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.

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.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... & Bummer

Trivia:  Did errands and treated ourselves to lunch out after staying inside yesterday. Tomorrow we have to go out again.  While prancing through the snow, a lens dropped out of my glasses.   (No, it wasn't in the car.) Gotta get it replaced.

Lessons from My Reading:  Almost through with Carol O'Connell's Bone by Bone.  What a lovely bunch of twisting characters.  (I'm pea soup green with envy.)  I count five main characters, a couple of which could be the perp in the brother's death.  Plus, the several secondary characters are just as finely drawn ... with a couple more possible suspects.  So far, the guy with the strongest motive (getting the sh*t beat out of him by the MC/detective/suspect) hasn't appeared on the stage much.  Have some 100 pages left to go.  Really like the CBI agent -- who I think of as a cross between Miss Marple and and a gamer -- who's kicking the sheriff's butt.

Think of Cold Case on steroids here.  You couldn't possibly fit all the characters into a 45 minute TV show.  (The rest of the hour is eaten up by commercials.  Maybe this is a reason so many book adaptations fall on their face when compared to the books???)

Thinking of all the character development and motivations twisting around the inter-relationships, I can just see the overlapping plot board set up to keep everyone straight.  It must be as complicated as those used in real law enforcement to trace the progress of a case.

Also am eying P. D. James' Talking about Detective Fiction.  It came in today (one of the reasons we were running around).  She agrees with me about Agatha Christie's plastic characters. heh. heh.  I used to be considered sacrilegious because I preferred Dorothy Sayers' mysteries to Agatha's.  Christie was married to an archeologist (Murder in Mesopotamia).  It was an anthropological solidarity thing, I think.

Progress:  Demons.  Should get the last three chapters polished tonight.  So, if the sky falls on my head and an agent does ask for a full, I'll be ready to send it -- once I consolidate it into one attachment.

No.  My characters don't have half the twists that O'Connell's do.  But then, I'm writing about kids and gargoyles.