studiolo

WIP

2009-11-29T17:02:13Z

The process for this WIP has been the way I imagine a sculptor works. (Being an Italophile, I'll say this is my fantasy of what it's like to make a beautiful sculpture of marble.)

Come up with the general concept.
Make sketches--a rough scenario. This is a must for me. Even if it writhes and mutates like a dream where a rope turns into a snake turns into a horseshoe, I refer to my scenario throughout, to the very end.
Hew the general shape from the block--first draft.
Go over it again, so it's still chunky but with the main volumes defined--this might be the second draft, but it doesn't feel that way to me.
Refine the curves, folds, lines, etc--work on the words, the details, the flow, the feeling.

I finished the first draft week before last. Over the last week, I've gone through the comments (marked ala Cory D with "TK" so I can find them). Tweaked parts that needed more research. Added scenes that I realized I needed only after I was past that point in the first draft (so I just noted them on my ongoing, ever-mutating scenario).

Last night I worked til midnight. I don't usually work at night, partly because things tend to suck more at night, and also I end up having restless dream cycles about whatever I was working on. It didn't suck too much, but I dreamt about Afghanistan, which is where the sub or maybe parallel plot takes place.

The Cloisters

2009-11-25T17:45:58Z

Back when I lived in NYC, one of my favorite places to hang out was the Cloisters. Wandered around the galleries, paid tribute to the Unicorn, and sat in the gardens writing poetry and letters (actual hand-written letters with a fountain pen, of course). On a day like today, grey and chill, it fed my soul.

Yesterday I found the Cloisters Garden blog. I'm afraid I feel the urge to redo my back yard coming on. Though I'll have to let go of the unicorn concept. Even if I had the heart to capture one, I'm not much of a hand at making animal pens.

the problem with chix

2009-11-24T22:22:46Z

Re the problem with chix in chainmail, chilled chix,* and so on...

You get what you pay for. If you shell out the bucks for a message from our corporate sponsors, that's what you'll get. One size fits all, or at least as many as possible.

If you want depth and complex characters--for example, if you don't want characters who are chix--you have to make an effort to watch/read a film/book that is more deep and complex. And don't pay for stuff that you think is crap unless you want to nurture and support it.

*Still, I'm glad people are ranting about it.

Mountain trip

2009-11-17T02:48:57Z

We took a trip to West Virginia last week. Its haunting beauty made me realize that however much I love the Southwest, these ancient hills have their own magic.

We hiked to Seneca Rocks from our wonderful B&B, North Fork Mountain Inn.

Up at Dolly Sods, the snow and ice didn't just lay on the trees; the branches were coated and powdered. Everything was black and white and silver, except the distant view's deep blue and brown.

On the way home we stopped at the Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory. It was wonderful, but frustrating because they had so many beautiful structures on the property, but you couldn't take pictures, at least with a digital camera, since electronics can interfere with the telescopes. (And the gift shop didn't have any decent postcards!) We took this pic of the biggest one from a distant viewing platform.

cats

2009-11-10T01:33:32Z

I'd hoped that the two cats that have been hanging around lately belonged to our neighbor, but she told me today they're strays. Her old mom is a magnet for strays, and they spill over into our yard. I love 'em, but can't take them in due to allergies. And now her mom is heading for hospice so the cats might have to go to SPCA. That makes me sad (even though our SPCA has a no-kill policy).

All my characters wear Chanel

2009-11-04T19:17:03Z

via style.com

Not to mention the spring 2010 ~~barnyard~~ RTW collection

Kaleidotrope story out

2009-10-14T20:14:02Z

Just got my copy of Kaleidotrope with my VP story "Please share my umbrella" in it!

true romance

2009-10-14T19:40:49Z

I love RWA as a super supportive writer's trade association, but with one main gripe: their definition of romance:

"Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending."

Without getting all English majory about ye olde courtly romances, I can get with the central love story. But the ending part? RWA elaborates: "In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love."

No, in a romance, the lovers are not necessarily "rewarded with justice and unconditional love." Romantic comedy is great, but not all romance is comedy. Just look at that romance of all romances, Romeo and Juliet. And what about The Time Traveler's Wife? Its ending is way more complex than RWA would like, but it's about the most romantic novel I've ever read.

I love me a happy ending, but tragedy or plain old sad is "emotionally satisfying" in its way. Otherwise, the star-crossed lovers would have stayed dead after the first performance. To exclude sadness, bitterness, grief from romance is to stunt romance (and oneself) emotionally.

Defining romance as having happy endings trivializes and limits a genre that already is trivialized and limited in the minds of many people. We're looking for respect, and this doesn't help.

reading

2009-10-11T00:36:41Z

bogwitch64 's post on reading reminds me that I haven't posted my reads for a while. (PS You're welcome re Mythago Wood!)

Me, too for The Magician's Assistant, by Anne Patchett. Satisfying, yes.

More Michael Chabon. That guy just kills me. He's so talented, he's a freak of nature.

A couple of Regency romances, which I'm sort of getting addicted to. I enjoyed Liz Carlysle's Wicked all Day alot. Didn't like Georgette Heyer (These Old Shades.) In fact, yuck. This is my second round with Heyer, so I guess I'll give up on her.

Dreaming Anastasia, a lovely YA by Joy Preble.

Fast Ships, Black Sails, ed Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. Arrrrrh! Favorites: Skillet and Saber, by Justin Howe. Not your usual foodie story, but still satisfying to a foodie. 68 07/ 15"N, 31 36' 44"W, by Conrad Williams.

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini. It's taken me way too long to read Sabatini!

David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I was at the airport on the way to Las Vegas for our family bash to welcome my sis back from Iraq. I bought this book to while away the flight. I knew it would probably embarrass me by making me chortle away to myself, but what the heck.

The cashier asked, "It's about smoking?"

"Well, not really," I said. "It's funny."

He gave a polite smile.

"Funny. Supposed to be funny. Looks like it's about smoking but not really. Funny."

I found myself speaking pidgin English because the guy, who spoke ESL, obviously did not get what was funny about an image of a skull smoking a cig and the title "When you are engulfed in flames."

"Supposed to be funny," I said again. He smiled politely and told me to have a nice day.

It really is funny, though, despite appearances.

Libraries

2009-10-08T17:16:37Z

I love public libraries. My life has been colored by girl crushes on various librarians. I've also been terrified of various librarians. About half the books I read are from the library. A good chunk of the other half are books the library makes me buy by introducing me to new authors or getting me hooked on a series then not having all the books in it.

Here's Deborah Schneider, RWA librarian of 2009, on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, interviewed on promoting authors. "The “Reading” is probably the most boring thing an author can offer me," she says. So true! The Signing, too, I think. They work only with well-known authors, or maybe authors who have a lot of friends living near the bookstore. Janet Evanovich mentioned at RWA how pitiful it is to see a lonely author waiting for people to come up to their table. (An author recently made the best of it by interviewing the two people who showed up at his reading, but I can't remember who and can't find the link.)

I did an author event at a few bookstores when my book Cosmic Tarot came out. I signed but the main thing was I did tarot readings (which I rarely ever did for other people and now do only for myself). The line was almost out the door, even though I didn't know anyone there. Okay, the poor bookstore only sold two or three books out of the big stack they had there. However, I think if the book had been about a more popular deck or better if it had been an interesting looking novel the store would have done well by them.

I hope some day I'll have another chance to put into practice this lesson on how to promote books, and to use Deborah Schneider's and SB Sarah's great creative ideas.

WIP

2009-10-05T22:21:17Z

Yippee! Over halfway through the WIP.

This one a romance with paranormal elements. Not sure I could call it a full-blown paranormal, even though evil witches are involved.

I think second draft of this will demand more rewrite for language and style than for chunky elements like plot and character development. It started as a screenplay, then I realized I really like writing novels better. But I want to try to keep the sort of rawness of a screenplay, while adding in a lot of emotion (no internal emotion or thought in screenplays; camera can't see it).

The Skewed Throne

2009-09-29T17:03:42Z

Joshua Palmatier is posting six chapters from his book here.

Dark Ages bright and shiny

2009-09-24T14:32:50Z

thorngrove posted this gorgeous find : "a harvest of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver so beautiful it brought tears to the eyes of one expert."

A good olde medieval read

2009-09-22T20:47:14Z

It's been a while since I've snugged in with a good olde medieval book. What better than Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight to throw the spell over me again. Kings, castles, noble nights, swords, destriers and palfreys (ye olde horses), wine by the barrel, mud by the bushel. Tourneys, too!

Some irritating stuff. The women are either whimpy pretty ineffectual or smart assertive beautiful AND bear sons first (daughters can come later). The hero is perfect, but I guess I should have known by the title of the book. The scattered POVs are a mixed bag. I'm not big on characters or narrators whose main role is to bolster the hero's glory. Chadwick's characters aren't quite that limited, though, and they do carry the story forward while their own backstories are skillfully woven into the narrative.

I felt like I was in the hero's head most of the time (not so much on her other POVs). She knows how to skip over the stuff that's boring (to me, anyway). Several times I braced myself for a long battle scene, and before I knew it, it was over. She pretty much jumps over his sojourn in the Middle East, which I was glad of, since by then I was more into what was happening in England and France. (I was also dreading that staple of crusader stories: the love affair with the dark-skinned dancing girl. Thankfully, it didn't happen.)

Her historical detail has tons of credibility and showed (among other things) that knights in tourneys were like today's rodeo circuit cowboys. Prizes, parties, a roving life. The details didn't feel contrived at all. For example, she doesn't obsess about body odor and shit on the streets (which medieval folk would presumably take for granted).

Anyway, if you're craving English medieval, this is a full potency dose.

Story up at IGMS

2009-09-19T16:02:56Z

Joanie Savage's (VP XI) story is up at Intergalactic Medicine Show. Not to brag or anything but I read this story in draft and it is really really a good read. And the artwork by Nick Greenwood is awesome. (Hope it's okay for me to repro it here...)
www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi

description

2009-08-26T21:50:14Z

Random, from The Yiddish Policemen's Union

A crook: "The Jew to the left is haggard, sleepless, sclerotic, straggly, with cheeks like two spoonfuls of sour cream, and two bright, mean little eyes."

A social club in the morning. "The place is as empty as an off-duty downtown bus and smells twice as bad. Someone came through recently with a bucket of bleach to paint in some high notes over the Vorsht's steady bass line of sweat and urinals."

A guy getting his kid ready for bed: ..."the uproar of bath and ass-powdering and a bedtime story that requires Berko Shemets to honk like a goose..."

Michael Chabon, I love you. You make me know why I love to read. Cheeks like two spoonfuls of sour cream. You're killing me, man.

We hates our writing, preciousssss

2009-08-24T14:30:06Z

It's one of those days when I cringe at my writing. This might be a good thing, since I'm in revisions. No sentimental attachment. Chop, slice, dice. House-wise, this is the kind of mood you want to be in when you clean a closet or an attic. I just hope I don't go crazy and mutilate it. Then again, I can always go back and pick up pieces from an older version. Though I doubt I would. I never do.

Getting women right

2009-08-20T13:04:28Z

Sheerly Avni gets it right with her 10 films that get women right. Her take on To Kill a Mockingbird zeroed in on one of the reasons I love that movie--besides daddy-crush Gregory Peck, of course--though I never thought about that reason. Article's from 2005, so no new movies. I'd love to see her do an update.

I found the article googling inspiration for a character I'm trying to liven up. The protag is a male, but the female character is also a POV. She was so dull that I was thinking of eliminating her POV, then realized, doh, she'll still be dull. I think I've got a line on her now, and it plays in nicely with a plot twist.

an offshoot of paranormal

2009-08-18T16:47:50Z

Dorchester Publishing guidelines say that Dorchester wants... "FANTASY ROMANCE - Dragons, elves, and any kind of fantastical creature you can dream up are all welcome in this fast-growing offshoot of paranormal."

Offshoot of paranormal, huh? Not to kvetch, though. Especially since this confirms my impression at RWA that fantasy might be getting stoked for a big comeback, at least in the romance genre. Yay!

beautiful clutter

2009-08-16T01:29:10Z

I'm not a Zen-y neat freak, and I've accumulated knickknacks given by family and friends over the years. Overall, though, I have a low tolerance for clutter. I don't leave mail lying on tables or counters. I like to start the day with my desk clear. I'm the one in our household that cleans out the shed and attic and utility room, and the drawers and closets.

Maybe that need to keep things "picked up" makes me all the more vulnerable to falling for other people's clutter. I can't help thinking, maybe these clutter bugs have spirits more free than mine, not to mention the eye and imagination for making harmony out of odds and ends. This place, a little corner of a studio in Italy, is beautiful. The person visiting it was enchanted by it, too. It tells a story. Go see it at this blog.

Reading

2009-08-12T12:44:27Z

The Giver, by Lois Lowry. A YA that transcends YA. Thank you, bogwitch64 !
The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott; Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder. Two more YAs. I enjoyed them, but probably would have appreciated them more when I was YA myself.
Snake Agent, by Liz Williams. (mevennen ) Really fun; I'll be reading more by her.
Lightbreaker, by Mark Teppo. (markteppo ) Not to drop names or anything, but... a fellow VPXIer.

New author: Jade Lee. The author whose books I grab when I just, well, want to read. The Dragon Earl and Tempted Tigress. Historical romances. Lee's characters and story totally tweak stereotypes and the formulaic while falling in romantic genre expectations. I'm now reading Dragonborn, a fantasy romance. My only complaint is that she kills off a character (no spoiler; it happens right at the start) with a name very similar to mine. Lee brings her settings to sensuous (and sensual) life.

And soon! Very soon! I'll be reading The Song and the Sorceress, by Kim Vandervort. (writerknv ) Another VPXIer...

PS Links are to Powells, Nightshade Books and Hadley Rille Books

you never know with women...

2009-07-20T14:28:51Z

Love the book bag RWA gave out at the con. And the fact that I left with it full of free books.

RWA

2009-07-19T15:12:24Z

VP bud Marta and I attended the Romance Writers of America convention in DC. I'd never been to a convention focused solely on writing. Nor a convention where the ratio of male to female was about 2000 to 4 (I'm not exaggerating!). The noise level in the bar was several pitches higher than normal. It was fun. Really a good time and a very supportive culture.

Thanks to Marta's greater wisdom, I ditched my usual earnest lifelong student attitude and picked workshops mainly for who was giving them rather than by subject. The student mouse got plenty of crumbs, though. Overall, the con gave me a good grounding in the romance genre, which overlaps with just about all other genres. SFF is up and coming in romance, and not just paranormal.

Loved the "focus on" sessions for publishing houses Tor, St. Martin, and Dorchester. A highlight was Donald Maas's presentation The Fire in Fiction. If you have a chance to attend this somewhere, don't miss it!

Stillness or action

2009-07-13T16:34:07Z

James Gurney's blog Gurney Journey is about visual illustration, but this quote also captures what a written scene needs to have:

"Whether you choose to paint a scene with stillness or action, try to give your image the greatest emotional resonance and narrative reach."

(Cartier-Bresson photo)

empty nest

2009-06-18T13:21:45Z

*sniffle* The birdies are out of the nest...

empty nest

PS. The big blob in the foreground is not a failed fledgling; it's a spider's web.