electric mist

new Spinetingler issue up

The fantastic winter issue of Spinetingler is up — available for FREE via download. Inside there are the results of the “Cozy Noir” contest (and congrats to Bill Cameron for the first place win!) as well as short stories by a lot of favorites, including J.D. Rhoades. Also, you will be missing out on a lot of laughs if you skip the author interviews, particularly Duane Swierczynski’s by Sandra Ruttan. Go! Enjoy!

synchronicity

Check out my latest post on my nutty life over on the Killer Year blog.

Meanwhile, I received my first pass pages (also called "page proofs" or "galleys) a couple of weeks ago and got them proofed and sent back in. I swear, the typos breed at night. I'm amazed at how many keep slipping in, though everyone has made a great effort to catch them. Still -- no telling if we got them all. I do love the look of the layout of the pages, though.

I should be getting a cover in the next coupl of weeks. I've seen a couple of rough drafts that my editor wanted to tweak, and we talked about how to tweak it. Fingers crossed there. This is the really scary part, because if a cover just doesn't resonate with the audience, they won't pick up the book. You can have the greatest blurbs in the world, great reviews, but most of the time, bookstore readers who are browsing (and who didn't go there specifically to get your book) will only pick it up if the cover art grabs them. That is incredibly intimidating and frightening, to be honest with you, because I know I'm guilty of the same sort of "judging a book by its cover." The writer usually has no say in the cover art whatsoever, so I'm extremely lucky that my editor asked for my input and really listened. The hard trick is, can what we see in our heads be adequately communicated to the people trying to execute the design? That's not nearly as easy as it sounds.

So, cross your fingers for me.

Meanwhile, I'm working on book two... which leads back to that Killer Year blog post. Hope you enjoy!

Killer Year (update)

We’re kicking off in an official capacity by being adopted by the International Thriller Writers organization (ITW) — and wow, there’s so much good news about that… go see MJ’s post on our newly redesigned Killer Year blog to see what all that means.

And while you’re at it, check out our brand spanking new Killer Year site — especially the individual author’s pages. The guys working on the design did an amazing job and put in a tremendous number of hours gathering up all of the info, designing, etc., and my hat is off to them. I love the expansion features that are designed in, too: we’ll have a calendar so everyone’s events can go up in one place for all Killer Year visitors to see at a glance (everyone’s tours or signings or events of any stripe) and we’ll also have the ability to expand our author’s page to include press-worthy news (like reviews, etc.) and excerpts (woo!). So come on, pull the curtain back and see what’s new over there!

go see...

I blog over at Killer Year... the topic is "Why I blame my breasts for turning me to a life of crime / caper writing."

And I'm mostly blogging over at my new site: over here... see ya there!

busy

I'm not posting as much over the next couple of weeks because I'm running like crazy to do a bunch of things. I'm going to Houston to give a talk about "voice" and how to shape it. I've also just been invited by the Baton Rouge Chapter to do the same, which is extremely cool. Woo! I'm in the middle of casting and shooting something here locally (more on that when it's done). And, most important, working on book 2, which is so rocking, I am thrilled. I mean, it's not "easy" -- but it's extremely fun to come up with the twists and turns and characters and.. well, this is the cool part of writing: creating that world afresh, finding what makes the people tick, throwing up huge obstacles in their paths and seeing just how they climb over or around (if they do). It's the first draft, Playing God, not having the self-critic on my shoulder too terribly often. Real joy in the writing. (You know, except when I paint myself into a corner and then grouse for a few days until I figure it out. Then, it's annoying as hell.)

I still need to figure out what I want for a design for the website (the official one), and I'm not sure. The design my guy came up with was terrific and exactly what I asked for -- so it's not his fault. I changed my mind when several people (mostly guys) pointed out that they thought the design was more for a YA type of book, and since Bobbie Faye is so far from that, it hurts, I figured it would be best to rethink this. You know, with actual thoughts. Design type thoughts. Of which I've had exactly zero. I'd like something edgy, hip, and yet, still funny, that I can us for an author site, and then something that ties in with that for the official book site. Gah. Anyway, eventually, there will be an official site. I hope.

the script that just won't die

The bottom line to the story: a producer wants to option one of my scripts.

The preamble:

Before I sold the Bobbie Faye books (see description in left column), I was a screenwriter. In fact, that had been my focus for several years before making the switch to fiction. I probably would have never deviated from fiction into screenwriting if my university had not been so closed-minded about anything that was genre. As it was, if you wanted to write anything other than literary fiction, you were going to have a really difficult time getting any serious help or attention from the faculty, who all prided themselves on their literary publications. And, maybe, that was okay, because every program should probably have a focus (I say this with loads of hindsight) in order to be successful, and literary fiction was theirs. I love reading lit fic; in fact, I wrote in that vein for a while, but writing it didn't move me, didn't entertain me in the same way as the bolder stories of genre fiction did.

I had gone back to school when the kids were young; I had already published a lot in non-fiction (news features, magazine articles, mostly local/regional and a couple of national sales), but I wanted to get help in learning how to structure a big story. Novel length. However, through a series of events, I realized I wasn't going to really learn anything, in spite of making straight As, and I felt a world of frustration. I couldn't just pick up and go to another college. There was no internet as we know it today or blogs or links to writing sites. I didn't really understand how to dissect a novel from a writer's POV (instead of just a comparative literary study). There had to be some way to learn structure.

Then lo, there was an answer: screenwriting class. Whether you wanted to write a small, literary script or a big, honking action story, all were welcome. Screenwriting was a new subject for the university, and no one was quite jaded against it yet. (Later, there were many faculty complaints that the screenwriters kept winning all of the big awards and got the attention. Ahem.)

I thrived in that class. The internet was growing by leaps and bounds about the same time, and I discovered the fantastic (and I would say "master level" class-worthy) essays over on Wordplay. I took every one of the university classes they'd let me take, and then they invited me into the MFA program (again, another euphemism for much political bickering and my screenwriting professor and another mentor won). Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I landed an agent. (Another long story, but a big thanks to Tamar for the referral.)

The first script which went out was an action script, and I got tons of meetings. It came very close to selling to Warner Brothers, but they had already spent six million trying to repair a script on a very similar subject as my script, and they didn't want throw that one away, even though the producer said that mine already solved all of the problems they were having with the other one. So, strike one. Next, my agent wanted me to write a romantic comedy. The logic there was to show range to the producers, with the goal being to gain their confidence that I could do any type of story they needed, so that they would hire me on assignment. Assignment work is what runs Hollywood. Spec script sales (a spec script being one a writer creates and writes and then tries to get to an agent to sell) were dropping off. Most producers / studios preferred to come up with an idea (or buy the rights to a property), then get a bunch of screenwriters to pitch how they would execute that idea, and then they'd pick the one whose pitch they liked best and assign them the job. Assignment work is how many screenwriters manage to have long careers... many many scripts do not get made for a thousand different reasons. If all you had was one sale and all you were waiting on was one script to be produced so you could make the production bonus money (the money they paid you when the film was done), you'd go broke in Hollywood very very quickly. Every agent, therefore, tries to get their clients assignment work, but in order to do so, the producer has to be able to see samples of the writer's work: hence writing various types of stories to show a range.

I enjoyed writing the romantic comedy much more than I expected, and it went out wide (meaning lots of producers wanted to read it) and it went to the top of three studios and almost got purchased and then didn't because someone's stars were playing hooky, or Lord knows what, it's hard to tell, but at any rate, it didn't sell. Strike two. Ironically, I got way more meetings, ended up making a lot of long-term contacts who are supportive of my writing through today.

Fast forward through other scripts, which was a wash/rinse/repeat of the above, but all the while, someone, somewhere, would call me about the romantic comedy script. And then that someone would try hard to get it made. Again, and again, and again. We were on the verge of getting it made (it had been optioned), when Katrina hit and the company which was going to make the film ended up being gutted by the losses from the hurricane. I had, however, sold the Bobbie Faye books and was kinda in an, "eh, whatever" mood about the whole thing because really, I have had a tremendous amount of fortune, no need to expect more. When a close friend of mine called me last week to say she'd pitched the script to another production company which loved the concept and wanted to see it, I was still in the, "eh, whatever" mode. That producer happened to be in New Orleans making another film there (he's made eight films in New Orleans alone, so he seems to know the city / state pretty well). When I was on the way to New Orleans yesterday evening to meet said producer, I was still in an, "eh, whatever" frame of mind.

He seems to really love the script and he's serious. We talked about exactly what will happen next, who does what, option agreements, what I wanted, what all I brought to the table. In the previous process of trying to get the film made, I had managed to get some very nice things attached which would be a big deal, marketing wise. (Big as in international prominence. I'll say more later when it's a done deal.) Since I brought several fairly big things to the table, he agreed that I should get a producer's credit (and therefore, producer's money) as well as money for the script. What any of that will be remains to be seen. I'm cautiously optimistic. At this stage, I know he's moving forward. They are drawing up the agreements, which I will then send to a top entertainment attorney in L.A., and my "we'll see" attitude is due to the fact that I don't know what the specific amounts are yet, so I don't know if it's something I'll end up agreeing to. I have ballpark notions (because of the proposed budget).

Mostly, though, I liked his down-to-earth attitude, the fact that he has made a lot of films and has some really good connections, and I was very impressed by his tiny notes on the script. They were extremely smart. (I must be the luckiest freak on the planet to get a really cool editor with terrific notes and now this guy. You may think I'm just saying that because it's a blog, but seriously, I have been impressed.) I like that he wants to move this script up into his next slot and make it his next film. (He has one film in line to do before mine, and another one he was developing which would have been next.) I also like that my close friend would be a producer on this film. She deserves the break and she's an amazing friend and has always always always had my back, even to her own detriment sometimes. I want her to succeed, big time, so if this can do that for her? I will be extremely happy.

The thing about script options, though, which are vastly different from book sales is, the option may end up only being that. If they can't get the stars on board, or if they can't get the exact stars the distributor will approve or the money people will approve, or the right combination of stars, or any number of variables, then the script could be back-burnered until the option ran out and that would be the end. With a book sale, they are definitely publishing the book. It's way more relaxing and joyous for that sort of sale. At the same time, I am sort of bemused by the fact that this little script just won't seem to die. Every single time I have completely forgotten about it, someone else tries to make it. Maybe, just maybe, some good karma will head its way this time. We'll see.

on discipline...

Alison Gaylin cracked me up over on the First Offender blog this morning. When talking about her own discipline, she said:

"[W]hile I'm liking what I've done with it so far, I have pages and pages and pages to go before the first draft is done. And I seem to have the discipline of a second grade class set loose in Chuck E Cheese's with Ozzy Osbourne for a chaperone."

It's a great entry (and not just because she was answering my question!)... but it also points out just how much discipline best selling authors have. I would post about my mulling, surfing of websites, staring into space, but then, you know, my editor reads this, so just for the record, I am writing all of the time. Seriously. Every single minute. You know, when I'm not napping. But other than that? All of the time. (Well, except for checking blogs.) But other that that? Every single moment of every day. Well, except for the...

hmm. I think I'd better shut up now and get back to work.

brainstorming

So. Book 2. It's begun, and I'm pretty jazzed about it. I'm balancing between writing some stuff and still working out some details on the plot twists. This weekend, I had one of those epiphanies that you live for as a writer, a woohoo moment of ooooooh, and if I do that, then it makes all this other stuff mean this other thing and... hey, you. Wake up over there. This is the interesting part! Of writing! Well, maybe not to you.

Sorry about that.

I love the brainstorming part of writing, when a story is new and growing. Sometimes there are discoveries that are giant leaps forward and sometimes, there are little teeny nuances a writer discovers that deepen the meaning of everything around it. I love playing, "what if?" and then seeing where that trail leads.

My way of writing is a sort of mishmash. I tend to write reams of notes, thinking out the characters and what they want, what they need, why, what bothers them, upsets them, makes them happy... what the obstacles I'm about to place in front of them mean, what's at stake for them if they fail, etc. And I also tend to simultaneously start incorporating some of those what ifs, how they'll affect the character, what direction with they take the story, and so on. At some point, the structure of the story gels and I can start writing; I'll have a pretty good idea of where I'm going and the major turning points and twists and obstacles, but I'm also free(ish) to incorporate new discoveries along the way. Sometimes I'll have set something up without realizing it, and then suddenly, I'll have an epiphany about the way that set up could pay off, and I'll usually be floored at how well the set up worked... when I hadn't even planned it that way consciously. Overall, though, I have to have the general structure of the story and know (reasonably well) how it ends to know where I'm going with it. I chalk this up to a tradition of oral storytelling in my family -- it's a bit of a performance art, really, and you have to know where you're going so you know how to bring your audience along with you. (If that makes sense.)

So, I'd worked on book 2 quite a bit prior to getting the edits from my editor, and am back working on it, having a lot of fun, although this part of the writing process is the one where my family wants to say, "Yeah, sure you're writing while you're staring out the window eating chocolate." Hey, it is not my fault that staring and chocolate are required for brainstorming. It says so. You know, in the writer's manual. Which I had around here somewhere. It was on page 82, I think. And I'd be happy to show you... as soon as I put my hands on it... I think someone borrowed it. But I'm telling the truth. Would I lie to you?

staying original

In the comments on the "10 things" entry a couple of days ago, JScott said:

I envy people who can write and just seem to flow effortlessly across pages. I read anything I can get my hands on.. How does one keep from plagarizing due to reading SOOOO many books. How does one stay original? I imagine that it can be hard..

It's an extremely good point. If we read really good work which resonates with us as a writer, we want to dissect it, analyze it, learn from it, and figure out how whatever it was we admired could be put to use in our own writing. That is, frankly, how you learn to be a writer -- read very good work and learn from it. So how do you keep from plagairizing it?

Here are two mini examples. Each of these could easily be a whole book, so I'm just touching on the highlights here.

1) Characters

Character = story. Who your character is, what they need, what they want, what their obstacles are, what's at stake, what is painful for them, what makes them happy, how they grew up, who hurt them, who helped them, what they fear, what they're ashamed of, what they'll do under pressure, what is their core moral center... are all things which make your story unique. When you do the homework on the character, when you really know them, their choices (how they speak, how they act, how they choose, how they dress, etc.) will be unique to them. They're simply not going to do something identically to someone else in another book. Fill your story with well-developed characters that come from your own hard work, your own imagination and perception of their world, and you very likely won't inadvertently emulate another author.

2) Voice

When you're choosing the method of telling the story, you're going to have to choose the type of point of view you want to use, the tone, and the perspective. Every one of those choices will affect presentation of the matererial, particularly as the story is filtered through the character's eyes / thoughts. A rapper is not going to perceive the world the same way as a wealthy, elderly widow. A poor person is not going to comment or think or notice the same things in the same manner as a tycoon. A truck driver will have different life experiences that informs his perceptions from those of a pastry chef. When you've created a unique character and you've chosen the method of the story (first, third, omnipotent), your method will be used by the characters.

If you have, for example, two characters telling the story equally, then each section should have a voice -- a perspective of that person and their life. That will influence what they see in the world around them, what stands out as important imagery to comment on (if they do comment at all), what they think of the people and activities surrounding them.

And so on...

The question is, what drives the story for you? If you're creating, what do you find helps you find that unique story? If you start with plot first, what do you do to work out the voice, to give your own work that unique spin that you and only you could do?

BIC

In the comments section on the previous post, Lori Armstrong made the excellent point of how accomplishing anything as a writer really depends upon the writer putting Butt In Chair and working. There are tons of ways to procrastinate, and there are loads of ways to freak out about what your career will or won't be (yep, done that) and really, the only thing a writer can control is the practice they give to the act of writing.

My youngest son (bear with me) is having a really painful time right now coming to grips with the fact that he can't earn a couple of paychecks and then run out and buy the really cool motorcycle he's drooling over. I know that feeling. I want to have that instant gratification too, quite often. I want to hand in something and the world screech to a halt, startled by their joy at what I've written. (I don't have big dreams, no?) The world really doesn't work that way, and it's lucky for most of us that it doesn't. I'm glad a guy who wants to be a doctor can't just decide that as a senior in high school and run out and pick up a scapel. I'm really relieved that girl who wants to be an air traffic controller can't say, "Oooh, planes are cool!" when they're a junior in college and, after an all-night kegger, go get that job.

Some people get big headlines for having sold something, like the recent debacle involving Kaavya Viswanathan and the alleged plagiarism case buiding against her now. She got a $500,000 advance, and there are up to (and possibly more, I'm not sure) 29 passages in her book which are very very similar to that of Megan F. McCafferty's works. Instant gratification, like a sugar high, or a cocaine high, can have a price. You really can't say, "Oops, I read these when I was younger and accidentally worked 29 nearly identical passages into my own work and it is a complete mystery to me how that happened." Well, you can, but that's not only egotistical idiocy, it's a little disingenuous to proclaim yourself smart enough to get into Harvard and yet, too naive to realize that you've plagiarized when you have such identical passages. Using the "I'm a genius, I can't help but absorb so much it's hard to remember where it came from" excuse is pretty much bunk.

Accidentaly mimicry can happen. There are too many stories out there where two people came up with similar books or movies at about the same time and when they were published, one looked to be a copy of the other (depending on which came out first, usually). But, if true (and since she's apologized for it already and not denied it, I'm not sure how it could be anything other than true), the effort of copying here is pure greed. Wanting that instant gratification, wanting that acclaim, wanting that money, wanting that attention... is not what writing and work (anyone's work) is really about. If you're a genuine person -- in the sense that you care about being authentic -- then you care about what you do. Whether you're a nurse or a doctor, a contractor or a ditch digger, you try to do your best at what you do. You hope that one day, what you do will matter, will shine, and that somehow, people will notice (for we, most of us, are creatures of society and we want to be accepted, or even acclaimed, at least once or twice for our own accomplishments, I think). But if you co-opt the work of someone else and pretend it's yours, you're not only saying you have no respect for that person and the effort they put into their craft, you're saying you have no respect for the rest of us, to whom you are lying.

For me, the satisfaction is in the work. I like creating a world, building a place where people can go in their imaginations and feel like they have fully experienced that place, those characters, as if they were real. I like entertaining and keeping people glued to the story, seeing them have a moment of escape, a moment away from their lives as they enter that world. I like the hard work it takes to do these things, to build these worlds. I like that I have to push myself to continuously improve, to find better ways to express something, to find nuances to help build the characters into fully dimensional people. It's not easy. It is, occasionally, rapturous, when something goes really really well. I worked for a week on a small section of the book because I knew it wasn't quite working. It would have been easier to let a slighter effort pass because I had other stuff to do, and this was such a small section. But I knew it was important and I knew why: it set up mutliple character issues, emotions and a foundation for building of trust later in the story, and a sense of outrage when one character thinks the other has betrayed her. It's really a tiny moment, and I'm not even sure the reader will sense it when reading it. Yet, after wrestling with it for a few days, when it finally worked, when it finally just sang, I was elated. That, folks, is what's satisfying as a writer: to set a goal and then to know you've accomplished it.

Butt. In. Chair.

There is a second, equally important component to the BIC rule that many of us fail to disucss, partly because it's scary when you realize how much you're putting on the line with the choices you make... but the thing that will help keep your BIC is committment to the choice you make when you pick which story to tell. There is no one single story which is going to be all things to all people. There are stories which are serious, stories which are frivolous, stories which will wrench your heart out, stories which will make you laugh until you have to pee, and none of them could work if the author started doubting herself half-way through and worried that maybe the dark mystery would get more readers if she had some funny quips in there or maybe the humorous mystery would be better if it somehow touched on really deep, dark, important secrets (when none were originally set up).

There is nothing wrong with writing what you enjoy. Or what touches your heart. Or what captivates your curiositiy. It's perfectly Okay for other people to think that the only acceptable fiction is the kind which gets snooty awards. Whatever works for them, is fine. But if you put your butt in that chair and you start writing and you start second guessing yourself, trying to make your story all things to all people, something equally funny and sad, equally poignant and pithy, you're probably going to create mush (unless you're a stunning and amazing writer, and then we'll just cook you and eat you, so shut up). Most of us are going to learn, one book at a time. Hopefully, the first one the public sees will be so well polished, no one will see the growing pains that went into creating it. And believe me -- those growing pains are there, for every writer who really cares about their craft.

So, Butt In Chair. And No Fear.

10 Things I Know About Writing

10. You read.

9. You read a hella lot, in all sorts of genres. Quit whining.

8. You write. All. The. Damn. Time.

7. People read what you wrote. They hate it. They give advice. They usually tell you to get a job. Something not in writing.

6. You read a hella lot more to figure out where you can improve.

5. You're still writing. All. The. Damn. Time.

4. A few people sort of like some parts of what you wrote.

3. You repeat all of the above steps until you can substitute "few" in #4 with "most" and "sort of like" with "freaking love" and then you...

2. Keep writing.

1. You might sell. You might not. Odds are, people look at you weird when you say you're a writer, or they start telling you how they could be one, like, in an afternoon, if they just wanted to, and you try not to kill them (with witnesses around) and then you drink a lot and probably cry, and then you start to burn everything you've ever written and then this one piece, this one sentence, catches your eye and you start readng and you think, "You know, this is pretty good. I could do something with this." And so while they cart you off to jail or to the insane asylum, you start thinking just what you're going to do with your next story.

Don't Look Down

So Monday night, when I was stressing over the big screw up I'd managed to do with the deadline (previously mentioned), I was so freaking relieved to have a fun book to read to keep me from completely wigging. (I can be one with the stress, lemme tell you.)

I had been eagerly waiting for Don't Look Down, a Jennifer Cruisie and Bob Mayer collaboration, particularly after following their progress on their hilarious blog. (They have been blogging about both the good and the bad of collaborating and now, of their 40 city book tour, and every freaking blog entry has me cracking up. On one a couple of days ago, Bob had handed Jenny her apartment key, then hours later, forgot he'd done so and had her frantically help him look for a lost key -- and in that typical manly way, neglected to mention he thought he'd lost hers and let her assume she was helping him find his. When she finally realized what was going on, she reminded him he'd given her key to her earlier and he was so frustrated at the wasted time, he snapped, "Why didn't you tell me?" To which she replied, "Bob, you were there when you gave it to me... I assumed you knew.")

The book was a kick to read. It's a terrific blend of action, banter, great pacing, fun, well-drawn characters and loads of humor. It has Cruisie's humor (which I expected and love) and Bob's dry wit (which was great). It's being billed as a Romantic Adventure, which is a sort of experiment at coining a new genre term, and I hope it works, because its pacing and humor while keeping a mystery and action and tension throughout is similar to what the Bobbie Faye books will be. (See the "about" section, on the left.... except mine's very much action/adventure with a side order of crazy thrown in.) I particularly like the inside type of information Bob infused his J.T. Wilder with, the type of Green Beret POV that (usually) only a real Green Beret can bring to the game, and it made Wilder very interesting and not just a generic "good soldier" type. So if you want to laugh and enjoy a romp, go get it. You'll have fun.

(Note to Bob.... Ta Da. Now that's all of the talking points. I think. And there is no grim on book tours.)

The read last Sunday...

I meant to post this Monday, but then Monday I majorly screwed up a deadline for the construction company, which is just a dumb move, and by Tuesday morning, 8 a.m., it was fixed and all was completely okay, but man, I really hate doing something so blatently dumb. And it wasn't that I didn't know about the deadline, it was dumber than that: I looked straight at the little deadline notation last week, saw the date, looked at the calendar and somehow, in spite of all of that, decided that the third occurred on Thursday instead of Monday. Geez. I definitely need to be taking some of those memory whatsits.

So, meant to post about the read, got sidetracked into and then out of disaster, and now...

The read.

Was great. Really wonderful, actually. We probably had about thirty people? I'm not sure, something like that. Many of them were my friends and family, and I greatly appreciate them all coming out and, woo! buying the The New Orleans book. They were a great audience because I knew they were rooting for us to do well.

Crystal, the CRM at Barnes & Noble, had everything set up, had made announcements all week over the loudspeaker, had put a recording on their phone so that people calling in knew all week that we'd be there signing. We had others there not related to us (always a cool thing) who also bought books (yay). I think Crystal did a fantastic job getting it all set up and organized.

Dave Rutledge, one of the writers and publisher, intro'd us. Then Jette read from her terrific essay about old movie theaters in New Orleans. She had several laughs and much nodding of appreciation from the audience. I read next, and kept it very short, and people told me I did well, though I can never remember afterward. I sort of zone out. Then Sarah Inman read from hers and Ray (whose blog seems to be down right now) was our final reader, which is perfect, because Ray's piece is really funny.

We then signed books for everyone who bought them (and I love every single one of you who did that!) and then we signed the rest of the stock. We were each signing on our essay, and we got into a real groove and the rest of the stock disappeared quickly. By the time we were done, many of the people had cleared out.

(I was going to snag the signage, but forgot, and they had spelled my name wrong, which cracked me up. Never think for a minute you can keep much of an ego in this business. I went back the next day to buy a book and snag the signage, but it was already gone.)

What I loved about this event was the fun and calm I think we all felt; it was with friends and family and very well organized, which is great. Another huge plus was to see people wander over while we were reading... stay to listen... and then end up buying the book. That happened with several people, and that's extremely cool.

I hated not having more time to spend with the others from the book; we very likely won't be seeing each other any time soon. I may be able to attend the signing in Austin that Ray and Jette are organizing, but that so greatly depends on the work schedule. It was a little like watching the winding down of something amazing and important, although the book sales remain strong.

rocking the house

We had our panel at the Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans. I noticed on the site's schedule that we were going to be opposite Elizabeth Berg, which meant exactly two people might might show up at our panel. And knowing this ahead of time, with tremendous confidence, I should add, meant that I was completely relaxed. I was so relaxed, that when I noticed the slight wobble in the heel of my brand new, very favorite boots, the ones broken in just right that are so cute, yet, so comfortable, I thought, no problem... I'll just put a dab of super glue on there... and didn't realize a little had run down the side... and from the angle I was holding the boot, the glue pooled in the zipper... sealing it open and unwearable. Still, I was relaxed, so I switched to the strappy sandals (and five blisters later, I am rethinking that choice)... and yet, no stress. I was zen. Completely calm. I was so completely relaxed that when I passed up the correct exit on the interstate and ended up going over the stupid toll bridge and had to circle back around, I only came mildly unglued and did not spiral into any sort of hamonic motion of fear and doom. (Hey, we take the successes where we get them.)

So, found the place very easily, found a parking space without a lot of effort, and even accidentally managed to park very near where our talk was to be (though I hadn't realized that at the time). I had time to find the place, go around the corner and sit and relax, watching the artists out on the square, drinking a cold water, sitting under the ceiling fan of a little store.

The Cabildo was gorgeous, and beautiful inside, though there were some quirks... like the elevator that opened upstairs directly into the conference room (with no way for you to realize that the very loud sliding doors were going to interrupt the conference in progress.) I thought I would be doing a good thing to get there early, which meant I traisped right into someone else's panel (oops), but they were apparently used to it, since no one seemed to notice. That's kinda like not noticing the 747 landing in your living room, it was that loud.

Anyway, their panel ended, and their people left, and our panel was sort of hovering around the back of the room, getting to know one another better. It was so great to see Ray there, and of course, the terrific publishers/editors, brothers Bruce and Dave Rutledge, as well as fellow panelist Sarah and moderator (and contributor to the Do You Know book), Jason Berry. So we were all standing around, thinking that maybe we'd actually have ten or so people, since a few people were milling around, when the elevator kept disgorging clusters of festival goers, one right after the other.

We ended up with a nicely packed room. And I hadn't had a chance to get nervous, so it all just ended up... fun. Really really fun. I tried not to answer too often (but Jason asked some interesting questions), and everyone participated well and I think we made some points that resonated with the audience (there was applause! and laughter! and much nodding of the heads in agreement!). Lots of people came up and said incredibly nice things afterward. And a few people offered to do some really important things when the Bobbie Faye books come out. That was extremely cool.

So overall:

Toll bridge fee = $ 1.00
Loss of super glued favorite boots = $ 60.00
Rocking the house on my first stint as a panelist?

Priceless.

beating the Da Vinci Code

Okay, this may be the only time in my life a book I'm in beats the Da Vinci Code on the sales charts, but I'm stoked over it, nonetheless. (Yes, that is just for New Orleans. I'm still stoked.)

I am also really thrilled that the book has already sold out of its first printing, and that Borders has placed a nice big order (big in the world of the small press).

Several of us are going to be speaking on a panel at the Tennessee Williams Writer's Fest on Saturday, and we're having a book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Baton Rouge on Sunday, April 2nd, at 2 p.m.

Good things, all.

on editing

Over on The First Offender's Blog, Lori has been blogging about the editing process of a book and what each writer does. It's interesting to see so many different ways of achieving the same end result. Here's my response:

I love editing; I think it's my favorite part of the process because it feels like I'm taking raw clay and making it into something fun and useful and finished. (I hesitated to say "beautiful" because I write humorous action/capers.)

My process starts after I have two or three trusted readers' feedback. If there's a consensus about something being off, etc., I know where the major problems are. Since I come from screenwriting which had a fairly strict attitude about page count, I'm used to going through and cutting, which is what I'm doing right now for book 1. I go through the book and ask myself questions and mark the spots:

Does the pacing flag anywhere?

Is there consistency in a characters' actions / reactions? If not, is there a good reason why not?

Have I reached deeply enough into each character so that they're unique and not just an amalgamation of traits?

Do the stakes continually escalate? Is anything solved too easily?

Does everything flow logically? If I leave a question open somewhere, or a set up open, have I paid them off by the end? Is the pay off satisfactory?

Then I start looking at the smaller things... are my verbs the best choice? Am I giving the exact right visual detail? If I'm using a metaphor, does it feel original and/or organic to that character's POV? Is each character's dialog unique enough so that if you saw it on the page without signifiers, would you know who was speaking?

I also try to pay attention to word choice, looking for the specific choice which will make the text spring to life. While doing this, I try to find repetitive usages. (This apparently doesn't always work, as my editor discovered... there for about three chapters, everyone smirked. I'm not even fond of the word; I have no clue what happened.)

Finally, since I write humor, I constantly look at the humorous bits, dialog or action, and work to see if I can make it funnier. Sometimes the first or second choice will be amusing, but if you push for the unexpected (as long as it's still in character), it can make the reader laugh out loud. It's reaching for that unexpected which takes the most effort, because it must stay in character and work within the tone / events of the story.

What do you do? Do you work in layers? Do it all at once as you go? Or edit as you write the first draft and are pretty much done when you hit THE END?

the art of character development: shame

Ever read a book that didn't engage you? Of course you have. You didn't care what happened to the characters and you (very likely) put it down and possibly even mentioned to a few people how much you didn't like the book. Ever read one that absolutely held you riveted? Geez, I hope so, or I'm going to be depressed for a week.

The difference of being the latter type vs. the former is, of course, the characters -- how well developed they are, how unique, how they resonate off the page and with the reader. So what is the secret to doing this well? I think there is one angle into developing characters that I haven't seen anywhere else (yet, who knows?), and it's a simple thing.

Shame.

I'll get back to that in a moment.

When I first start writing about a character, I already have a sense of the type of person he or she is. This is born as much from the kind of person and the type of problems that personality would encounter as it does from the type of story I'm writing. For example, I'm not going to write an action / caper with a heroine who is passive. In that type of story, a passive heroine would require someone else to step in and do the saving, or at least do a majority of the saving, and frankly, the passive woman-in-jeopardy story isn't something I'm interested in writing. I wouldn't be interested in that character's growth because I'd have to spend so much time demonstrating her passivity when I'd be secretly wanting to smack her and make her stand up for herself. So for me, the type of character I'm going to write about is determined by the type of story I want to tell and the type of person I'm interested in watching go through obstacles and grow and learn and, ultimately, become. Become more of who their are, find their own strengths, weaknesses, make an effort to improve, etc. Most people don't radically change after the outcome of something major so much as they examine who they are and what they did wrong or right and they make some decisions. It's more of a continuum, not an abrupt change, and I'm interested in that art of becoming. That feeling of growing more comfortable in our own skin.

So, that said, story and character type help me narrow down a character's personality, but then I have to figure out the details to bring this character to life. The goal is to do it so richly, they become memorable. Becoming memorable in this cluttered world is hard as hell, so I can't rely on surface personality "traits" or "quirks" to accomplish that goal. Given that, there is a sort of checklist of things I look at to develop my characters which will help me get started:

What does the character need?
Want?
Does the "want" conflict with the "need?"
Character history (particularly as it pertains to need / want).
What is the character's goal in this story?
How does the goal amplify and / or conflict with either the "need" or the "want?"

Now, all of these things will get me a character, maybe even a great character. It helps me eliminate random traits and craft the character into a cohesive person. And sometimes, I'll get really inspired when I'm thinking of a character history and something will just click for me and I'll have my hook in how the character acts and talks and walks which makes them stand out. Even so, I go back to that emotion I first mentioned -- shame -- and I ask the character, "What have you done that you're ashamed of? What would you never, ever, admit to unless forced on pain of death?"

When you key into someone's self-inflicted shame, when you know what they've chosen to do which humiliates them and makes them hold that as a secret, as a thing against which much be guarded, as a potential for future damage, then you know your character.

Shame is a difficult emotion to peg. People get embarrassed at certain things, certain failures, of goofs or lapses or mistakes, but real DNA-rattling shame speaks to their core beliefs as to what kind of person they ought to be, what they see as their own potential and how they've betrayed that potential. That choice to betray something they believe in is an important insight to the contradictory nature that makes us human.

Sometimes, people will be ashamed at the strangest things which wouldn't bother someone else. Figuring out what someone would do that would create shame, something that they do in spite of being aware that they are creating a very bad emotion they'll have to endure, tells you their priorities and more about their secret desires and how they contradict what they'd like to believe about themselves. A man who thinks he's a moral person, yet, when he gets in a big financial bind, steals from his employer and is horrified at his own actions (and hides them), is someone who hasn't come to grips with the fact that maybe he's prioritizing "keeping up with the Joneses" much higher than what he thought of as his moral character. Will that make him cynical? Depressed? Sad? Will he over-compensate? Joke it off? Ignore it? Bluster? Fake not caring? That sort of personal conflict gives a writer a lot to work with and makes the character more memorable than simply describing a funny or dark "quirk." Quirks are easier to paste on, but they don't render a character as real or memorable.

Now the benefit to figuring out the shame of the character isn't necessarily to use it on the page or incorporate it into the book. It may not be necessary. If I know what a character is ashamed of, even if I'm writing something humorous, I know how that shame informs who they are and the choices they'll make -- from dialog to action.

True character is revealed by the choices a person makes when everything is going to hell. I think we often surprise ourselves by our own weaknesses and the things that can influence us when we thought we had more control or backbone or moral fortitude, and it's that sort of contradiction which can help a writer render a character memorable. One of the best writing exercises I was ever given... (wait... I digress... it's the only actual writing exercise I remember from four years of an English degree and then two for an MFA in Creative writing... that's sort of sad, I think)... anyway, the most memorable writing exercise was when a professor said we had to write a one to two page scene where the POV character was ashamed of something they were doing / were about to do, but we couldn't say they were ashamed or have them think that. In fact, they had to do the deed and through their actions and dialog, we had to show their goal to get the thing done and yet their own self-loathing at having done the thing without ever once allowing them to admit the shame. It was one of the hardest two pages I ever wrote, and the most illuminating. I highly recommend it as a tool to use if you ever need to figure out how to make a character spring to life.

notes

The part of the writing process that I think I have been most looking forward to, believe it or not, was getting the notes from my wonderful editor. I know that makes me weird, but I love the editing process. I love seeing how someone else has read the material, what resonated with them, what didn't, and why. Getting that sort of feedback teaches me more, faster, than any sort of coursework ever did, because it's personal to me, to what I've written, and it shows me how well I accomplished what I set out to do, and where I can improve.

And frankly, the goal is to always improve. I love this first book, and I'm happy with it. (A little tired of reading it, and sometimes that makes it hard to really focus on the page because I know it so well, already, that I can end up skimming over something I should be reading more critcially.) But as much as I love the first book, I feel like I've already learned a lot of things which are helping make the second book much better. I now have the chance to apply some of that back to book one as I go through the notes from the editor.

When I called my agent after receiving the notes, I think she was surprised by my excitement and enthusiasm. First of all, the notes are terrific. They're small, nuance sort of things, no major changes. Yet, they are very smart and elegant. My agent told me that a lot of first time novelists feel real despair when they first get notes back from an editor, because no matter how small the notes are, the fact that there are notes in or throughout their manuscript despresses them. Writers would love to write the perfect book and have everyone fall all over themselves proclaiming its perfection, of course, but that just isn't ever going to happen. I know a few writers who've had their editors tell them their book has zero notes (not even grammatical), and honestly, that would make me a nervous wreck. I know I am not a perfect writer, and I truly love love love the fact that I have someone in my corner who is very vested in making this the best book it can be. It's important to her, and I truly feel like she's got my back. I'd much rather know someone went through it and told me the honest truth and helped me make it better so that when it does get to reviewers, I can feel I am honestly giving them my best effort. (And I'm not writing all of this just because my wonderful editor reads the blog. Hi Nichole! I am truly that happy with the process.)

Part of my perspective about editing comes from my experience at having edited a small regional magazine for a year. I'd recruit writers occasionally from the MFA program at the local universities to try to raise our caliber of writing, and I'd get articles in which ended up needing way more work than I would have expected from that group of people. My goal was to make sure they didn't embarrass themselves or the magazine, and to do that, I had to edit them. The other reason I feel like I respond really well to notes is that I have lived through getting notes on screenplays for years. Notes on scripts tend to be brutal, because film is a collaborative medium, and everyone who reads wants to have some creative input. Like I said to my agent, "Notes on this book? A piece of cake. Notes on a script would have been, 'Yeah, we LOVE it, love it, love the girl, think she's amazing, truly, we love her. Can you make her a horse?'" I once got notes on a romantic comedy which were so brutal, I had people ask me if I had done something to the guy in a past life, and the really funny thing was, had I actually done the notes, it would have turned the romantic comedy into a very bloody thriller. That happens a lot in the script world (which is why so many movies have huge steaming plot holes or character flaws in them). Everyone has their own idea of what the film should ultimately be, and they want to steer it toward their vision. It routinely is notr about the quality of the actual writing... because audiences don't sit in the theater and look up at the screen and read the script. The script is a blueprint. And if you were building a house, you are going to want that blueprint tailored to your tastes. Happily, in the book world, it is very different, very respectful of the material. The point is the writing and the voice and I cannot say how happy I am that I made the switch. I couldn't fathom ever going back and writing scripts again.

There's another meta sort of reason, though, that I've been looking foward to getting the notes, and that is because it makes the publishing process more official and real to me. Sure, I've cashed the check and I have the contract, but since I'd sold the book based on a partial, and not the full manuscript, I spent several months after cashing said check just finishing the book. As a result, there was this whole lack of direct interaction with the publisher that made the process feel a little unreal. Now, though, I've got the tangible notes, I know what to do next, and it all feels very concrete and real and wonderful.

Expect a lot more writing-related entries for a while since that's my main focus. I'll still be writing the random observational posts on other topics, of course, both humorous and not, but the blog will probably lean heavily toward writing and publishing subjects.

little things I learned from my first read...

Tonight was the first reading of the New Orleans essay book, and now, several hours later and wide freaking awake at 4:30 a.m., I thought I'd record a few of the things I learned on the off chance they may be of help to someone.

1) It might help if you actually told people your name. Including last name. You may have to practice it a bit on the way to the read if you're a tiny bit nervous, but it's a really bad idea to have someone ask you your name and you stare at them with a blank expression as if this is some sort of pop question no one prepared you for and you're being graded by the most evil teacher in the world. Not that I did anything remotely like this. The first ten or so times I was asked. So, full name.

2) Remember how to spell your name when really warm and gracious people come up to you after your read and ask you to sign their book. It is probably a bad thing to look down at what you've written and realize you have completely wandered off track in the middle of your own maiden name and spelled it with some new foreign spelling which is guaranteed to have your dead ancestors knocking at your door in the middle of the night, promising to haunt your ass for being an idiot. So, spelling... kinda important.

3) Remember to say, "Thank you." It is never a good thing when people come up to you and say, "Wow, I really loved your essay," for you to be standing there, frozen in shock, thinking, "OHMYGOD, THEY LIKED IT! THEY LIKED IT!" while staring at them with a blank expression as if they haven't said a word. As loud as it is in your head, they can't hear you. Do something, anything. Grunt. Nod. Aim for a reply in English, but try not to just stand there like a mime.

4) Contrary to what you feel at the time, you will not actually spontaneously combust right there on the spot when you have to get up in front of people and read. There are no records of any writer ever spontaneously combusting. No, really. Never.

5) If you feel like a big idiot (for the inability to speak your name, the blank stares, the nerves), just remember: statistically, no matter how big this reading is, it's still a small number of people (unless you're Stephen King). No one is going to follow you home and put a big "Stupid lives here" banner across the front of your house for the world to see. I think. Let me check in the morning and get back to you on this one.

The publisher, Chin Music Press, was wonderfully represented by Bruce and David Rutledge and gifted designer Craig Mod. I did remember to tell Craig how beautiful I thought the book was; it's truly unique and I am very proud of the aesthetic. I remembered to thank Bruce -- who was just an amazing host -- but my brain completely failed me when I forgot not only to thank David, but I neglected to tell him how very powerful and well-written I thought his essay was. So David, please forgive an idiot too nervous to remember her own name: you totally rocked.*

I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting and hearing the other writers, and seeing the diversity that is so uniquely New Orleans. There is something about a read in a bar where it's almost standing room only, where food is a big part of the party (and many delicious dishes were scarfed up by an appreciative crowd), where there is laughter and drinking and story-telling and all ages gathered around a smoky room, dark paneling, old paintings fililng the walls, with photographs of many a group who've frequented the bar pinned around all of the doorways and archways... it's New Orleans. There just isn't any other place like it.

Ironically, I am not a shy person. At all. I have no problems talking (hush, Corey), and meeting new people and mingling and handling crowds. I'm actually very good at this! So it really surprised me how very tense I felt prior to the read. It all went really well (I am told -- I have almost no memory except for being sort of frozen, though my husband assures me I did okay). We guestimated that we ended up with a hundred or so people attending this tiny location in a ravaged part of New Orleans, so I was very pleased with the turnout. The proceeds from the donations made at the bar as well as $10 per book sold went to the charity "Rebuild Together" which is helping elderly and disabled people without means to be able to get back into their homes. This is so wonderful, I'm thrilled to have been a part of the event. I got to hear the fabulous Ray read his terrific and funny essay. He did such a fine job reading, too, totally cracked up the crowd several times. And he was much better with the whole "introducing yourself, say your name" thing. I need to take lessons. Finally, you just can't beat a night with lots of friendly faces, laughter and mingling.**

*(David not only introduced my read with really gracious words, but he made me feel a lot less nervous through the night and told me a couple of times afterward that he saw people tearing up during the read. I remember hearing it, but it honestly didn't register on my brain until I was on the way home that I don't think I responded much, if at all. Can I plead brain freeze? In addition to being an idiot?)

**(I'm told. I'm not entirely sure. I have this vague memory of a bar, lots of people, and standing on a staircase trying to read in a light so dim, braille would have been easier. I am just insanely proud that I didn't fall down the stairs. You have no idea how proud.)

first review of the New Orleans book...

I received my copy of the collection of essays, titled Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? I love this book; it's got such a wonderful blend of voices in it, of flavors, it has the feel of New Orleans, and it doesn't pull punches about all the things New Orleans was and is, good and bad.

And that link above? References a small quote by the Times Picayune who called it "an inspired riff on the Armstrong song." Very very cool.

Right now, there are readingd already being set up. We're going to be reading at the Saturn bar near the French Quarter on Feb. 16th. There's another read on March 16 in New Orleans, but I'm not sure if I can make that one. Then there's a panel at the Tennessee Williams Festival on April 1st at one o'clock, and I'm thrilled to be on that panel. The very next day, the Barnes & Noble here in Baton Rouge is hosting a big reading event for us at two o'clock. If you're in the area for any of these, I would dearly love it if you'd stop by and say hello!

And look!

Here's the Amazon link!

It says you have to preorder, but the books are printed and on their way. So this should be corrected soon.

figuring out what they're not telling you

If you've been querying or sending your work out and you're getting positive responses but you're not quite crossing that elusive sale line, it can be incredibly frustrating and debilitating. Sometimes, it's an issue of luck or timing, and there really isn't a helluvalot you can do about that. On the flip side, there are times as writers that we'll get encouragement and nice comments without really knowing what is making them say "no, not for me." In the course of a discussion on Backspace, someone asked, "How do you know what to fix when they don't tell you?" I had gone through a self-evaluation process before thIe book which just sold. It's not a "fix-all" sort of thing. Instead, it's just a way of looking at your own work and stepping outside what you've been seeing up to that point to analyze it. On the off-chance that it might be of help, I'm re-posting my answer here:

A much larger part [of the analysis process] was sitting down and disecting my own way of telling stories, pros and cons. Instead of listening to what readers were saying, I started to look at what they were not saying. The gist of what I was hearing was that they always loved my characters, loved the humor, loved the setting, but something about the way I told the stories wasn't working since they weren't selling, and no one could tell me why.

Believe me, I asked. Especially of those producers with whom I had a personal relationship.

Instead of assuming that it was all just subjective or luck, and in order to figure it out, I started giving my writing to people and asked them to list the positive feedback they'd give me, and then I'd look at those things and say, "What's missing? What am I not seeing on this list?" This is an odd sort of way of going about this, I know, but the critiques I was getting weren't pointing out the "gestalt" -- the overall problem.

(I started doing this sort of analysis with my screenwriting, and when it worked, I transferred what I'd learned to my fiction. The relative shortness of a script as compared to a manuscript may have given me an advantage because it was easier to see it as a "whole" when trying to break it down. )

With that in mind...

So... what was not being said?

The one thing that popped in my head that I noticed wasn't said (or if it was, it was only occasional), was, "I couldn't put it down." That whole "couldn't stop reading" aspect is critical, especially if you want to maintain an exec's attention (in the screenwriting world) or an agent's attention (either world).

Now here's the kicker -- people would say how much they loved the read, how immersed they were in the characters, so you'd think these were the same things, but they're not. And it took me a little while to realize that.

Second thing that happened is pretty notorious in the screenwriting world-- you get killed by encouragement. But when you try to get to the heart of why they're not buying, they'll use vague terms. They're not doing this to be mean, but because they aren't writers and they have no clue how to explain to you that there's something not working. So they've come up with a sort of shorthand which sounds like they're telling you something, when in fact, they're basically saying, "I don't know jack, I just know I can't buy it and I can't put my finger on why.

So one of the things I had heard was that they loved the scripts (the romantic comedies), but they were "soft." What the hell is soft? It's a romantic comedy. If it was 'hard,' it would be porn. How is 'soft' a definition for writing?

I'd ask my then-screenwriting-agent, who would be just as confused. We would try to get more specifics out of them but the execs didn't think "soft" was a bad thing per se...and since they were in the middle of telling me all of the good stuff, it was easy to set that aside as a vague excuse.

Until one day, I finally realized what they weren't saying.

They weren't saying "I couldn't put it down."

I'd get stuff like, "I love reading your scripts, I will always give your agent a read overnight for your stuff," and "Your characters and your worlds are so original, and I laughed all through it, so it's funny!" Which is great! But no one was saying, "Ohmygod, I had to pee and I refused to get up to go to the bathroom because I had to see what happened next and now I have to buy a new leather chair, damn you."

That is critical. You have to write in such a way as to get to feel a freakishly urgent sense of needing to finish the read, which is what translates into them being compelled to convince their bosses to spend the money.

A lot of other writers and people in the business were trying to guess what "soft" meant at the time (since this was a fairly common excuse floating around), and one fairly common opinion was that it was the opposite of edgy. Well, not everything can be edgy, so that wasn't really working as a definition. Then one day I put the two things together and I realized what 'soft' meant: it meant that there wasn't enough forward motion in the story to actively compel the reader to keep reading, regardless of all else.

'Soft' is the opposite of 'crisp' and 'urgent.'

How did that apply to me?

This is where it got tricky. I went through my stories and on the surface, it seemed like I was already doing what needed to be done.

interesting characters...........check
clear goals............................ check
obstacles.............................. check

So, hmmm. That looks like everything I need. What the hell is up with that? Then I looked more closely at story structure, which is when I realized: a lot of what is motivating the characters isn't revealed until sometime later in the story. And some of these were pretty important reasons for being motivated, but they were buried deeper.

The problem with writing so "indirectly" is that for the first part of the story, the reader has to take it on faith that you're going to eventually supply them with the motivation and what's at stake for the main character. I managed to dance fast enough to keep them interested, but I am certain that when they put my stuff down and had to go explain to their boss, they weren't able to sum up the character very easily, or what the character wanted / needed or why. I definitely had reasons all along the story trajectory as to why the character was doing what they were doing, and the reader could deduce some of the motivations, but at the same time, I blocked the reader from getting too much information because I wanted to reveal more about them later. My assumption had been that this sort of structure made the story deeper, more thought provoking, creating a greater impact. That delay can work, but it also renders a lot of your story as appearing to be re-active instead of active: it doesn't look so much like the character is forging forward as they are simply reacting to what's happening, and that can make the story feel passive and less immediate.

Complex characters can make for excellent writing, but you have to do one very simple thing to pull them off: give the reader at least a surface motivation as to why they're doing what they're doing. Why they must have whatever it is they're going after in the story. Even if you want to deepen that later or turn it in on itself and twist it to surprise your reader by making the character more complex, you still need to keep the reader invested in the story, and they have a hard time staying invested if they don't know what's at stake or why it's critical to the character.

So the new list:

interesting characters.......check
clear goals........................ check
motivation..........................check
obstacles.......................... check

Then I looked at the "obstacles" and analyzed my writing, and I realized that not only did I have to make those obstacles incrementally tougher, they had to matter so much and the character had to keep failing.

Terry Rossio, over on his Wordplayer (highly, highly recommended reading) used Indiana Jones as an example...

Indy is this great archeologist / hero, able to go into difficult areas and retrieve these priceless artifacts, and when he's going after the ARK, he keeps failing. When it looks like he's about to succeed, there's another twist and he's not only failed, he's in a bit of a worse situation than he was when he started. And now he's got to brainstorm his way out of that.

Someone once said to me: character is shown by the choices we make when things aren't going well.

A person may talk the talk of a pacifist, for example, but when confronted with a situation, realize that they would resort to violence to save someone they loved... so their character is not a pacifist after all (something they may have difficulty dealing with in the story.)

When you make sure that your stakes are escalating and that your character has to keep dealing with these problems, and the problems are getting worse, then you've got the chance to show what this person is really like -- good and bad -- which, along with the stakes, renders the story a 'page turner.'

So I looked at my scripts and realized I wasn't applying that sort of tension. (This can, honestly, apply to literary fiction as well. The stakes are more intimate, more personal, but they have to keep increasing and keep mattering to the character.)

Once I realized these things, I looked around for the kind of story that resonated with me, the kind of character I just could not put down. I looked for a way to tell this story without sacrificing voice or style, a way to immerse the reader immediately and have them hanging on, turning the page to see what happens next. When I started getting that "I couldn't put it down" reaction consistently, I knew I had stepped onto a higher level playing field. (There are always higher levels, no matter where we are, where we've started.)

These things which applied to me may not apply to you. You have to really look at what is being said, make a list of the positives and the negatives, and then start looking at what's missing. Most people are not Simon Cowell (American Idol) and aren't going to tell you the brutal truth, even if they're thinking it. They're going to sugarcoat. But I think by looking at what is consistently not said, you may be able to dig up some useful truth.

If you're getting the "I couldn't put it down" sort of responses from just about everyone reading but it hasn't crossed that elusive "sold" line, remember that a big part of what we do is sales, and not every buyer is looking for exactly what we have. That's the frustrating part about the business, but it doesn't mean you're not on track with your writing (if you're getting the great responses)... it's just a matter of right person and right time.

Most writers know this, but it doesn't hurt to say it again: try thinking about it like you would your own personal shopping preferences. You're shopping for that perfect little black dress to go to a party and I hand you some fabulous jeans. You may love the jeans, but your budget is such that you can only buy one thing, so you're going to pass up those jeans and keep looking for that little black dress. Now, you'll be looking in the dress section, and you may see a blue one that works or a red one that surprises you how much it works, but it's still not the jeans. Editors, I feel, are in the same boat. They know what they are looking for in a general sort of way. The trick, then, is to either luck up and find one "jean" shopping at the right moment or make the jeans so absolutely stunning that they toss the idea of a little black dress and decide to buck the system and go with the jeans they fell in love with.

But, if you, yourself, are shopping, and you absolutely must have that dress... you're going to keep going from store to store to store until you find the right one in the right size. Well, the editors can't come to you, so you have to keep sending your stuff in until you find the right person at the right time. If you're getting the "I couldn't put it down" response from your own personal set of readers or critique partners, then it is more a matter of timing and luck in finding the right person. Luck won't do you any good, though, if the writing isn't ready.

Persistence is everything.

and all the people crowded around

PJ Parish has a terrific blog entry about how characters can waltz into a scene unannounced and unexpected and end up being pivotal to the story. It's a little freaky when that happens, though, because it feels very much like they simply showed up, except that you are aware, as an author, that you created them on some level. Only you weren't aware you were doing so, really. They stand there in their frumpy blue dress and pill box hat and white gloves which are so out of step with the times, and you wonder where on earth they came from and why are they showing up in the middle of this action scene, and why is it that you care that it's a 70 year-old woman buying a semi-automatic Glock? Nothing good can come from her actions, and you know it, and you know your main character knows it, and somehow, somewhere, Maimee Parsons (for that is her name, she introduced herself, thank you very much)... yes, Maimee Parsons is going to affect the story in a way that isn't terribly clear right now. She's talking, though, and making demands, and she's a minor character (though she doesn't know that, she thinks this is her story), and you sort of nod benevolently and agree to write about the times she shows up in your main character's story, but you know she thinks that's fine for now, but she'll wrangle more attention from you later once she has you hooked. It's all very very weird, and it happens in my head (I think)(right? it's not real, right?), and you try to explain this process to non-writing friends or family and they look at you just a tad more worried than they normally do, like they may spend the afternoon hiding sharp objects.

(Did you ever maybe wonder if all of those psychotics hearing voices in their heads are really just frustrated writers?)

I'm not sure what damage Maimee is up to, but it'll be fun to find out.

writing process

It's been a lot of fun reading the He Wrote / She Wrote blog by Jennifer Cruisie and Bob Mayer as they collaborate on their next novel. I am continuously amazed at how my style of writing seems to be down the middle between what they each do. (And since I really love Cruisie's work and Bob is becoming a favorite as well, it makes sense, I suppose, that their styles are similar to mine.)

Bob likes to outline; he's very linear, very action oriented. Jenny likes to meander around the character for a while, trying to get to know them, figure out their internal stories first, then the external. I end up doing an amalgamation of both. (I'm a Gemini. Maybe that explains it. Or maybe I'm just weird.)

I think I sort of drive my husband nuts for a while during the initial process of the book, though. I'll tell him I have the story, not to worry. (Because he worries. A lot. This whole book a year for three years thing is great, he's excited, but it also makes him very nervous.) So I reassure him, that of course I have it figured out. Then I'll start to pick his brain about south Louisiana locations. Carl's been in places few people from here have even seen, much less been in, and he's got an artist's eye for details and an amazingly good memory for characters (people he's met and their unique personalities). Carl is my secret weapon when I'm first putting together the direction a book will go because I couldn't get some of the stuff he already knows from pure research as quickly as I can just sit down and bug him. He doesn't mind (I think he enjoys it), but the phase I'm in at this point when I'm asking him the questions is not the linear phase... it's the meandering around getting to know the people and places phase, the Jenny phase, the blank stare when Carl asks me a simple question phase.

"You have how long to turn in this book?" he'll ask, and I'm pretty sure his blood pressure ratcheted up a few points.

I think he's a whole lot grayer than he was at this time last year. oops.

Me? It doesn't bother. This is how I work. I've got a sort of rudimentary linear outline. I know that in the beginning (page 1, literally), an event happens which is going to send Bobbie Faye carreening around trying to solve a pretty big problem with some pretty big ramifications if she doesn't solve them. I know some of the twists, some of the things which will escalate the problem into a much bigger and more personal problem. I've gotten to know the characters pretty well through writing pages and pages (two five-subject notebooks' worth for book 2) on just character detail: their emotional journey, why they do what they do, what they want, what they don't want, how this affects the others, etc. I'm pretty settled on how I'll do that first few pages so that readers who aren't familiar with Bobbie Faye from book one will know her pretty well without having to go backward and read the book. I'll spend the next couple of weeks working out more of the later details while I start the writing of the chapters.

The fun part -- and the scary part -- is that I don't try to figure out every detail of the story as I go. I keep a list of things that I need to figure out, questions I've set up that I need to answer, (both plot-wise and character-wise). And by list, I mean, I tend to remember them and then toward the end of the book, make massive notes in frantic red print all over the notebooks making sure I don't forget to tie up the loose ends.

Still, there are discoveries along the way which are a blast and surprise me. I won't know where they come from or why, but something about a particular character will present itself, and I'll realize it takes the character in a much better direction than I would have predicted. Or certain aspects of a location will present itself as an opportunity to do something better than I'd planned. Or I'll realize something about a character due to having grown with him or her throughout the story and I'll weave backward to set up that better.

(One hopes.)

New York trip

I returned from New York this week, having loved just about every minute of it. It was an extremely fast trip, with zero time to see anyone save the agent, editor and Tamar, with whom I spent one night. To my friends, like Kymm, who I very much wanted to see but didn't even e-mail, my apologies -- it was just that fast of a trip with no spare time built in.

The point of the trip was to meet the agent and editor in person (and discover to my complete non-surprise that they were as wonderful in person as they've both been on the phone) (and pretty!), and to discuss the editor's response to the book, any notes, and marketing strategies / ideas, etc. Of course, I was elated that the editor had read and loved the book. We discussed a few note-like things, in a sort of broadstroke way, and honestly, all of the notes are small, very do-able. In fact, two or three were things I'd realized I'd wanted to do anyway, so I'm pretty jazzed that we are not only thinking alike, but that her notes resonate with me so well. Plus, my agent had several brilliant suggestions that will make the polishing even easier. This also means the work I'd begun on book two can contunue as planned, since I don't have to rethink anything major. The actual written notes won't be ready until around Valentine's, though, so I'm back to focusing on book two, writing-wise, for now.

There were many things discussed about marketing, but it's premature to put them here. I'll be going back in the fall, though, which is very cool. The pub date is set at May 1, 2007. The reason for the distance from submission is twofold: one, unless you're famous already and/or there's some sort of reason to rush your book to press, the average is one year to eighteen months from submission of the manuscript until you've got a book in your hands. This gives the editor time to edit you, revisions to be done, then copyediting, then proofing of galleys, then Advanced Reading Copies to be printed and sent out with blurb requests and sent out for reviews, and time must lapse for those people to get a chance to read and do the blurb or review (if you're lucky and they do them). Our second reason for settig the pub date at May 1, 2007 is because it coincides with a particular festival here which is the background for my book (more on that later). The publisher wants to tie the launch of the book in with the opening of the festival, and maybe we'll have some sort of book signing there. If that can be arranged.

It was a little bit weird to me to fly to New York alone. I've been traveling to L.A. now for years, and while the first time was a bit scary due to the size of the city, the fact that I could drive around to navigate made it all seem relatively normal. Also, the architecture in L.A. is ironically very similar to that in Baton Rouge -- they are both heavy on the Spanish influence, transitioning into the Victorian and Colonial and Craftsman eras in much the same way in their neighborhoods as Baton Rouge did. New York, however, as everyone well knows, has subways. Baton Rouge does not have subways. We very rarely have anything underground except lots and lots of water, so the idea of walking down into a catacomb-like structure, sort of trapped under there by the turnstiles, getting on these subway trains and zooming underneath a city... well, it's just a little weird. My agent bought me a Metrocard, which promptly refused to scan. I flunked scanning! Children can scan a Metrocard, but not moi. Something like seven or eight times I tried to scan my Metrocard and couldn't, to the point where she had to come back through the turnstile, scan my card for me, and then go back through herself.

I felt like I should be wearing a giant "I am Southern fried and confused" neon sign above my head.

Yes, this is the person you want to give an advance to and trust she has a clue.

At any rate, I loved the convenience of the subway once I got acclimated, though the numbers for the stops whizzed past so quickly, it was a little difficult to know where the hell I was. I can imagine that day when I'm supposed to navigate the stops by myself or, God forbid, change from one line to the next to cut across town... I will probably bug everyone within hearing distance to help me.

Which is what I did when I took the bus out to Montclaire.

Everyone getting on that bus figured out within three nanoseconds that I didn't know what to do or where exactly my stop was, so three or four of them volunteered information (from descriptions of the routes, to telling me which stop mine would be after they got off), and one woman kept bugging the driver to be sure to let me know which stop was mine. I'm pretty sure that as often as she shouted, "Sir? Sir? Is this her stop? Because she doesn't know which one is her stop. Could you let her know, Sir?" the man would have gotten up and tossed me off the bus at my stop just to make sure I was gone.

Overall, I found New Yorkers extremely friendly. Not something you'd expect to find given the sterotype portrayed on TV and in films, but true for my experience.

The main thing about the trip was how the city juxtaposed itself to what I had seen and heard and known from countless TV shows and film imagery. Walking down a subway entrance was simultaneously new and a first for me and yet, old hat, because I'd seen it on hundreds of Law and Order shows and the like. Seeing the subways whoosh by was normal and expected, the imagery merging with that memory in my mind of having seen it before, only I hadn't, not really, not this way, not in person with the roar of the trains being so loud, you can't really hear what anyone next to you is saying and you can feel the platform rumbling, hear the rattle of the trains against the tracks, feel the air against your face. From standing in awe at the enormity of Times Square, seeing the overhead neon signs and giant screens and the utter competition between buildings to out-technologically shine over everyone else, to see the throng of people everywhere, to the wonderful little Italian restaurant in SoHo with its checkered tablecloths, jukebox, old world tin ceiling painted green and polished wood bar, where the food was utterly excellent, it was all both familiar and strange, a bit like falling down the rabbit hole.

I am very much looking forward to going back. The next time, I hope Carl can come and we can make a vacation out of the trip as well, because there are hundreds of things I would have liked to have seen and I know he would enjoy it as well.

For now, off to work. I'm finishing up outlining Book Two. I haven't done anything nearly so fancy as Diana has done for plotting, although I considered it. I have the board, I have the notes, I got started and then the trip interrupted it. I have written reams and reams on the story in my own way of outlining, but it's not a system anyone else could follow, as it's more my way of devling into character and plot simultaneously. Of course, if I get stuck, I will be coming back to this system Diana's mentioned here and giving it a go, because it looks like it could take some of the guesswork out of the fear of whether a story line is working and is being threaded through well enough.

More later...

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

If you remember, I mentioned a little while back that I'd been asked to contribute an essay about New Orleans and Katrina for a book. Well, the amazing publisher, Chin Music Press, is now going to donate all of the profits of all of the books which are pre-ordered through January 6, 2006, to relief efforts in New Orleans.

How amazing is that?

Go here to see their offer and lots of information about the book.

Go here to read the blog which updates you on the process and progress.

I am flattered to be included with such talented writers as Colleen, Jette, and Ray.

Right now in New Orleans and the Chalmette areas, they are bulldozing blocks and blocks and blocks of homes. Acres of homes. Gone. Eighteen wheelers are pulling up to piles of debris stacked up by bulldozers -- debris which used to be a home. Backhoes then lift the home and the personal items and the memories and drop it into the truck. And as the truck pulls away, the bulldozer moves on to the house next door. To begin bulldozing again.

There are stories still coming out of here which break our hearts. There is talk of raising money for Habitat homes for displaced musicians, to try to bring some of the lost culture back to New Orleans so that it won't disappear forever into some oblivion.

I love that this publisher is so awesome that they're trying to help, and trying to do so in a big big way. They're donating all of the pre-order profits. When is the last time you heard of a publisher doing something like that? I hope you'll support them. Please pass along their link to anyone you know who might love a book that is beautifully designed and has some fine writing (and even let me in).

Meanwhile, 100% of my fee will go to Katrina relief as well. I hope to help promote their efforts because really, this is something I can give, some small way to hold onto a piece of New Orleans.

tagged (15 things about books)

Pooks tagged me for a book meme, where the point is to write fifteen things about books. I like this topic. (Imagine that.)

So...

1) My love of reading started very early. I'm not sure if it was because my mom and dad were voracious readers and I always saw them reading, or if it was because I just loved being in a different world than the one I lived in and would have gravitated to books or a sanitarium at some point, anyway. My aunt brought boxes and boxes of books to our house whenever she was finished with them and I'd squirrel off a box or two in my bedroom and be in heaven. I loved going to the library when we were kids and if my memory's correct, I'd check out the maximum I was allowed every time. I love libraries, but suck at returning things on time, so end up buying instead now.

2) I'd stay up and read all night when I was in junior high / high school. My dad routinely had to get up at 2:30 in the morning to go to work. I'd hear his alarm, turn off my light, wait for him to get dressed and leave (because I wasn't supposed to be up so late reading since I had to get up at 6:30 in the morning for school). I'd listen for him to leave, waiting until I heard the whine of the truck engine make the corner and pass out of range (in case he looked back in his rearview mirror, he might be able to see the glow from my room) and then I'd read at least another couple of hours until 4:30. I'm sure most of my high school thought of me as tense, or not terribly friendly and the truth was, I was incredibly sleep deprived. But I still read all night through whenever something grabs me, no matter what I have to do the next day.

3) I think a bookstore is my idea of heaven. I love the thrill of walking in there and seeing so many stories from which to choose. I love the smell of new books, the virgin feel of a text which hasn't been opened yet.

4) It never really occurred to me to just read one genre; I read pretty much everything (except horror). Overdosed on southern fiction and literary fiction for a while there in college, but do love it, still, alongside thrillers and capers and mysteries and... er. I may have a problem.

5) I ended up with a creative writing degree and pursued an MFA. I stopped 6 hours short of the MFA in screenwriting due to the fact that I'd signed with an L.A. agent and had to get another script done (and didn't have time for the two French classes I'd have had to take to graduate.) Seemed a moot point at that time.

6) When given a choice between books and jewelry for Christmas or my birthday, jewelry never even got a consideration. In fact, lots of things completely lost out if I had to choose between them and books.

7) My favorite birthday / vacation idea is a week of no obligations, non-stop read-a-thon.

8) I have a lot of books on my TBR pile, perfect for the rare events like #7.

9) There are too many times I'll end up tossing a book after just a few chapters. I'll give one a chance for that long, but if at that point, I'm not hooked, it just ain't gonna happen. I have too many more on the pile to be read and like Nancy said, life's too short when there really are so many great books out there.

10) I have read many classics (partly as a result of the English degree and the MFA), but constantly hear about so many more I feel like I "ought" to read.

11) Even so, if I have the time to read and there's a current page-turner sitting there vs. an age-old classic that's supposed to be "good" for me to read, I'll hit the page turner every time. I want to be entertained, to escape, to live vicariously.

12) There are a few books I pull out and re-read every year. They're not important books, and they may not have even been a best-seller, but they meant a lot to me at a particular time in my life and re-reading them not only reminds me of where I was, but how far I've come from that point. I think books saved my life, many times over, because I could read about something and start to understand a bit of the world that seemed chaotic to me, or I could find someone who was going through something similar and not feel like I was alone, a complete freak. (Notice that I am not hoping that I'm not a complete freak. I just like knowing I'm not the only one.)

13) One of my prized possessions is a first edition Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time.

14) I didn't read many normal children's classics until I had kids of my own. I read whatever my mom and dad had around (everything from Agatha Christie to Louis L'Amour to whatever the latest bestseller was).

15) Logic flaws will drive me to throw a book at the wall. Especially when there's a clear way to have solved it, if the writer had thought outside the box a bit. It's probably my biggest pet peeve, and a big flaw will make me not want to read that writer again.

Well, hmmm. Fifteen doesn't feel like enough, but I'll stop there and tag Diane, Tamar, and Gwenda.

how do you spell relief?

You spell it: m y a g e n t l o v e d t h e b o o k.

I cannot express how relieved I was. And I know some of my friends are still reading and are going to have notes and I want those notes; I know handing people a big book to both read and critique over a major family holiday means that most people just are not going to be able to do it. I love them for trying, I know several are still reading and seriously? They rock, so no worries about time frame here. (I have the coolest friends.) I am going to still get notes from the editor and I will of course be working hard to keep taking the book up to the best level I possibly can manage, so comments from my regular readers will be much appreciated and utilized. But the fact that the agent read over the busy Thanksgiving weekend, in spite of all of the various events she had to attend, and still called first thing Monday morning (I'm late in posting this)... well, I think my agent hung the moon.

Also, special thanks goes to Tamar for reading over her busy weekend / trip to Boston and getting wonderful comments back to me Sunday night so that my head didn't completely spin off my body from anxiety.

Tamar had previously sent me this blog excerpt from the extremely funny romance writer, Jennifer Cruisie (whose books I think are hysterical and fun). Apparently Jenny Cruisie and Patricia Gaffney have been long-time friends and critiquing partners, and here's Jenny's comments about critiquing something of Patricia's:

But even worse was the time she asked me for help on a manuscript. I feel strongly that the only helpful feedback is honest feedback, but sometimes I am less than tactful, so after I e-mailed her my response, I got an e-mail back from her husband, Jon: Pat had read my critique and died. For the next week I got e-mails from Jon regularly about how devastated he was at his loss, about how all Pat’s friends were calling (“They forgive you”), about how beautiful she was going to look all laid out in her wedding dress (purple chiffon, which I think tells you all you need to know about Patricia Gaffney). And you know, there’s just no way to respond to that; even in death, she had me. Then came the last one. They’d been playing Pat’s favorite song, EmmyLou Harris’s “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down,” at the funeral, and Pat had sat straight up in her coffin and said, “Where am I and why the hell am I wearing all this goddamn purple chiffon?” It was a miracle, Jon said. So I told him I could never critique her again because of the danger to her health. And what happens? She sends me the first two hundred pages of her latest work in progress, Mad Dash, and asks for feedback. And I tell her the truth: It’s fantastic. But even if it wasn’t fantastic, I’d tell her that because, frankly, I don’t need to hear about that damn purple chiffon again.

I cracked up. (And don't think I didn't send Tamar a "Toni died" e-mail from Carl as soon as I got her critique.)

I'm making final little nitpicky edits, and then it will soon go to the editor. Any additional notes I get from friends will be incorporated into the next round. (Have I emphasized enough yet that I still want those notes? hmmmmmmmmmmmm? Should I say it a couple more times? Yes, I'm talking to you.) (heh)

But right now? I am just tremendously relieved.

writing links #2

Once again, links to terrific writing articles by other authors on the web:

Barry Eisler's column on "10 Points on Craft" is one of the best / most succinct writing lessons around. Heed the man's advice; he's an amazing writer.

Martha O'Connor has great advice in her essay, "The Devil is in the Details." Short article, but very good point.

Another excellent article on that same topic to be found at Flogging The Quill.

If you've got way too many subplots spinning around or you just want to figure out a way to analyze whether or not they're working for or against you, read Deanna Carlyle's article " Deanna’s Secret Trick for Dovetailing Subplots." I tend to do this a differently -- a future post.

And last, but not least, Kay Hooper has a very good primer at that link for writers (submission standards, etc.)

If you're a writer and you've got an entry / essay / post that would be of interest, send me an e-mail (see sidebar) and I'll check it out for possible inclusion in a future round-up.

dancin' the Snoopy dance over here

It's done. It's done done done done DONE done DONE. It's officially in the hands of the agent and various friends who are reading it this weekend. (Do I have amazing friends, or WHAT? I mean, seriously. Thanksgiving weekend? Tons of extra stuff to do because of all of the family obligations, and these people are taking time out of their lives to give me a read? I am so very fortunate.)

Of course, it's only DONE until the agent and the various friends give me notes, after which I will see what resonates and then execute prior to sending it off to the editor. Who will then give me notes and...

:::::::la la la la la la la::::: :::::::ignoring whole process of editing::::::

I'm going to pretend it's done. At least for a couple of days.

writing links

I'm short on time, and this is a feature I'd like to repeat weekly... giving you links to some great writing topics.

For an agent's POV, you really must read Miss Snark's blog. Lots of helpful answers, very smart, likeable and funny.

The writing team, PJ Parrish, brings you a funny entry in Cabbages and Kings on writing about sex scenes, particularly in non-romantic tomes.

Tess Gerritsen has several great entries. I love Tess's blog -- check out the entry on 9/28/05 (there are no individual links to entries) on writing the f-word, as well as the entry on 11/07/05 on how much a writer is worth.

MJ Rose writes about shooting oneself in the foot with your in-house publicist, aka, being an idiot. MJ's blog is always chock full of great marketing and writing information.

JA Konrath talks about what he's learned so far.

Colleen Mondor talks about the book we both have an essay in, (along with Jette and Ray). I'll be posting more about this next week as well.

Rob Gregory Browne has a terrific blog with writing advice which is always dead on. That particular entry is very helpful for pacing issues.

And if you're a screenwriter or if you want to read a very funny screenwriting blog, go read Josh Friedman. Josh has a lot of credits under his belt, he knows whereof he speaks, he's completely irreverent and snarky as hell. He hasn't been blogging long and it's really worth it to start at the beginning (which was August, I think) and read through in order. No drinks in front of the keyboard when you're reading, and I'm not responsible for you laughing 'til you embarrass yourself in front of friends at work.

I may keep doing this weekly if there's interest.

The Wheelman

I needed a break the other night, and thought I'd grab a book. I had heard really good things about The Wheelman, which is usually a bad thing, because it's difficult for a book to live up to much hype. I picked it up anyway, knowing I didn't have much time to take a break and I thought, "I'll read a chapter, that'll be it," and I'd go back to work.

I read the whole thing right then. Very well-told, fast-paced, fascinating world and characters and just couldn't put it down.

It's a tense heist-gone-wrong type of story, told from a unique POV. The writer, Duane Swierczynski, (imagine learning to spell that in kindergarten), has a wonderful style that puts you immediately into the action and just doesn't let go. There are twists and I won't say more since I loathe recommendations or reviews that give away the cool surprises of a thriller or mystery. However, if you're looking for a great heist / thriller read, get The Wheelman. (Then go tell Duane how much you liked it.)

they're real, aren't they?

"So if you need me to help you get that paperwork done, you're going to have to remind me."

"That's funny. You usually remind me."

"Yeah, but I have all of these people I'm having to keep track of, now, everything they want, all of the stuff they need to do, where they need to be, who said what to whom. It's a little overwhelming."

"What people?"

"All of them. You know. The people. In my head."

"Mom. You probably shouldn't say that out loud to anyone else."

head in oven time ahead...

Alison Gaylin, over on the First Offenders' Blog wrote in that linked entry about how easy it is to slip into thinking negatively whenever there's a gap of time between when she's handed something in... and is waiting for that response. Given the short amount of time, she was a little self-deprecating about how anxious she'd ended up feeling, but I completely empathize.

I once drove over to hand a friend a script, drove home (all five minutes of drive time), and then sat. And waited. Did I go do something useful? Feed the kids? Prevent the dog from destroying the living room? Put out the bread burning in the oven? Nope. Well, I ended up doing the latter, but it was more inadvertent because I was opening it to consider how quick would death-by-electric-oven be, because the waiting was horrendous. I was going nuts, worried about what she thought.

It had been, maybe, twenty minutes.

I'd like to say I'm much better now.

I'd be lying.

The only difference is that now, I'm aware that it's beyond a little nutty to expect anything back from anyone who reads it that fast because, now brace yourselvs, THE WORLD DOESN'T REVOLVE AROUND ME. I know, freaky, huh? Are you going to be okay? Do you need a drink of water? I'll wait....

Back? Still feeling fuzzy? I know, it's really shocking news, and I gotta tell you, I'm a bit flabbergasted, too, but there you go.

My friends, bless them, have not conspired to stab me over this annoying paranoia and have, instead, been very kind and read as quickly as they can. They may be hiring Guido for this next round, though, when I give them the book to proofread for me (next month), since a book is far more to read than a script, and I'll be sitting there, pressing my face on their windows, tapping "Open, open, open," on their IM boxes or e-mails. Luckily, I run faster than most of them.

Of course, I'm not entirely sure I can run faster than Guido, so maybe I'll find something to occupy my time while I'm waiting.

Other than oven cleaning. Wouldn't want to get too tempted there.

finish line

At 8:20 this morning, I wrote "The End" on the rough draft of the book. This is after staying up all night because the last section was flowing in a way I hadn't ever experienced before.

The feeling of finishing is... strange. After sleeping / resting today after finishing, I woke up and immediately started feeling weird that I wasn't writing. Disoriented. I've been pushing so hard to write (while still running the construction company, and, of course, family stuff) for the last few months, to finally hit the finish line feels surreal. Like I've misplaced a limb somewhere, maybe just in the other room.

Now starts the next phase: the edit. The first part of the book is fairly well polished, but I'll be spending the next month doing a final edit / polish in order to turn it in by the due date (Nov. 30th). "Final" in the sense that this is the edit prior to turning it in to my agent and editor.

(Okay, full confession -- I was going to wait until at least tomorrow before starting the edit because you're "supposed" to take a break and celebrate, but I've already started on the edit this evening. What can I say? I don't deal well with non-writing, limb-leaving-in-the-other-room.)

on finding your "voice"

Over on Backspace, a writer's board I sometimes frequent, there was an interesting discussion about how to find one's "voice" in writing. Voice is that elusive thing, part style, part tone, part phrasing that is particular to you, the writer, or particular to your story/setting, and yet, still part mystery alchemy no one quite knows how to qualify. One of the moderators, Karen, quoted David Morrell who emphasized at Bouchercon that authors needed to "keep it real."

Good advice which can be applied to many things. Having not heard Morrell's advice directly, I wanted to elaborate on it a bit in the Backspace discussion, and thought I'd bring over that post here:

I agree, one meaning of "keep it real" is about cutting out the affected writing. It's also about cutting writing the way we think we "should" write because we're aware we're going to eventually be judged when someone reads it. There's a fine line there, which is difficult to perceive when anyone is starting out... the "yikes, I'm a complete newbie and this really sucks" to the "this is breaking the rules, but I know why and it works and I'm doing it anyway." I think the way to know if you've made it to the latter point is through feedback.

But I digress.

I think the thing about making it real as it relates to style is to think about how you would tell this story as an oral story teller, when there wouldn't be a written record to prove later on if you used all the right grammar or syntax or whatever. When you're telling a story, you end up infusing that story with something of yourself, something of your own style of communication, whether it's to know how to scare the bejesus of out everyone or leaving them crying or rolling with laughter. There's something YOU about your delivery. That's style.

Think of some stand up comedianes for example. There's the manic delivery, the dry, slow ironic delivery, the worldy delivery, the baffoon, etc. Each of those people figured out what it was about their delivery in a few jokes that worked, and then organized their material in such a way as to maximize their style.

Take this same notion, then, and think about your story. You have to marry what it is about you and your delivery that works for the story, that gives that extra impact. The same joke told by Rita Rudner is going to be vastly different if told by Dane Cook. (To randomly pick two different deliveries.) If the story would benefit from spare, sparse, staccato delivery, then that's a style. In my particular book, the main character is pretty outrageous, so the whole book has a style that reflects that.

Finally, you can't be embarrassed about your style. You can't beat yourself up and wonder what the critics are going to say, what the literary crowd will say, what the reviewers will say... and I think this fear sits on every writer's shoulders. There will always be people who'll pick anything apart. If you want to succeed, you gotta write like no one's judging and just tell the story. Your voice is already there. You just gotta listen.

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