses how we turned from a humble people (WWII, sort of my generation) into a narcissistic one (now).  In the opinion piece, he quotes the London Times to the effect that  "fascism had stood for grandiosity, pomposity, boasting and zeal."  

My thought:  "Ouch!"  If the news media is right. the description fits too high a percentage of Americans to a "T".  



Reading:  Finished Riordan's Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian.  I liked the twist on the word "last".  The last Olympian wasn't the stalwart warrior standing against all odds against the evil hordes, though that's an important part of the book.  No, she was Hestia, keeper of the hearth.  You know, keeping the home fires burning against all odds.   Incidentally, I thought the ending gave a nice conclusion though some might think it a little long.



I've already started Louise Penny's newest Gamache novel -- a Three Pines mystery away from Three Pines.  Not as much head hopping in this one, but she still uses multiple viewpoints.  I'm liking the linear effect of her writing while getting an insight into all the possible suspects.


Writing:  Poor Emma, she's stuck on a hill waiting to get captured by the spriggens.  Unfortunately, Kerry of Tangled has usurped her.



Wondering when revision is done.  I'm guessing:  not until a story/novel is sold.  

Looked at the short story that was the basis for There Be Demons (unagented, unsold), screeched and revised it.  The 2700 word story now weighs in at 2300 words.  Now, I've gotta do some revisions in the book to include the better ideas I came up with.


Progress:  Working on chapter 6 of "Lost in a Tangled Maze".   Maybe 5,000 words removed. --  An example of how important critiquers are:  By the time my beta readers tagged all the "telling" and other weak points (like adverbs and commas), chapter 2 dropped another 500 words.  They weren't missed when I reread it this morning.


Guess Tangled is the only thing I'm working on for the now, except this blog.