Five Items of an Everyday Sort 5

Item the First: One winner in the TRANCE ARC giveaway still hasn't contacted me. Spread the word, folks, so I don't have to redraw!

Item the Second: For your reading pleasure, a terrific article by Chuck Wendig about changing the conversation regarding self-e-publishing: The Publishing Card Before the Storytelling Horse.

Item the Third: This is the first of two blog posts about research. This one is from Shiloh Walker regarding using television as a primary resource for fiction (in other words, don't).

Item the Fourth: The second blog post about research. From Dear Author, a letter about common mistakes made when writing about lawyers.

Item the Fifth: I stumbled over this a while ago, but it was pretty neat to see. 10 Unconventional Bookstores. I wish some of these were near me, so I could visit them.

A Glimpse of Darkness

If you haven't seen this yet on Suvudu or Twitter, let me explain: A Glimpse of Darkness is a multi-author, fan-driven original story featuring myself, Lara Adrian, Stacia Kane, Harry Connolly, and Lucy A. Snyder. Each week, one of us writes a different chapter based on what you, the readers, decide should happen.

I'm a little late in posting about this, because Chapter One is UP! And the voting deadline is today! Then it's Harry's turn!

Spread the word and join the adventure! My turn is the second weekend in October, and I'm very excited to play in this amazing world we've created together.

Christmas Cheer

Anyone got some to spare?

Every time I look at a calendar, I have a hard time believing that it's December. Let alone more than halfway through December. This year has passed unbelievably fast, and I'm proud to say it's a year in which I'm pretty sure I read more books than watched movies. I wrote two books this year--neither contracted, but it was something to keep me in "writing shape" in between contract stuff. I'd hoped to write three, but a variety of stresses these last few months have made "fun" writing a little harder.

For those of you who are on Twitter, you've probably seen my kitty tweets. Vet still has no idea what's wrong with her, and naturally my kitty-mama worrying has stressed me right back into the cold I had at the end of November (which I don't think ever really went away). *reaches for tissue* This, of course, makes me not want to shop for the last of my Christmas list, or bake cookies/fudge like I do every year.

So how about spreading some holiday cheer? Jokes? Funny stories? What's something fun you did/are doing for Christmas this year?

Talk to me. :)

Saturday Round Up

The second Dreg City book, AS LIE THE DEAD, is up for pre-order on Amazon. Not that I expect anyone to pre-order it yet, since most of the world hasn't even read the fist one. But yay for being listed! Release is July 27, 2010. I expect the listing will pop up on Barnes & Noble, and other sites soon.

Still no cover art for it, but my editor has accepted revisions and the book is off to production. The cover should pop up soon. *fingers crossed*

Evy is still answering your questions over at ALL THINGS URBAN FANTASY. She's having a lot of fun (as am I) talking about the vampires in her world, so be sure to swing by!

Don't forget all the ways you can enter our 2K Event Grand Prize Drawing! The 2K Quiz at ENCHANTED BY BOOKS is still open until Monday, so put your guesses out there for a chance to win four books!

And in order to try and keep myself sane this month, what with all of the contests, giveaways, and oh yeah, BOOK RELEASE, I've got a new project. It popped into my head a few days ago, and on Thursday it demanded I start. It's pretty different from anything I've written before, the MC is male, and it's basically a 180-turn from the Evy books. But it's proven to be a worthy distraction (as 5700 words in two days proves), and I'll say three words about it: werewolves, ranch, Colorado.

Have a great weekend, all!

Why "Chopped" is Like a Writing Challenge

Yeah, that's what I said. Bear with me for a minute...

So I'm sitting here watching "Chopped" on the Food Network. Food Network, by the way, is my crack right now. It's on all the time while I'm working at home, and I've even picked up a few tips along the way. But I digress...

Anywho, to the uninitiated, "Chopped" is a show in which four chefs are given a basket of secret ingredients and must create dishes using those ingredients in under thirty minutes. Usually, the ingredients make little sense together (recent dessert round: ripened plantains, prosecco, crystalized ginger, and bacon), but the chefs have to make them work together and taste good. It's fun to watch. I love to see what these folks come up with off the tops of their heads.

During a commercial break, I jumped over to Twitter and a friend made a comment about the upcoming NaNoWriMo Challenge. To the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo means National Novel Writing Month. It's a writing challenge held every November, in which participants are challenged to write at least 50,000 words between Nov 1 and Nov 30. That's about 1700 words a day, minimum. That's a lot of words.

Now, not everyone takes NaNo seriously. Many folks do it in order to take a break from more serious endeavors--they allow their writing to go completely wild, without the pressure of making it "good." They use it as a way to get into a writing groove and to improve upon their daily word count output. To do this, challenges are issued to other participants, by participants. The challenges are usually to include random, odd elements in the story.

From this, my brain took another hard-left tangent back to my days writing fanfiction. I participated in a mailing list in which similar writing challenges were issued. We were given a list of random elements, and we were challenged to include them all in a story. The list could have looked something like this: a stuffed gorilla, banana ice cream, a clown riding a skateboard, fireworks, and a length of rubber hose. And people would write stories. Usually very good stories. Some folks went goofy, but many of us chose to use this as an exercise to improve our skills.

We did the very best we could with the ingredients we were given, and we put together the best final product possible.

Kind of like the chefs on "Chopped."

Now I miss those old fanfiction challenges.


(And don't forget to comment in the Countdown: October Contest!!! Still two days!)

An Experiment in Writing

As promised, a bit more about the manuscript I mentioned having finished over the weekend. Normally, I don't try to get any real work done while I'm attending a convention, but I was in the middle of the final chapter and I knew the ending. I was thinking about it for the entire 3-hour drive to Baltimore. Not finishing it was impossible.

So what's this one about? Four words: djinn, vampires, Necromancy, hostages. (Oh my!)

Yeah, I know, it doesn't tell you much. Writing this one (and I'll call it DVNH, because I can't come up with a title I like yet) was a bit of an experiment for me. I brainstormed the initial idea in the wee hours of a Friday night sangria-and-movie fest with my best friend. Ever seen the movie Feast? It's an awesome horror film, so go out and rent it (but avoid the sequels, they kind of sucked....no, they really sucked). There's a line in the film, in which a character says, "We're being held hostage." Something about it clicked--monsters holding people hostage.

No, wait, vampires holding people hostage! But where? And why? And who would deal with such a crisis?

That's how it started.

I woke up Saturday morning (May 2, as a matter of fact) amazingly not hung over, spent about three hours doing some basic research on a few things and coming up with a handful of characters. Then I started writing it. I wrote almost every day for the entire month of May and banged out 50k words (it was like my own NaNoWriMo). In June, I put it aside for a while to do some revisions on other things, and came back to writing it again around the middle/end of June. It was hard getting back into the story, but once I did the last 35k poured out.

Granted, it needs some work, because I allowed myself to do something a little different while writing this draft--I used placeholders. If I didn't know a location, I wrote PLACE or TOWN. If I wasn't sure about a specific detail, I left RESEARCH in the paragraph. So the draft is littered with little roadsigns, places I need to return to and expand on. I need to expand on the world building quite a bit, and add tidbits of backstory now that I know my characters better.

I have a different book with my agent right now, so I don't have any immediate plans for DVNH, beyond shaping it up and coming up with a title that actually stands for something. Fortunately, I have an awesome crit partner (*waves at Nancy*) who's listened to me blather on about this book since I started it, so knowing she'd waiting to read it makes me happy.

So I chalk this up as an experiment gone right. We'll see what the end results bear in the future.

A Note On Growth

I'm sure I've mentioned, at least in passing, the revisions (I like to think of it as a surgical procedure, at the very least) I did back in February/March on my superhero novel. The one I was slapping around in preparation for presenting it to my agent.

The good news is that he likes it. Yay! On Tuesday, we chatted a while about revisions and something he said made me laugh (internally, I'm pretty sure I didn't giggle about it over the phone). (Paraphrasing) "You wrote this before THREE DAYS, right?" "Yes."

Which is where growth comes into play. I have a lot of trunk novels, and I don't regret a single one of them. They helped make me into the writer I am now. I needed the practice, and that simple exchange was confirmation that I have grown as a writer. And growth is important.

The superhero novel still has flaws. Most of my Jonathan's notes hit upon some of the problems I still had with the book, and some of the things my lovely beta Nancy had pointed out to me. Things that still need to be fixed. But I let my subconscious work out the problems for me these last few days, and I think I figured out how to solve several of those issues in one fell swoop.

Cross your fingers for me.

How about you guys? Any moments like this where you realize, "Hey, I have gotten better at this writing thing"?

That New Idea Smell

If only new ideas came with a neat scent, like new cars do. Did you know you can actually buy air sprays that smell like New Car? I kid you not. It's strange, but there's something exciting about that scent. It screams SHINY! NEW! FUN!

It's pretty rare (for me, at this point in my writing career) for me to stumble upon an idea that just reeks of the New Car Smell. The one you want to inhale for hours, roll on the seats, and revel in its awesomeness. I stumbled into one of these ideas on Friday, May 1st, over a pitcher of sangria and an eclectic movie marathon.

Most of my ideas start with a question. THREE DAYS TO DEAD began with, "Why would a dead vampire hunter be brought back to life? What could only she do?" It evolved into something a tad different, but that was the basic question.

The New Car idea I'm playing with now began as, "Why would a coven of vampires hold a town hostage?" I had no idea, so I let my mind wander a bit over the course of the movie marathon. At some point (probably around 2 am), another question occurred tome: "If vampires did take a town hostage, who would be sent in to negotiate?"

I woke up Saturday morning with my mind whirling, did a few hours of research, and by noon I had half a dozen characters and an opening scene in mind. So I started writing. I've written every day since, and my word count is sitting pretty at a healthy 33,000 words.

I'm having fun with this idea, more fun than I've had since I wrote the first draft of TDTD. Exploring a new world, with new characters and their issues, is very freeing. I'm excited to write this, because I'm uncertain where it's going. I'm getting there at the same time as my heroine, and that's part of the excitement of the journey.

Now all I need is a title. :)

How do you guys react to new ideas? Do they take you over?

Read in 2009 Update

As of last night, my count of books read since January 1st is twenty-three. It may not seem like a lot to some, but for me, it's an amazing number. Especially when we're only 18 weeks into the year.

Last week I set a nice little personal record of three books in one week: NICE GIRLS DON'T HAVE FANGS (Molly Harper), TAMING THE FIRE (Sydney Croft), and FOOL MOON (Jim Butcher). Yes, I know, I'm woefully behind on the Dresden books, which is why Grave Peril is next, then I tackle a few more new-to-me authors.

I've said it before, but reading is one of the greatest tools in a Writer's Toolbox, and it's one we have complete control over. I hear a lot of people say, "I don't have time to read," or "I've always wanted to write a novel, but I don't like reading." Um, what? For me, books have become the gasoline in my creative fuel tank--if I don't refill it once in a while, I'm going to lose steam.

What's everyone reading right now?

Writing and Planning

So what have I been up to since Monday? Writing and planning, mostly.

The writing has been the fun part. I've been working on a short story that I'm currently calling "Bird-Watching." It's a mixed-POV story set about two years prior to the events in Three Days to Dead, and introduces us to a minor character from the book. Well, minor as in overall page-time, but not in terms of plot importance. Writing for Original Recipe Evy is a kick, because her perspective on the world (and the creepy things in it) is so black-and-white. And it's giving me a few little details I can plug into As Lie the Dead. So keep your fingers crossed.

The planning has been...at times stressful, and at times kind of fun. On Tuesday morning, the man we rent our house from calls and says he's getting out of rentals and will be selling all of his properties. Including our house. *headdesk* He did say he wanted to offer it to us first, before it went on the market. Not that me or my roommate are even in the market to buy a house. So we have roughly three months to find a new place and move.

I'd like to stay in this town, but I also wouldn't mind moving a bit closer to Salisbury (where we both work). Fortunately, there are plenty of places for rent around here, and all at competitive rates. I had just hoped to be here at least two years before moving again. My dad hasn't completely recovered from last summer.

Seven Months Until Due Date

Yes, I'm counting down. Why do you ask?

Waiting for my book release day is starting to feel like prepping for a baby. To wit:

*Getting the nursery ready = setting up a website and maintaining a blog.

*Baby shower = launch party.

*Collection of clothing, diapers, wipes, and assorted baby paraphernalia = creation of marketing tools and giveaway items, such as business cards, bookmarks, pens, buttons, etc...

*Baby weight gain = too much stress-relieving chocolate consumption.

Fortunately, the birthing of this particular baby will not require a hospital stay or maternity leave, and I won't have to send it off to college in eighteen years. But I do expect to take at least one copy with me everywhere I go for at least a month or two afterward.

What else is a proud mama to do? *g*

League Post

New (rambling) post over at The League of Reluctant Adults, re: age and the urban fantasy hero(ine).

Besides "How Much Do You Weight?" What Is...?

FlyCon 2009

If you've never attended an online convention, now's the time!

FlyCon is an international, round-the-clock LiveJournal-based SF/F convention. Panels will be running all weekend, at all hours. A schedule can be found here (complete with multiple time zones).

Even if you can't attend them live, be sure to check out the archived threads. I've already skimmed a few, and there's lots of great information to be found.

H.S.S, or Hit Send, Stupid!

A year ago, back when I was still querying, I'd have these little moments of hesitation. I'd have the query letter formatted into an email space, with the first few pages pasted into the bottom. I'd double and triple-check the agent information, my salutation, everything. If it was a request for pages, I'd double and triple-check the attachment. Anything to avoid hitting SEND.

Then my finger would hover on the mouse, with the pointer over the SEND button. And hover. And hover. Until a little voice cried out, "Hit send, stupid!"

Hesitation anxiety is not, apparently, chased away by having an agent or a deal. I had a H.S.S.-moment last month when I sent book two to my agent. I had it big-time last night when I emailed a draft of book two to my editor. After spending all morning tweaking. After staring at the blank email for five minutes. After hovering the mouse over SEND for five more minutes. Finally, that little voice popped up and cried, "Hit send, stupid!"

And I did.

Hesitation anxiety: does it ever truly go away? Or should I just make a t-shirt with H.S.S. emblazoned in large, bloody letters?

*
Cross-posted at The League.

Updates

I continued to be amazed and impressed by the level of detail that goes into a book's production. Two emails have come from production with questions about certain lines in TDTD, most of them issues of logic. Making sure that yes, it's what I intended it to say, or that the meaning is clear. It's funny how much using "until" instead of "at" will completely change the meaning of a sentence. The production peeps overseeing my book are awesome in their thoroughness.

Yesterday was officially eight months until release! Yes, I will be counting down, why do you ask?

I need to finish one more new scene and do a final pass-over on AS LIE THE DEAD, before I turn it in to my editor. Should have that finished by the first of next week. I'm really excited about this book, even more than TDTD. It has two fun new characters who both challenge Evy in very different ways, and it gave me a chance to really dig into some of the minor supporting characters from TDTD. Plus the usual ass-kicking and mystery-solving, with a dash of "how do I cope with this new life in someone else's body?" angst for Evy.

I've also had my head buried in rewriting another project for agent presentation. I think I finally figured out what previous drafts were missing. Cross your fingers for me. *g*

And for additional fun, tonight I'm going back to high school! My old high school is doing a revival of Grease!, which they did in 1992. I'm attending with my sister (we were both Thespians, mostly stage crew stuff), while my parents babysit little Jade. I know some of my former teachers will be there, so it should be interesting. I haven't set foot in that school in almost eleven years.

AW February Blog Chain: Love vs. Romance

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Apologies for that.

It's once again time for an AW Blog Chain, and the theme is Love versus Romance. So far, it's taken quite a few interesting turns, from uninspired sitcom quadrangles to real life love stories, and ending so far with escritoria's post about how unhealthy forms of love can manifest in the real world.

As a writer, I often deal with the manifestations and repercussions of love. Not with romance, persay, because that's a whole other ballgame for me. I write urban fantasy, and I'm actually quite jealous of my favorite paranormal romance authors who can consistently churn out terrific, involving reads. But writing romance is tricky, and writing emotionally satisfying, believable romance is even trickier. So my hat is off to the ladies who excel at it (you know who you are)

In urban fantasy, romance is not the norm, but it certainly isn't excluded. Characters find romance, fall in love, break up, etc... Some popular series straddle the line; others stay easily within the realm of UF.

Love, rather than romance, plays a large role in THREE DAYS TO DEAD. Not the sweet wine-and-candlelight love, but the balls-out, messy kind of love. Love is the driving force behind one of my supporting characters, and it becomes an obstacle (and source of strength) to my heroine.

As a reader, I like both. The greatest thing about reading fiction is that, while I haven't found Love yet in my own life, I'll always find it at the end of the best in Romance.

Next up in the chain is bestselling author Cathy Clamp!

The entire chain:

Me
Razibahmed
Kat Frass
bsolah
AmyDoodle
FreshHell
escritora
ChaosTitan
Cathy C
harri3tspy
truelyana
tatkinson

This is the Post....

....in which I tease you incessantly. Drop hints. Dangle carrots. Play with your mind. Hahaha!

First thing's first, though. I got to see Baby Jade on her one-week birthday, which coincided with baby-daddy's own birthday. She was awake the entire time I was there, making faces, wiggling uncontrollably, and just being utterly adorable. I didn't have my camera with me (dang it!), but I'll have new pictures soon. Baby pictures. *happy sigh*

Several cool things have been developing on the Writing Home Front. One of my awesome pieces of news has to wait a bit longer until it's official, but anyone who subscribes to Publishers Marketplace (and remembers me, hehe) probably saw it.

There are some exciting changes in store at one of my favorite blog communities. Tune in Monday, February 2nd, to find out which blog and how it affects me.

I'm also preparing to potentially dabble into a kind of writing I've not tried before (and no, dirty minds, I don't mean erotica). More on that as/if it develops.

And in closing, I'd like to do my duty and remind everyone that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA IS ON TONIGHT AT 10PM EASTERN. The last episodes are upon us. *weeps*

Free Writing Exercise

It began as a dual-purpose exercise.

Purpose #1 - Examine the backstory of one of my supporting characters, so I could better understand her current motivations. I knew a few things, but not enough. I hadn't dug deeply yet, and I was eager to play.

Purpose #2 - Word war with a friend, to keep encouraging her personal word count. For anyone not sure, Word War is something that folks do during NaNoWriMo to challenge each other. You set a period of time (half hour, hour, etc...) and you both write. Whoever writes the most wins.

So dual purposes. We started the one-hour word war at 6:45. I didn't stop writing until almost 1:30 am (minus a break for "24", although I did peck away during commercials). What I ended up with was 9553 words of backstory in about seven hours.

Talk about exhilarating. I didn't want to stop, but my eyes were about to fall out, so I picked up again this morning. The word count's jumped to around 12.5k and it's reached a point where I could stop. There's more story to tell, but it was the earliest history I needed to figure out. It lays the groundwork for this character's psychology. I haven't done this sort of free-writing in a long time. Maybe no one will ever read it, but I told her story and I'm glad it's told. I can look now at Book Two, which utilizes this character a great deal, and make her a little more three-dimensional. Add layers, now that I'm aware of them.

I love me some strong female characters, and this chick has got strength to spare.

Amazing (and humbling) Blurbage

Now that I've come down off the ceiling, I can share the two amazing blurbs I've received for THREE DAYS TO DEAD. For anyone curious about blurbs, take a peek at the cover of your nearest paperback. See those quotes adorning the cover, the ones from published authors, endorsing the book? That what I just got. *g*

The first is from bestselling author Gena Showalter (long time blog readers know I adore her books):

"Dark, dangerous and delectable. A fantastic debut impossible to put down!"

The second came from the lovely and talented Jackie Kessler (if you haven't read Cat and Muse, you are so missing out!):

“THREE DAYS TO DEAD is one of the best books I’ve read. Ever. Evy Stone is a heroine’s heroine, and I rooted for her from the moment I met her. Kelly Meding has written a phenomenal story, one that’s fast-paced, gritty, and utterly addictive. Brava! More! More! More!”

I am so over the moon right now!

FF&F Member

I've mentioned the amazing livejournal community Fangs, Fur & Fey many times, and after joining as a Member last month, I finally posted my Intro. Come by and heckle me, if you haven't already. I'm really excited to be part of this fantastic community of writers (also a community of fantastic writers).