Crimogenic: Fiction with a dash of real life.

Free Time

2010-11-10T11:16:00.003-06:00

In between planning the trip to Florence and planning a move across country, I’ve barely had enough time to think about writing or blogging. I’ve only squeezed out a few lines on the new book, but I’ve decided that working on the new project just has to take second stage to the things going on off-online. And you know what? I don’t feel so bad about not writing.

After spending the greater part of my free-time writing the last book for a year, I’m in need of some R&R. Of course, it’s too hard to completely stop writing cold turkey and all, so I’ll dab a little here and there but without goals. If I write one sentence today and a page tomorrow, well, that’s okay. It feels good to set aside expectations for a while. In other news, I’m still waiting for a couple queries and requests replies to trickle in. I’m hoping for the best.

While I’m between projects, I’m taking advantage of my free-time, which is sure to end as soon as something opens up on the job front. Tomorrow, I’m going to see a cross-country biking race—a first for me.

Question: What do you do with your time when you’re between writing projects?

Fore!!!

2010-10-27T13:20:00.007-05:00

Last weekend I had lunch at a restaurant on a golf course surrounded by miles of lush green and golfers trying to play in the rain. The chef (a friend of a cousin) offered to take us out on the course for a few rounds of golf. As someone who doesn’t even know how to hold a club, I was excited to try my swing. Unfortunately, he only had right-handed clubs and I’m a lefty. So I’m told, I hold my pen in a funny way. Evident by the laughter on the course, this apparently extends to the way I held the club.

The Significant Other naturally got the ball in the hole several times. Go Figure. (Obviously, I'm the creative one in the family, not the athletic one, or at least that's what I tell myself). I’m happy to add golf to the sports I’ve tried even if I didn’t try all that long, but I'm hanging up my clubs and moving to the next adventure. Why isn’t writing like that?

I’m having a hard time moving to the next project—the one I talked about on the blog two weeks ago. The story idea and outline are ready to go and I’m really sure this is the new the one, but I still haven’t started on those characters sketches.

The world offline is particularly demanding for me right now, but I can’t help but wonder if I’m using being busy as an excuse to not work. I’m trying to figure out if I’m procrastinating or if my brain’s telling me to chill?

Question for the day: How do you know if you’re procrastinating or if your brain’s telling you to chill out?

Back into the fray

2010-10-14T11:37:00.003-05:00

Between querying, job hunting, and planning the trip to Florence, I haven’t had the time to blog and keep up with your blogs. Shame on me, but life off-line cannot be ignored. After a few weeks of emotional rollercoaster that is the querying process, I’ve finally got a new project to keep busy while I wait. For over a month, I’d been juggling with two story ideas in my mind, both equally attractive. However neither of them stood out as the one I wanted to pursue next and since I don’t like working on more than one book at a time I was at a standstill.

Some of my story ideas have come in dreams or I actively formulated them or cultivated them over time. In the midst of trying to figure out which idea to work on next a new idea popped in my head. The idea was spurred by a confrontation with a pair of mean-spirited neighbors (trust me, I’m tempering my description here) in the apartment building where I lived. After said quarrel, the story came to me fully-formed. In one day, I had the first draft of a query letter and a graphical representation of all the main plot points. Characters too. I’m delighted to turn what was an ugly situation into something productive. Plus, I’m really excited about this project.

Over the next few days (or weeks), I’m going to use a technique that Anne at Piedmont Writer implemented to develop the voice and dig deeper into her characters. She did a series a few months back titled In Their Own Words in which she wrote from the first-person point of view of each of her main characters. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to post the results online, but I think the experiment will help me really get to know my characters in advance.

Review of MAELSTROM

2010-09-08T07:40:00.003-05:00

“When a genie grants you a wish, you don't expect to return the favor.”

Yesterday, I finished reading MAELSTROM by Anna Pino recommended by writing buddy Donna Hole. In MAELSTROM, Rick Landon’s a music promoter who stumbles upon a lamp and a genie. He wishes to manage a talented band. The genie, Kalila, is the leader of a band who happens to need a manager. Kalila tricks Ricky into a contract and he becomes the manager of Maelstrom with a fairy on keyboard, a zombie on drums, an incubus on bass, a vampire lead vocalist, and the genie (Kalila) on guitar. Their off-stage feeding habits and antics put Lady Gaga to shame. MAELSTROM is a humorous, quirky novel with romantic elements.

What attracted me to MAELSTROM was its play on mythology and mythical creatures. Thor, the Norse god of thunder makes an appearance as the leader of an opposing band of deities. So do many other deities. Pino does a wonderful job in creating believable, fully developed characters with more eccentricities than the Addams family.

I read MAELSTROM in a week. I really enjoyed Pino’s ability to keep the story moving and her concise writing. If you’re into either fantasy with a twist, stories with rock bands, or quirky novels in general than this is the book for you.

To read the first chapter of MAELSTROM click here.

The book’s official website is here.

And don't forget, I'm still taking recommendations on books to read here. Anon suggestions are welcome too (wink, wink).

Review of CINDERS

2010-09-01T06:36:00.011-05:00

“Cinderella's happily-ever-after isn't turning out the way she expected.

With her fairy godmother imprisoned in the castle and a mysterious stranger haunting her dreams, Cinderella is on her own to discover true love untainted by magic.”

Normally I’m a no-go for fantasy novels, but when Michelle Davidson Argyle announced the release of CINDERS, I knew this wasn’t simply a fresh twist on a beloved story. CINDERS is Cinderella’s not so happily-ever-after story and we all know that things always get juicier once the cameras are off.

I’ve read excerpts of Michelle Davidson Argyle's work before so I expected something very compelling and superbly written. I was not disappointed. The novel masterfully delves into the depth of Cinderella’s desire to be loved and the ramification of using magic to attain that love. Cinderella worries that her prince only loves her because of the spell casted by her Fairy Godmother and she must also adjust to the responsibilities that have befallen her as a newly crowned princess. To further complicate life, she dreams about a stranger and the what ifs creep into her heart. Those what ifs lead Cinderella (and the reader) down a path that is as mysterious as it is dangerous.

I read CINDERS in less than a 24 hour period. I could scarcely put it down. The writing is lyrical, concise, the imagery beautiful, and the characterization topnotch. Argyle breaths life into the Cinderella story.

Click here to read interviews & reviews of CINDERS.

(Reminder: If you want to recommend a book for me to read, post it here.)

Just Married/ Book Reviews

2010-08-30T11:42:00.002-05:00

You read the headline right. This weekend I tied the knot and coincidentally on Scott Bailey’s birthday (waves). I think that warrants a special Monday blog post. I didn’t say anything coming up to the nuptials because I’m a bit old-fashioned and well, I was preoccupied. Before any of you start to think I’m a bit nutty for blogging days after my wedding, the honeymoon’s in November. The picture above is of the honeymoon spot. An electronic cookie for the first one to guess the city. If no one guesses correctly, I’ll have to make a contest out of this.

It rained during the ceremony, but we were indoors, so no frowns here. I drank and ate too much. How’s that to starting married life? Of the gifts we received—to no one’s surprise—the one I like the most were the bottles of exquisite French wine one of the in-laws gave us.

While I’m adjusting to married life (snickers), I’m also dedicating September to reading and reviewing books. Hopefully at least four this month. I’ve started a wonderful novel with a certain princess protagonist at the center (wonders who could have penned that book?)

Instead of relying on my usual favorite authors, I’m on the hunt for books by writer friends and friends of friends. If you have a suggestion for me, please let me know in the comments. If I don’t get around to reviewing all the suggestions I get, there’s always another month to Read & Review.

The Beta Experience

2010-08-19T07:40:00.004-05:00

I’m buried in edits after receiving some really awesome feedback from beta readers. For the first time in months, editing is actually refreshing. I guess I needed some new prospective to get the creative juices flowing again. I also read for some very talented writers. Let’s just say that the competition is tough, really tough. Overall, I rank my first ever beta experience a 10 out of 10. Absolutely no complaints here.

I found that the betas where able to see the whole picture, the complete story arc (what worked and what didn’t), which I feel in general is something that gets lost in critique sessions. Don’t get me wrong though, I love critique groups and will be looking for one again someday. But for me at least, in reading once a month or bi-monthly, occasionally, I lose sight of the bigger picture, the complete tale. Not to get into the story vs. writing battle, but as a reader, the big picture ranks number 1 in importance for me. Writing slides in at a close 2.

Some things I’ve learned from my betas: how to tighten my prose, to watch my stylistic ticks, and tips on strengthening the plot. Not to mention, I actually forgot to put in some critical information that sort of threw off the ending of the book. A d’oh moment for sure.

Questions of the day: Have beta readers read your current WIP (as a whole book, not in chunks)? What’s the best thing(s) you’ve learned from the experience of having beta readers?

A small victory

2010-08-04T07:48:00.004-05:00

The above picture is of Mt. Montreux in Switzerland where there’s an annual walk or run race. I took the challenge this summer and climbed 10k (about 6 miles). I put one foot in front of the other, put on my determined face and crawled (um, climbed) up that mountain. Around km 7, I doubted myself but kept pushing. By the time I reached the finish line, I was amazingly tired and proud of myself. For me, hiking up Montreux was a small victory.

In writing news, I’ve finally finished the round of edits I’d been working on since March. Another small victory.

Now that End of Faith is going out to betas, I don’t have to read or think about it for at least a few weeks. I know this sounds weird, but I desperately needed some distance from my book. I love it, but every writer needs their “space” at one point or another.

There were definitely moments when I doubted my ability to finish the book and I say finish with a slight grin on my face, since we all know the word “finish” in writer language incites mad laughter. During my time away from my novel, I’ll be beta reading too and I’ve got a few books on my shelf calling my name. Oh and I’ll be working on my query and synopsis and building that To-Query list. So I guess there’s not that much distance between me and my novel after all.

Question for the day: What are you recent small victories whether related to writing or not?

Publishing news overload

2010-07-28T08:46:00.003-05:00

(First thing first: It never ceases to amaze me how much generosity the writing community online shows each other. Thanks all for the advice on beta reading.)

A few weeks ago, I spent hours reading an industry (not a writer) blog post regarding one of those hypothetical publishing questions along the lines of agents charging reading fees, or something of that matter. After I finished reading the post and the comments, I was infuriated. Why you ask? It wasn’t because I disagreed with the ideas presented (which I did in fact), but it was because reading the post and comments ended up being a big time suck and I left the website with a headache.

What I learned from the experience is that I needed to better discern publishing news versus publishing gossip.

With that being said, a lot of publishing news is rehashed, regurgitated, regenerated and just about any other “re” word I can’t think of as I write this entry, which is why at the beginning of the year, I cut back on a lot of industry blogs in favor of focusing on my writing. Still, I enjoy those roundup posts linking all the news in one place, that way I don’t have to search for news. More and more though, after awhile, whatever the latest buzz is, I’ve stopped devoting more than a minute or two on it, unless said buzz was of particular interest to me, but 7 out of 10 times, it usually isn’t.

Questions of the day: What industry-related news or gossip do you never get enough of reading about? Which topics are you sick to death of reading about? How often are you reading industry blogs and publishing articles?

Beta Advice Needed

2010-07-22T12:01:00.003-05:00

In between watching the Tour de France, I’ve been plowing through rewriting Chapter 27 of my novel. The good news is that I’m close to finishing another draft of the novel. The bad news I’m too close to the work to evaluate it anymore.

Enter the need for beta readers. Since I’m not currently in a writing group (enjoyed being in one for years), I’m looking to venture online to find beta readers. So my post today is to ask you, my writing buddies, what’s your experience with finding beta readers? What’s the best way to go about it? Which forums/blogs/websites do you recommend? Do you suggest exchanging chapter 1, a partial or a whole novel at a time?

All advice is appreciated.

The novel is dead. Come Again?

2010-07-14T10:06:00.007-05:00

My fellow writers, am I the only one sick to death of hearing (or rather reading articles, blog posts, etc, etc) that the novel is dead or that today’s writers aren’t like the writers of yesteryear or as one recent article put it, there are no great novelists left. Then of course names like Hemingway, Faulkner or Fitzgerald pop up. Do I smell baloney? Why, yes, it is baloney, a tad bit overcooked too.

Last I checked books were still selling in one format or another. People are still buying hordes of novels, which is how they come up with those little bestseller lists, right? So the novel is dead? I think not. I don’t like every novel published in the history of publishing; no one does. But with so many different genres and subgenres appealing to the masses, how can anyone claim that the novel is dead. Perhaps, the novel has evolved (they’re shorter) and the language of the written word has changed (along with spoken word), but does that mean that the novel is dead? Nope.

What constitutes a great novelist anyway? Book sales, literary circles, awards, tenure at University XYZ, being critically acclaimed? I’m sure some of the Greats were considered hacks in their day.

To answer my own question in a tweet: A great novelist’s story resounds with his/her readers. That’s an overly simplified answer, but it should be to leave room for interpretation.

Questions of the day: What do you think constitutes a great novelist? Who do you think past or present are great novelists and why?

Oh and Happy La Fête Nationale

(Bastille Day!)

Serious case of Summeritis

2010-07-07T08:10:00.005-05:00

I've been back from the wedding festivities for a few weeks now, but not back to writing until today. I'm dabbing in a little at a time. Truth is that I'm having a serious case of summeritis combined with procrastination. Instead of writing I've been watching Wimbledon, The World Cup and currently the Tour de France (watching it right now). The problem is I feel guilty. Is that bad? I'm still an unpublished writer, so isn't it okay to slack off when need be? I figure it's my brain telling me I need a break after spending the last five months working nonstop and using up all my free time to write. What can I do to cure summeritis?

The good news is that on my break I devoured three books in the genre that I'm writing in. Since I'd put reading on the side while I was working on my novel, I was anxious to get back to it. Devouring books really is like eating your favorite food.

Seriously folks, what do you do to refocus on writing during the summer months? I'd be curious to know if any of you are suffering from this 'made-up' disease too.

A Break

2010-06-08T14:29:00.003-05:00

I'm taking a much needed break from the blogosphere and my WIP to attend a friend's wedding. "See" you all again in a couple of weeks.

Favorite Book to Movie

2010-06-03T11:53:00.007-05:00

(The "call it" scene with Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men")

Off the top of my head, I can think of several Stephen King’s books that I’ve enjoyed as movies but have never read including The Shining, IT, The Stand and Storm of the Century. I guess once I saw the movies I was too lazy to go read the books. On the other hand, I saw the first Harry Potter movie and sought out the entire series and got a kick out of reading all of the books.

Current favorite book-to-movie:

“No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy

Least favorite book-to-movie:

"Phantoms" by Dean Koontz (although, I loved the book.)

(Addendum: I'm adding "Lord of the Rings" to my favorite book to movie list; although, I'm shamed to say I haven't gotten around to reading Tolkien yet; the key word here being yet.)

Quesitons of the day: What are your favorite books to movies adaptions? Have you enjoyed a movie based on a book, but never picked up the book? Least favorite book to movie?

It's okay to admit it.

2010-05-26T10:09:00.012-05:00

It’s the season for Roland Garros (better known in the States as the French Open) and the usual suspects are heating up the clay courts (the Williams sisters, Federer, Nadal). And although, I’m not a purported tennis fan per say, I enjoy watching a few matches from time to time. (Side note: anyone who can’t figure out the scoring system cannot seriously call themselves a fan.) Okay, rambling over. My point: the abovementioned tennis players make their living off of their passion which is what inspired this post along with the following:

I’ve been reading a lot of gripe online recently along the lines of writers being foolish to write with the expectation of making money, which is (in my opinion) preposterous. On second thought, this isn’t something I’ve heard recently; I’ve heard it for years. I’m assuming here that writers love to write. At least I believe this of the writing community I’m apart of online. That passion and dedication to learning and growing as a writer pour out of blogs I read every day. But every other corner I turn online there seems to be a stigma that writers shouldn’t admit to wanting to make a living off of their writing.

Why is that? Really, if anyone has an answer, please share. Yes, it’s unrealistic to think that selling a few books will solve all your financial problems because you’ve going to be the next [Insert name of latest bestselling author], but is it at all unrealistic for a writer to aspire to make income off of their work albeit not making millions or hundreds of thousands. I’m going to write whether or not I ever make a penny from it like most of you, but I'm admitting it here and now, I would love, that's right LOVE, to earn some income from my writing. Yet, I am not motivated by money (but that's another post).

Question of the day: What’s your take on the subject? Is it unrealistic to want to earn income off of something you’re passionate about and why is there a stigma online against talking about wanting to make money as a writer?

Easy Peasy Friday

2010-05-21T04:58:00.006-05:00

I'm recovering from a nasty bout of a sinus infection. Since I don't have any relevant post ideas swimming through my clogged up head right now, I'm going with an easy Q&A for today's post.

Questions of the day: What are you reading and are you reading for fun or research?

I'm reading a little of everything. I'm skimming through a few writing books and excerpts from what's currently selling to avoid getting to my to-be-read pile. Why am I avoiding reading these books that I so excitedly want to read? Simple answer really: I'm committed to finishing up my current set of edits on my WIP before I start devouring whole new books. There's not enough time in the day. Can I get an amen?

Knowing when to step back: insanity factor

2010-05-13T12:01:00.004-05:00

After storming around the apartment ripping apart chapters (read: shredding them with my teeth), the following exchange took place between me and my better half:

Me: I’m so behind in writing. I was supposed to edit two chapters this week and it’s already Friday night and I haven’t started on them yet.

(Better Half stares at me, jaw drops, eyes widen)

Better Half: It’s Wednesday morning.

Needless to say I took a few hours away from my computer to spare Better Half from anymore outbursts of insanity. Once I’d gotten my bearings on track, I had to re-convince myself (as I often have to do) that writing is a snail-slow process for me and I have to accept it. When I start to rave around the house I know it’s time to take a short break. But sometimes, a short break isn’t enough. When the prose or story isn’t flowing for an extended period of time (say two weeks), a longer rest is in order. Like any job the creative process has its ups and downs. There are high points when our fingers can’t keep up with ideas and other days we stare at the blank page wondering what monster ate the words this time.

There’s a clear line between slacking off and deciding to take a mental health break. If you’re dreading opening your notebook or your Word document, if the very thought of it is causing you to have anxiety, then take a breather, whether five minutes or five days. Trust yourself to know the right time to come back to your pages. In stepping back, we allow ourselves to clear out the clutter in our heads that’s blocking our stories and release pressure/stress that builds up after a ‘bad’ writing session(s). Sometimes we just need to work the details of the story out in our heads before trying to put words on the page.

Question of the day: How do you know when you need to step away from writing? What are your telltale signs of writer's insanity?

Believing in fortune cookies

2010-05-06T08:33:00.015-05:00

Sometimes when I sit down to write, I need to take a moment to meditate before starting, especially when there’s a particularly difficult scene that isn’t working. Writing isn’t rocket science, right? Anyone can do it at the most basic level, but add in the pursuit of publication and it sometimes feels like I’m at war with the words I so dearly love. From my head to my keyboard, something always seems lost in translation. Some days I rewrite and edit the same sentence more times than I can count and spend hours working on one page. Each word, each phrase, each sentences stink. Those are the tough days. But aren’t there tough days in any job? If any of us really want to do this thing called writing for publication, we must take it as a real job whether we’ve got one hour a day to focus on it or only a few hours here or there.

I love watching my stories unfold on paper, seeing my characters face challenges, and exploring their psyches. Shouldn’t every writer be passionate about their work? If I sound a bit like a narcissist, maybe I am. But that love for my stories compels me to work harder at developing my craft and seek out resources to help me grow as a writer without feeling that they are limiting my creativity. I’m an Aries, a bull by nature. I’m determined and stubborn, and I don’t believe in I can’t do it. I'm hard-wired that way.

While writing my first draft of my current WIP, I ate a fortune cookie and the little white slip read You will become an accomplished writer. I laughed, showed it to my friend and said, “I know.” I still have that paper and a day like today when writing is akin to pulling teeth, I think of my fortune cookie and I keep going.

Questions of the day: What keeps you writing? What inspires you to keep plugging away on those days words don’t seem to want to cooperate?

(edit alert: oops, I misquoted the fortune cookie, but the corrected quote is up there now.)

Getting the ax

2010-04-29T11:47:00.006-05:00

The picture above may or may not be a photo of me in Rotterdam entering a coffee shop (where you can smoke to your heart’s desire weed, grass, or whatever the kids are calling it these days). Of course, if it is of me (and I cannot confirm or deny it), then that certainly would explain why I took an impromptu break from blogging last week. Or the simpler (and honest) explanation for my absence is that I needed to focus completely on writing two new chapters for my current WIP. During my time away from the blogosphere, I also cut out most extracurricular activities such as watching television and moonlighting as a cabbie (as I sometimes do). I did keep up the exercise routine so all is not loss.

Question of the day: What activities do you skim back on or cut when writing/editing/rewriting/revising/plotting demands more than the usual time your devote to it?

p.s. It's not me. Really, I'm coming clean.

Subjectivity: Friend or Foe?

2010-04-14T10:14:00.009-05:00

Often as writers, we hear that the publishing industry is very subjective. If you’ve ever gotten a rejection on a query letter (I’m betting that most of us have), the agent may have said something along the line of this business is very subjective. I pulled the phrase directly from a rejection letter I received on the novel I wrote before starting my current novel. You read it on publishers’ and agents’ blogs all the time.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about subjectivity specifically in regards to publishing. On the most basic level it means that what works for one agent or publisher or reader may not work for another. Each time a query, partial, or book is evaluated by an agent/editor/reader, there’s a chance (a good one too) that the decision will be laced with personal preference, preconceived notions, prejudices, and life experience. But this is a business so there’s no doubt there’s some objectivity mixed somewhere in all that subjectivity, right? Writers seeking publication want their books published. Agents want to find clients they can go to bat for. Publishers want to find books they think readers want to read. Readers want to read books that knock their socks off. There’s a lot of want, want, want. But I digress.

Subjectivity is our friend. What if every agent or publisher said they were looking for only fantasy novels or a writer who could mimic the prose of a literary great? Wouldn’t that be very limiting? Instead, we have an array of genres to read (check your local bookstore or online favorite spot). What subjectivity means is that there’s writing out there that can be judged as ranging from not the best to ingenious, stories that span from dull to exciting, and characters that are flat to fully realized. What you think is mind-numbing, I think is inventive. That’s subjectivity for you!

As writers, subjectivity is something to keep in mind when we get rejections. It’s not a showstopper. Try and try again, research and read within your genre, know the agents that represent and have recent sells in your genre. Most of all, spend as much time as needed crafting the best novel you can.

What do you think. Is subjectivity friend or foe?

(p.s. I have a great pic to post in the near future that sums up my recent trip to Rotterdam. Next week I'm on blogging hiatus to focus on writing.)

Off to Rotterdam

2010-04-07T13:25:00.002-05:00

Kiddies, I'm off to Rotterdam to watch my marathon runner do what runners love to do. I'll be back to regular posting sometime next week. That is if I don't partake in some of the local Netherlands traditions. I kid! Or not.

Manipulating the reader

2010-03-31T14:01:00.006-05:00

Recently I was browsing through (read: sizing up the competition) the New York Times bestseller list and stumbled across an excerpt from one of the books on the list. I clicked through and read the excerpt and a few pages in I stopped and thought okay I get it, stop drilling it into my head just how sympathetic your MC is. Afterwards, I remembered a comment that Scott Bailey made on my post titled A reader weighs in which I asked, “What makes you put down a book?” Scott mentioned that if the writing seemed “gimmicky” he would put a book down. Oddly enough, I ceased reading the book because of that very reason. I felt manipulated or better yet, that the author was spoon feeding me details after details specially designed to compel me to like the MC right off the bat.

As writers we weave stories and to a greater intent, we try to manipulate readers into thinking a specific way, to side with the protagonist, to detest the antagonist, etc. It this case it felt forced to me. I prefer to grow to know the MC and become increasingly attached to her/him as I journey through the pages of the novel. In my case, I may pick up the book in the future because I enjoyed the writing and the descriptions, but after researching this author, it seemed that all of the author’s works had the same flair.

I’m interested in hearing what others think about this? Have you run into any situation in a book where you thought an aspect of the writing or story felt forced? How did you reaction to it?

Writing the query before the novel

2010-03-23T09:15:00.006-05:00

For my first novel, I wrote by the seat of my pants. As all seat-of-my-pant writers know this is sometimes like riding a carousel at the speed of light. Eventually, I finished and edited the novel (a hundred times mind you). For my current WIP I wanted to try something different based on suggestions I’d read on various agents’ blogs: Crafting the query letter before writing the book.

After writing about ten pages of the book, I wasn’t sure where the story was going. Here’s what I did know: the setting for the novel, the MC, and the villain, but what I didn’t know: underlining themes in the story, the subplots, and what kind of novel I was trying to compose. At the time I was opposed to outlining of any kind (I am since reformed!) so I decided to draft a query letter. As I had expected, the first draft wasn’t so good, but it served an important purpose. Here’s the pitch line from the original query:

One Good Samaritan act changes Val’s life and she becomes the most wanted criminal in the Midwest.

In the first draft of my query, I managed to write a graceless sentence but a sentence with drive, history and a story lying underneath the surface. Questions started flowing through my head, questions like:

What was this good samaritan act?
Why would doing something good put her on a most wanted list?
Why is she only wanted in the Midwest versus the U.S. or the world for that matter?
If an act of kindness results in punishment, then what are the rules to this world? Who's in control?
How does this act change her?

Over time the query letter has evolved along with the novel and become something slightly different from what I originally envisioned, but by writing the query letter before the novel, I was able to better visualize where the novel was going. Some people do this by writing outlines, chapter summaries, etc. Writing the query letter turned out to be my first step in plotting the novel.

Have you or would you consider writing a query letter while your novel is still in its infancy? Why or why not? If you have written a query letter before the novel, what motivated you to do it?

Chapter Crisis

2010-03-16T09:05:00.005-05:00

Right now, my finger is hovering over the button at the top right corner of my keyboard. To delete or not to delete, that's the Holy Grail of all questions. I've been diligently working through edits for my WIP and although some chapters have been more challenging than others, I’ve come upon Chapter 13. Ouch. It hurts to type the words, so for the rest of this blog entry, the chapter shall be referred to as Chapter That Must Not Be Named.

I printed this chapter and commenced my usual line edits and ended up striking out just about every line in the chapter. I wrote CTMNBN a little under a year ago. The scenes of the chapter were actually some of the first scenes that came to me when I got the idea for the book so I started editing it on a very high note. Two paragraphs into CTN... and wow… That’s a bad wow, not a good wow. The chapter is a hot mess.

I hadn’t actually read the chapter since I wrote it and the story has matured into something more complex than I originally envisioned (which I’m happy about). The chapter’s still relevant to the story line, but the writing is awful, the tense bounces back and forth between present and past, and the voice of the MC's off. So the question for me is “Do I trash the whole chapter and rewrite or try to salvage something from this ship wreck?

By the way, the chapter started off at 15 pages and after deleting most of it, I have 6 pages that make slightly better sense than the previous version.

I’m going to keep telling myself that the hard part’s behind me.

What do you do when you’ve got a chapter that a hot mess? Completely rewrite from scratch or try to save something from the doomed chapter?

Beth Revis's Awesome Contest

2010-03-16T07:41:00.001-05:00

If you haven't already, don't forget to check the "Book Deal Celebration!" contest that Beth is running over at her blog, Writing it out. The prizes are seriously awesome.

Also Congrats Beth for snatching a great book deal!

Where research takes us?

2010-03-10T08:33:00.000-06:00

With a tension wrench and a pick (usually the pick with a hook on the end), you can pick most locks and apparently, lock-picking isn’t just for thieves; it’s also popular among people who like to solve puzzles (according to Wiki). Do you know the theory behind how to pick a lock?

I certainly didn’t know until I researched it online. My MC, Val, is learning how to pick locks in a chapter in my WIP and I needed to get the terminology right. I found ample resources online from tutorials to youtube videos demonstrating how do it and I’m satisfied that I’ve gotten the gist of it and written an effective scene.

Now I could’ve chosen to smooth over the scene without going into details. In the greater scheme of the book, the scene isn't necessarily important to any of the central plot points, but if I would’ve skipped over the details of the scene, I risk losing the confidence of my reader. It all depends on the character.

My MC’s not a spy, sleuth or secret agent. She was an assistant with duties limited to typing emails, answering the phone and picking up dry cleaning for her boss. She’s also got a B.S. in History. Based on her background picking a lock is a huge leap. But Val's got this crafty old neighbor whose husband use to bootleg booze across the Midwest and ran some shady transactions in his time, but that’s another story. This neighbor learned how to pick locks because as she puts it “Papa had the in before 10 rule” and would lock her out if she wasn’t home by curfew.

Point is research adds to the validity of the character’s action and insight into the character’s motives. In the lock-picking scene, the reader sees Val learning to pick locks, experiences her attitudes regarding her action and learns a bit more about her feisty neighbor. At the same time, the women are building a friendship by engaging in what I’m going to call recreational pursuits.

Where has your research for your novel/WIP led you recently? What’s the most interesting thing you learned through researching?

Fantabulous Followers Giveway

2010-03-09T14:19:00.005-06:00

Contests, Contests, Contests, Contests

For a chance to win a critique of your first 40-pages by an agent, check out Shooting Stars blogspot and enter their "Fantabulous Followers Giveway" contest. Also, don't forget that Elana Johnson's giving away 7 fantastic books over at her blog as well!

A reader weighs in

2010-03-03T08:43:00.000-06:00

Laura Miller penned an article entitled “A reader’s advice to writers,” which has some general writing points that applies to any genre.

The article lists five recommendations for a novice:

1. Make your main character want something.

2. Make your main character do something.

3. The components of a novel that readers care about most are, in order: story, characters, theme, atmosphere/ setting.

4. Remember that nobody agrees on what a beautiful prose style is and most readers either can't recognize "good writing" or don't value it that much.

5. A sense of humor couldn't hurt.

While the above recommendations are very general, 1 and 2 simplifies advice we’ve all read/heard before either from a blog, website, book, workshop or conference, 3 and 4 depends on the type of story or the genre and 5 completely depends on the story being told.

The author of the article points out that she has stopped reading “brand-new novels that aren't great -- that frequently aren't even very good”, which reminded me of the books that I’ve put down over the years. I finished around 30-pages of “The Kite Runner” before I put it down and it wasn’t because I thought the novel wasn’t good. The writing was very beautiful and it had a strong narrative-voice, but the story wasn't my cup of tea and there’s a thousand other books out there that could be right for me.

I’m not convinced that readers are putting down published books because they’re not good. The reason isn’t that simple. If the story or the character doesn’t arouse the reader, she/he will likely put it down and another reader will come along and think the book is brilliant. That’s how this business works.

What makes you put down a book? Do you put a book down because you think it’s not well written, that the story isn’t interesting, the characters don’t stick with you or some other factor?

Rereading books for fun or work?

2010-02-22T10:00:00.002-06:00

I think I've mentioned it before but I'm guilty of not being able to reread most books. For me, once I've lived the thrills and the ups and downs, I can't recapture the feeling the second (or third) go around. That's true 8 out of 10 times.

If I had to guess, I've reread only a hand full of books in my life. I should be ashame right? To my defense, I've tried and on occasion, succeeded. Some examples:

The Great Gatsby (Flitzgerald)

Of Mice and Men (Steinback)

The Taken (Koontz)

The Road (McCarthy)

Whether I can reread a book or not, usually comes down to two reasons:

(1) Did the book touch me emotionally? (not all books do):

I use to read a lot of thrillers. In fact, I read only thrillers until I realized that by limiting the genre in which I read, I limited my ability to continue to grow as a writer. Here's a very general formula for a thriller: fast-paced + action = thriller. The plot is everything and usually the stories are interesting but not interesting enough for me to revisit the book.

(2) Do I admire the writing, the characters, the story?

Here's when the writer side of me takes over. If there's an aspect of the book that I admire, I'll reread a book several times while thinking to myself how can I write something as wonderful as this in my own voice.

***

What are your favorite books to reread and why?

Lights finally on!

2010-02-19T14:02:00.003-06:00

I am up and running again on the internet after a looonnnng wait to get a phone line fixed. I've been trying to keep up with blog reading via my cell phone and I think I have a permanent neck cramp from scrolling left/right/up/down to just read one sentence.

Status: During my time away from the internet, I got a lot of writing done and I finally finished the first draft of my WIP and I'm currently in editing mode. It's about 110k but I expect it to change significantly once this round of editing is done.

I see that I have some new blog readers. Thanks for stopping by! I have lots of blogs to catch up on. Time to go poking around in the blogsphere.

Internet Outage

2009-11-30T16:53:00.006-06:00

Above is a solar eclipse that signifies a blackout in my life. That's right, I'm without.....
INTERNET and will be for at least one month. I never knew how addicted I was to reading blogs and connecting to other writers online until the day I woke up and my internet was no more!

As I write this post on a public computer, I think, wow, what's going on with all the awesome people I've meet online. For those of you who did Nano, how was the experience? Would you do it again? How was your Thanksgiving?

I'm plugging away (as usual) at End of Faith and making slowwwww, but steady progress. Is there anyone out there who's had a hard time writing that elusive second novel. Although it took me nearly four years to write, rewrite, edit, submit through a critique group and beta readers, edit some more my first novel. I find myself slightly impatient as I work through the first draft of the second novel. Am I alone in this?

I feel I've learned so much from other writers online and through agent's blogs. I am confident that my writing has reached a new level. I am constantly surprised now at the encouraging feedback I'm getting from my critique group (A group that I am soon parting from, but that's another sad sad post). But even with all the positive feedback, I keep thinking, why can't I get this darn first draft finished so that I can start the next phase of my Master Plan which would be umm editing.

Funny Monday

2009-11-09T09:01:00.000-06:00

Watch a driver change the rules of parking in a grocery store parking lot. I still can't figure out how the driver managed to screw up parking so badly.

Good Luck!

2009-11-02T18:30:00.005-06:00

Good luck to all of you doing Nano this year. But above all remember to have fun!

For those of you not doing Nano this year, what's your focus for November: editing, writing, revising, brainstorming?

I'm still plugging away at my WIP. I hope to be done with the first draft by mid-January or early February.

Keeping up with book ideas

2009-10-26T13:47:00.007-05:00

At the beginning of 2009, I focused on submitting my first novel, JUST CAUSE, to agents and at the same time I began writing my second novel, END OF FAITH. Originally, I got the idea for the second novel in December 2007, but I was in the middle of running chapters of JUST CAUSE through my critique group so I wrote a quick summary of the book idea on a Word document and put it aside.

I've never been one to work on multiple books at one time; although, if a publishing contract comes along, I will more than likely have to adjust.

When I get new ideas for novels, I tend to open up a new Word Document and write down the idea. Oftentimes, it's more than just an idea. A scene develops in my head that I must write down. After the scene or a rough draft of a summary is written, I put it aside in hopes of coming back to it later.

I have about ten or twelve book ideas on the shelf currently.

How do you handle new book ideas? Do you write a summary of the idea for safe keeping or do you stop your current project to start the new project? How many book ideas do you currently have brewing in your head?

Wildly Successful Queries

2009-10-15T13:38:00.003-05:00

I'm not currently querying, but in my search for resources for writing, I came upon a series through the Guide to Literary Agents Editor Blog. On the site, Chuck Sambuchino is running a Successful Queries series, where he's posting queries that snagged agents and went on to publish. So far there are 16 entries in the series and a combination of fiction and non-fiction examples. As a bonus the agents representing the authors discuss why the query grabbed them.

Some of these queries, I have seen on blogs before, but it's nice to have them in one place along with the agent's perspective.

Some of the queries featured are:

(Fiction) "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet"
(Kids/YA) "Wake"
(Nonfiction) "Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon"

Hardest Part: The Beginning

2009-10-09T16:44:00.002-05:00

When writing chapters, I find the hardest part is the beginning.

I'm currently working on a chapter and something just wasn't meshing in the first two pages of the chapter. I read and reread it. The flow was off, the word choices weren't the best.

But it wasn't until I recorded myself reading it that I discovered the true problem: I started the chapter with the first person narrator stepping back and analyzing the scene.

She had stepped so far back that she was almost absence from the environment she was describing. Could me, the author, be getting in the way? Seems to be the case. This may be okay or perfect in some books and even in some of my chapters, but it felt wrong in this chapter. "Felt wrong" is ironic since this chapter relies on the narrator's gut feeling.

Here's an example from the chapter:

Near the apples and pears, a woman reviewed the contents of her shopping cart. She paused, lifted her mask and sneezed. She rubbed her nose and began picking through the apples.

The rewrite so far:

I was bagging grapes when near the apples and pears, a woman lifted her mask and sneezed. I cringed as she wiped her nose and began picking through the apples, hands glazing over some in favor of others. I dropped the bag of grapes on the shelf.

The rewrite isn't perfect but methinks its a step in the right direction. The reader gets a better sense for how the narrator reacts to the scene.

What part of a chapter is the hardest for you to write: the beginning, middle or end?

Switching up techniques

2009-09-24T10:18:00.007-05:00

I'm mostly done with the first draft of my current WIP. I would say in terms of first drafts I'm about 70% finished. But a strange thing has happened to me.

I'm usually the person who will write by the seat of my pants and edit heavily later. The way I work is more or less like this:

-Write feverishly without consideration for sentence composition, flow, word accuracy, except for the blatant misspelled word or in-your-face grammar mistake.

-After completing a chapter, section, or running into writer's block, go back and light prooread (the key word here is light which for me means more grammar and spelling checks, light revising: accuracy in character names, does the scene/chapter make sense.)

-Check if the story plot is moving forward, check characters' attibutes, etc (more revising)

-Once the first draft is complete, go back, edit heavily a million times. Check plot points, strengthen verbs, descriptions, characterization, etc.

But something has changed in my master plan.

I find myself editing heavily chapter by chapter, which means I'm moving more slowly than I usually do when writing. At first that bothered me. Now I'm okay with it. I realize that I'm at a point where I feel that my writing is good but it could be better and if I see a sentence isn't absolutely what I want then I'm going to improve it now not later.

The results: I have ended up spending hours working on a single page until I am happy with what I see.

Of course I know that once this draft is finished I will still go back and edit a million times over, but I like editing chapter by chapter now. No reason why as writers we can't switch up our technique from time to time.

Still here....and Genre Wars

2009-09-15T19:45:00.006-05:00

After another long absence from the blogsphere, I come back to find things are pretty busy and all my favorite blogs are informative as always.

Where have I been? Nowhere really. I've been spending a lot of time traveling to see my mother in the hospital and babysitting my 14 year-old brother. Yikes is right! Instant temporary parenthood is quite frightening. I'll be starting therapy shortly due to manic depression. I kid.

On the writing front there's none much going on. I'm about halfway done with the first draft of my WIP, but haven't written much in weeks.

Now for the important news:

Super talented writers, Michelle, Scott and Davin over at the Literary Lab are hosting a short story contest and will award prizes. They welcome submissions from all genres. Even better news: they also welcome multiple submissions.

Interview with a Muse: Part 2

2009-08-07T20:43:00.000-05:00

[Muse and I enter The Gallo's Bar. A billow of cigarette smoke greets us and a sleepy house band plays "Sweet Home Alabama". The lead singer sways his hips without rhythm. The bartender nods to Muse, a waitress winks at him. We sit down at a table near the back of the bar, where red bricks encloses an area labeled private room.]

M: You look like you need a drink? How 'bout a shot of Maker's?

C: Miller Lite will do?

M: Come on, don't be a sissy? Waitress, doll, get my buddy here and me two shots of Maker's each.

C: Don't insult me. You've been warned.

M: You know I'm just kidding with you. So--

C: Soo.. what? Listen, by the way, I appreciate you inviting me out, but this place is not for me. I don't feel comfortable here.

(Muse lights up a cigarette just as the waitress arrives with our drinks. He looks around, absorbed by the girls dancing on table tops and in cages.)

M: The body is a beautiful thing.

(I cringe and slide down in the booth seat. If I sink low enough maybe I will end up on the other side of the world. Any place but here).

M: So Crimey, I heard about your little problem. Listen, kiddo, you're not the first to get axed from your job. Those son of....

C: Watch the language. I know, I know. It is what it is. I'll get through it.

M: You knew it was coming. I'm proud of you for going up again the man.

C: When you fight a tyrant, you can expect repercussions.

M: First shot is a congratulatory shot. At least you're done with that hell hole.

(We salute glasses)

C: I'll drink to that.

M: So what's next?

C: Interesting things actually. But until I get there, I'm looking for work and I've got to keep on working on End of Faith.

M: The second shot is a future shot. Here's to those 'interesting things'. By the way, do they have anything to do with a gun and rope because if so count me in.

C: Of course not!

M: Listen, baby, I know people who know people.

Book to give away: The Kite Runner

2009-08-05T13:54:00.005-05:00

Although I have tried on several occasions, I cannot seem to get into The Kite Runner. Because every book deserves a home (instead of being trashed), I'm willing to send it to anyone who wants it. Let me know. My second option will be to drop it off at a thrift shop.

Tell me it's not just me? Is there a book that you started to read that you simply could not finish? In my case I didn't make it to page 30.

For me, I absolutely could not stand the voice of the narrative. I could not connect with it. I actually feel a bit bad about it.

Unlearning Bad Grammar: Aren't I?

2009-08-02T09:02:00.004-05:00

I come to you today a broken crimester or crime-master, or crimey.

Oh, the names.

But back to the point. I have to unlearn bad grammar. Have you ever said:

I am due to meet the mob boss, aren’t I?

Never mind that the mob boss turned down my invitation to discuss business over drinks.

It turns out that I have been erroneously using “aren’t I?"

N questioned my use of “aren’t I?”

I was asked, “I aren’t isn’t correct grammar, so why do you say aren’t I?”

My answer: I don’t know!

So I hit the internet looking for an answer. I asked Strunk and White who didn’t have a clue either. Finally I found some websites here and here that discussed the development of the phrase aren’t I as a placement for the slang “ain’t”. I wasn’t buying it. The evidence was inconclusive.

The correct grammar should be: I am due to meet the mob boss, am I not?

Am I not sounds formal to me, but grammatically it is correct. So now I am trying to listen out for the faulty aren’t I and replace it with am I not? I guess it takes practice.

Do you have any phrases that you know are grammatically incorrect that you struggle with in speech?

End the Result: 12,000 words

2009-07-13T21:53:00.004-05:00

I didn't hit my 15,000-word goal during my Writalthon last week, but I make it to 12,000 give or take a word or two. I am very happy with the results and I have plenty of material to revise and edit.

What I learned? Apparently I was nuts to think just because I was off of work I could work for hours on end and somehow (magically!) produce thousands and thousands of words per day. Ah, the disillusion!

(clears throat) I'm better now.

Climbing the Writing Mountain: 6,500 to go

2009-07-10T10:55:00.005-05:00

I've finished 8,500 of my 15,000 words goal for the week.

What I've learned about myself is that I am a very slow writer. I knew I was slow, but now I know even with being off of work this week, I can't pump out much more than 1,000 to 2,500 words a day. I'm rather saddened by this knowledge, but I'm going to keep telling myself that it doesn't matter how fast you write, but how well you write.

What's your current writing mountain? Are you struggling with editing, grammar, story development, character development, word count, etc? I know that as writers we constantly struggle with all of these factors and often all at the same time, but usually one or two take center stage. This week I'm struggling with word count, and I know that because I did little to no editing this week editing the newly written section will take center stage.

It's that time again... Le Tour

2009-07-07T18:00:00.006-05:00

By now most of you know already that I'm quite the cycling fan. In fact, I have been planting my butt on the couch in front of the tele to watch the 2009 Le Tour de France since last Saturday.

The big news: Lance is back and kicking ass (oh yeah!).

To show you just how nuts I am about cycling, I'm going to share with you a convo between N and me:

Me: You know I was going to ride the tour this year?

N: Oh yeah, what team are you on?

Me: I started out on Garmin-Slipstream, hopped to Columbia HTC, now I'm with Astana.

N: Oh brother!

Me: I kid you not! I was in the lineup.

N: (rolls eyes and turns up the television)

Me: Really! But my coach pulled me out right before the start because of my bummed ankle. He put Lance in my place.

By this point the television is full-blast and I am left to my fantasy life inside my head. Speaking of fantasy life, N and I have a fantasy cycle team for Le Tour and we currently have five of the top ten riders on our team.

In other news:

I'm 4,000 words into my 15,000 words goal. I'm behind but I'm determined to make it!

15,000 Words, 10 days

2009-07-03T10:33:00.005-05:00

Yet again, I have been missing from the blogsphere. It has one whirlwind of a life of late. But now, I'm off of work for ten days straight and I'm back! Not that I have anything new to report on the writing front since I haven't done much writing lately.

But I feel compelled to report something. So here goes:

I submitted my first chapter of the new WIP to my writing group and I was told the following:

The chapter moves too fast and that the character isn't fully developed.

I have a tendency to put the reader on a motorcycle and hit 100 mph in 10 seconds, so I know that my group's comments are valid. Therefore, no surprise, today I'm going to work on chapter 1 again.

For these next ten days, I have set a small goal for myself. I'm going to write a mere 15,000 words in 10 days. I usually don't do word count goals, or if I do them I don't take them seriously, but over the next 10 days, I want to have some type of goal set to jump start my writing again.

Fog Index Score, Part Deux (analyzing famous novels)

2009-06-10T20:14:00.004-05:00

(Let me clarify: In the comment section, M mentioned that Twilight and War and Peace had similar Fog Scores. Here's why: Higher scores do not necessarily mean higher quality of writing. The Fog score measures "how difficult" a piece is to read. So technically something that is badly written (like the first draft of my latest WIP) and a complex literary piece can both get high scores. Fog score measures 'readability' only.)

I read on a website that the average bestselling novel has a Fog Score between 8-12 (Easy Readable). See the breakdown on Fog Score here.

So I thought it would be interesting to analyze the fog scores of some popular books:

War and Peace
(Tolstoy): 11.29

Twilight
(Meyers): 10.25

The Road
(McCarthy): 7.966

The Kite Runner
(Hosseini): 7.921

It
(King): 10.25

The Lovely Bones
(Sebold): 7.206

The Human Stain
(Roth): 23.41 (Not surprised here.)

I'm interested in what other writers think about the stats above. I don't think it means that you have a bestseller if your FOG score is 8 to 12, but it does say something about your readability. That's at least one part of the equation when figuring out what makes a novel saleable.

FOG INDEX, part Un

2009-06-08T09:01:00.003-05:00

I'm currently taking an online business writing class. Since I'm responsible for writing collateral and copy for advertising, I have to continue to improve my writing skills. In our first class we needed to calculate our FOG INDEX SCORE.

The FOG INDEX is a test designed to measure the readability of a sample of writing. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning-Fog_Index.

I used the Fog Index to determine readability of my business writing and my creative writing (particularly my new novel). My Business Writing is Fairly Difficult (ouch) to read; my Creative Writing is Easily Readable. I'll discuss Readable in fiction in another post.

To calculate your Fog Index:

A. Select a Passage (100 words) ____________ (# of words)

B. Number of Sentences within those 100 words ____________(# of sentences)

C. Average Sentence Length (Divide A by B) ____________(ASL)

D. Number of "Hard Words" _____________(# of Hard Words)

(3 or more syllables but

excluding proper names

and verbs ending in es, incg, ed)

E. Your Fog Index Score ____________(Fog Index Score)

(C+D) x 0.4

OR you can calculate your Fog score my using the equation at the very top of the post.

OR Don't have time to do the math, cut and paste approximately a 100-word passage here and the website will do the math for you (Everyone is allow to do this, except Daley, he's too a math genius).

Our teacher said that in order to reach the most people with our writing, we need to have a FOG score of 10 or less.

SCORING:

16+ Difficult

11-15 Fairly Difficult

7-10 Easily Readable

6 Very Readable

What's your score? My score for the first paragraph of my WIP is 9.

Next post: I'm going to analysis a passage from The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Star Trek (without spoilers)

2009-06-04T07:35:00.002-05:00

Right off the bat I'm going to tell you this: I know I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the movie. Essentially, I am an ol' skool trekkie, which means it take little more than the mention of a tricorder to turn me into a giggling mess.

First, the plot lifted from Yahoo!:

The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James Kirk, is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock, was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before.

My take:

There can be only one James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock. Period. No offense to the actors on the movie, but if like me you spend your spare time streaming original episodes of Star Trek on youtube and NBC.com, then you're fairly accustomed to the "real" Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, & Spock, then you understand what I mean.

Since the Yahoo! Premise was vague, here's my version: In a distance future and perhaps even in a parallel universe, Mr. Spock fails to save the Romulan home planet, which causes a vengeful Romulan to go back in time to do what else, "seek revenge". Meanwhile the story follows the rise of James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock. Once together on the Enterprise they butt heads until come time to kick Romulan butt.

The fate of the universe rests in the hands of a young James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock.

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Boxed

2009-06-03T07:42:00.000-05:00

Some of you have asked what happened to Just Cause?

The answer: It's been boxed.

Much like the boxed Cylon Deana (aka Number Three), or perhaps even like Number Seven (aka Daniel). For those who think that I've finally flew the coop, I'm referring to Battlestar Galactica (reimagined). The Cylons are machines. When they are bad machines, they are shut down. Deana once considered a bad machine was temporarily boxed. Daniel was permanently boxed.

Point: I'm not sure if Just Cause will be temporarily boxed or boxed forever. For sure, I'm not looking at JC at all, not really thinking about it either. As writers, we don't want to give up on a piece, but we also can't work on a piece until the end of time.

I'm not too proud to say that JC was rejected multiple times at the query level and never made it to the request level. But I believe that my struggles with Just Cause has taught me a lot about marketability of a novel and exposed my weakness (telling not showing, not creating compelling characters, etc).

I think that we all as writers have boxed books or at least short stories. What did you learn from a boxed project that helped you improve on the next project.

Request: Best First Person Novels

2009-06-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned the other day, my current WIP is written in the first person narrative. Admittedly at the beginning of writing this novel, I struggled with the first-person POV. I wondered how to avoid using "I" too much. How to convey what's happenings without telling the reader everything. How does Val (the protagionist) express how she feels without saying it? Even as I continue to write, I can't say for sure that I know I'm going about this the right way. But I can say when I tried to write a few chapters from third person it didn't feel natural. It didn't truly expression the internal struggles I wanted to show by telling it from Val's point of view.

I'm on the look out for examples of really good first person novels. Recently read The Lovely Bonely and The Time Traveler's Wife (both great books told from the 1st person POV). I can't seen to find any other first person narrative that's ringing my bell. Any suggestions?

where is everyone?

2009-05-30T14:02:00.001-05:00

Where is everyone on the writing/querying/editing/ procrastation front?

Me: I'm plugging away at my second novel, The End of Faith. It's not an anti-religious book at all; therefore, I'm considering changing the title, but since I'm about 1/3 into the novel, I don't think that the title is my biggest concern. Besides, the title sets the tone of the novel. How so you ask? The premise of the book surrounds a woman who has loss faith in the world, herself, her husband, and through the chapters she struggles to find herself. In the interim she knocks off a few bad guys 'thrill-style'. Ooh, talking about the novel is motivating me to get back to writing.

How is this novel different from my last novel?

Let's Compare:

Technique: (Just Cause)- third person narration, multiple POVs

Technique: (End of Faith)- first person narration, one POV.

Story Line: (Just Cause)- Bad ass chick kills some bad men

Story Line: (End of Faith)- Bad ass chick kills some bad people while trying to escape (blank) and while (blank) has turned her life upside down. (Must withhold info until I'm done... cliques have served me well today, but today only.)

Off the map

2009-05-23T15:22:00.003-05:00

First off: Where in the world did Crimey go?

First I moved to a new apartment. Enjoying the apartment. Although it's smaller than my last apartment, the building is much quieter than where I use to live. So no more chain smoking neighbors and no more guitarist rockin' out in the wee hours of the morn'....

After my move I was without internet for a few weeks, but all of that aside, I'm back! What did I miss?

Looks like I will be back reading your blogs for a month to catch up.

In the meanwhile, I finally picked up a friend's draft of her novel, and I am very much enjoying it.

Writerly Struggles

2009-04-23T08:42:00.000-05:00

What do you struggle with as a write?

To answer my own question: I struggle with just about everything.

I’m not formally trained in writing (probably most of us aren’t) and I don’t have anything close to an English degree. And I would be a fool to think I have mastered the English language (as it relates to grammar, sentence structure, style, etc). But that aside, I think my true struggle, the one that eats me up inside, is my inability to self-edit.

When I started meeting with a writing critique group a few years ago, one of the members (who has since passed on to the next life), once told me, ‘you have to learn to apply your keen eye to your own work’. You see, I’ve been told that I have a keen eye in editing other people’s work, and getting the tiniest discrepancies but yet, I still haven’t progressed to a point where I can apply it to my own work.

Am I the only one who struggles with this?? Not that “self-editing” is my only writerly issues. I also struggle with awkward sentences, voice, dialogue, and telling. But for some reason, the one that bothers me the most is the self-editing. Most likely, that’s because if I'm convinced if I could better self-edit, I would catch those awkward sentences, voice, dialogue, and telling issues.

Are there aspects of writing that you struggle with more than others? If so, how do you handle them?

Back from Boston

2009-04-21T21:53:00.004-05:00

I'm back from Boston. I left a warm Chicago for Boston, which was cold and rainy. When I got back in Chicago it was cold and rainy. Next marathon must be in Hawaii. I want to 'feel' the vacation! :)

N (who contrary to popular believe is not Nancy Drew) had a good race. I'm very impressed with N's endurance level and dedication to running. I can't imagine running more than one hour at a time let alone 2:30 to 3 hours. Heck, one hour is pushing it for me.

(update: urh, I brought back strep throat from Boston too, home sick)
-----------------
Currently listening to The Lovely Bones on audiobook. Thanks Davin for a great recommendation. I'm really enjoying it.

Off to Boston

2009-04-17T17:52:00.004-05:00

I'm off to Boston for the Tea Party! Admittedly, I'm a little late.

Going to watch N run the marathon.

p.s. Like a good little writer, my laptop will be going with us.

Hook or Sinker?

2009-04-16T08:25:00.002-05:00

Lady Glam’s post on voice and “write what you know” was refreshing. I’ve been thinking the same thing. Give me a break, or just give me another line. I’m sick of it. But your novel must have voice, be well written, have a hook, the right pacing, etc, etc. It is what it is! (ooh, bad sentence alert). Now that we know the secrets to success lets go off and enjoy bestseller stardom. Really though, I find it invaluable to have these little pointers from agents. As least I know what they consider publish worthy.

So on to the post: Hook, line and sinker? Who coined the term?

Let’s share the opening 1-3 lines of our WIPs.

Here’s my draft of the revised Just Cause (warning I’m still trying to improve the opening chapter):

Katherine Rice sat on the couch across from the phone while her husband and the entire Alexander County police department searched for her son. She longed to do something, anything. Not knowing was pure hell and waiting was just as bad.

Hook or sinker? Why? (Don’t be afraid to say sinker, I'm not a crier, promise).

Please share yours, I would love to read them and make comments too!

Next post: What do first lines tell the reader about the novel.

Double rent

2009-04-14T07:52:00.002-05:00

So far in living in my current apartment, I haven't had any trouble with the building except for all the construction that's been going on for the past six months, the rude maintenance people, and jacko-jerk neighbors. I could deal with all of that until now when the management company mistakenly double charged me for April's rent! Now, here's where you slap your knees and say, 'Oh Crimey, you got me there for a minute!' And I hang my head down low and say, here's my story:

On 4/3/09 management cashes in my rent check.

On 4/11/09 I check my bank account to see if I have enough money to update my virus scanner on my pc. I frown when I see my account says zero and a big overdraft fee appears on my account. After investigating, I see that rent check XXX has been posted twice. (What you say? Yes, twice).

I called my bank immediately and they tell me that there's nothing they can do about it. The teller says, "Tell them to give you your money."

I called my building management office ten times in ten minutes and no one answers. I stake out the office and wait for it to open. When I enter the office the phones are ringing off the hook. Apparently our tenants were double charged as well. The management company informs me that their bank made the mistake of running the check twice. It was Saturday and nothing could be done.

When I checked twice on Monday, I was told that their bank could not redeposit the money plus fees in a timely fashion, so apparently a check for the rent amount will be sent to residents by today. Afterward we have to request to be reimbursed for the fees.

I don't get it. If a bank can pull money out of your account, why can't they deposit money back in your account. Go figure.

Update: Double Rent amount was returned sans the fees, still waiting on getting those fees replaced.

Silly me, picking up the wrong book

2009-04-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

So last week I said that I would be starting the The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, well, maybe not. I double checked my bookshelf and it turns out I have World Without End which is the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth. I've heard people say that you don't need to read the first one to understand the second, but as I start this one, I can't help but feel that I'm missing something.

Are there any books that you have read that you skipped a book in the series, or read out of order.

I did that with the Harry Potter series. I figured since I'd seen the first two Potter movies, that I could skip the first books and start with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When reading the third book, I did feel as if I was missing some small details, but Rowling did a good job in summarizing major plots from the first two. Though, I know some people hated the hand holding but I thought it worked.

Dreadful apartment shopping

2009-04-07T08:36:00.002-05:00

Yup, it's true, I hate looking for an apartment.

It has something to do with the fact that last year, I spent months running around the city with a third degree sprained ankle (in a surgerical recover boot) viewing apartments. Why so long you ask? First, I was looking for an apartment for myself in April, got one by May. But one month later, I had to help my mother look for an apartment, and that didn't go so well. We ended up having to put her stuff in storage, while she took a one month vacation. After that she was living at my apartment for one month before I found a place for her. So needless to say, I'm not the biggest fan of apartment searching. One could say I'm tramatized.

I really miss blogging regularly and miss reading your awesome posts. Hopefully things will become normal again soon.

So what are some of your least favorite things to do?

(p.s. I could never afford the above apartment. Perhaps in my dreams!:)

Stick with Writing

2009-03-31T09:04:00.001-05:00

Occasionally, I am inspired to try something that I really have no right to try such as creating the above flyer/ad/poster, or whatyamecallit??? One week, I was thinking, wow, wouldn't it be interesting to see an ad for Just Cause, something to capture a scene.

Here's the scene from the novel that inspired the picture:

When Katherine saw Collins ascending again, she was thrilled that he preferred to take a chance with her rather than with the boulders below. She waited patiently until he neared the top again.

She pulled the gun out. “It’s over.”

He looked into the barrel of the gun. And then he raised his head and stared directly into the same cold sapphire eyes that had tortured his dreams for the past twenty-six years.

So have you ever been tempted to create a scene from your novel in some way whether it be through picture, music or video?

Icy Shamrock

2009-03-30T09:01:00.001-05:00

Sunday morning we got up at 7:30 a.m. because N was running the Shamrock Rock Shuffle. I looked out of the window and I saw the picture above. It was snowing, windy, icy and generally the kind of Sunday morning where a normal person would have said, "Okay, let's go back to bed now."

No. Instead we dragged around for an hour on the Shamrock Rock Shuffle's website (refreshing ever ten seconds) and checking the news to see if the run was cancelled. But this is Chicago and nothing is ever cancelled because of the weather.

N: "Should we go?"

C: "It's up to you, you're the one running?"

N: "Yea, but you have to stay out there in the snow and ice waiting?"

C: "But I support your decision. If it was me I wouldn't run. I would go back to bed."

N: "You want stay? You tell me?"

C: "You're the one running this not me."

Okay, you get where this is going. We did this back and forth thing for awhile before we decided to go. I dressed for the winter (two pants, two shirts, etc)...

And finally, it turned out great. It was a 10K run and N was done in under 30 minutes. So total time in the winter wonderland, about 1 hour and 15 mins.

Thank goodness I'm a writer and writing can be done from the comfort of my home.

Is anybody home?

2009-03-26T09:05:00.001-05:00

The blog has been a wee quiet as of late because I'm no longer able to post during the day, and I have limited time (5:30 to 11:00 p.m.) to do the following:

Write on new novel

Do submission for the first novel

Work out

Ponder the existence of luck in getting published (Rick, quick, I need an equation here!)

Relax

Look for an apartment (I'm moving at the end of April)

Look for a house (helping the ex-rents look for a house to buy in another state)

Spend time with friends and family (ha, who are they? As I type this post, N is looking at me with evil eyes)

Pick up my dry cleaning

Pick up food (empty fridge alert, oh look, I still have a bottle of white wine!)

I am in this because I love writing. I repeat. Wait what was I saying? So how do you balance your writing with your life? What do you end up giving up to write?

I end up in periods where I don't do much outside of writing and working out. I can be a bit of a hermit, I guess.

Genre Snob

2009-03-23T09:00:00.002-05:00

Am I am genre snob? I surely hope not. The last two books I read (The Road and The Time Traveller's Wife were literary works and I'm currently reading The Grays, and The Pilar of the Earth is next on the list) So I was thinking, why do I like thrillers/suspense/crime fiction the most? What elements in those novels make my heart jump in my chest?

Could it be the fast-paced plot? The stakes? Bad guys you love to hate? Action? Fight scenes? Murder and mystery? Adrenaline rush? All of the above. I'm a bit of a speed junkie too, is that surprising?

But admittedly, I'm trying to broad my horizons and trying to read widely. The key to being a good writer is to read read read and to write write write. That's a easy formula, right?

So what's your favorite genre(s) or type of literary fiction? And why do you like them?

Plus, any suggestions for literary works for a slightly genre obsession person like me?

Queries (it's all about perspective)

2009-03-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

If you’ve been in the query trenches chances are you have seen a rejection or two. If your query was rejected at some point maybe you thought "I've written an unsalable story," or that the agent didn’t get your book, or that the query somehow doesn’t convey what your story is about? These are plausible answers but they aren’t the only answers. Could it truly be that the agent isn’t grabbed by the story? Say Agent A likes stories about elves, but she doesn’t like your particular story about Santa’s elves plotting to take over the world. Let’s look at this assuming that your sample pages are good and your query doesn’t have any of the obvious no no’s such as “I love you Agent A”, or something else silly.

I’ve seen many query letters out there that have grabbed agents. I’ve analyzed voice, plot, characters, writing style, word count, etc, etc. And what I see is that various types of queries are successful. Some of them don’t really capture my attention much as my query isn’t going to capture the attention of Agent X or Y, but perhaps, Agent B.

So am I the only one on the blogosphere that believes: A rejected query letter doesn’t necessary equate to a badly written query.

The Tale of a Broken Chapter 1

2009-03-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

I was inspired by Davin’s post on his chapter 1 to discuss my own struggles with that elusive opening chapter. Face it: as writers we get only one chance to impress the agent of our dreams and we can’t afford to mess up. There are only so many agents out there that represent what we write (in my case, crime and thriller/suspense books). Agents receive hundreds of queries and sample pages per week, so in order to get a partial request we have to stand out.

I repeat: We have to stand out.

How to stand out? You already know the answer: Write a killer query and astounding book.

If we breakdown the process of getting an agent into stages (assuming the book is done and polished) the first stage is to query and most of the time, you can include the first few pages of the novel. In some cases, we can include the entire first chapter and a synopsis. So on to my topic for today....

Chapter 1

It was a dark and stormy night. Um um if you hate the dreadful Chapter 1 raise your hands?

(About the novel: In case you don’t know already: Just Cause follows Katherine Rice as she seeks revenge against the man who killed her son and her brother twenty-five years earlier.)

1st attempt at Chapter 1:

When I first drafted my novel, Chapter 1 started off with the MC reading about criminal cases and plotting a murder. But wait. Here’s the problem: I had to do a few info drops (yes, the dreaded back story) to show the reader why she was out to kill someone. That didn’t work. I dropped the back story and this became Chapter 2.

2nd attempt at Chapter 1:

My second attempt started with the MC waking up from nightmare. STOP! HOLD IT! I had to dump that one too. At the time I didn’t realized that waking up from a nightmare was cliché.

3rd attempt at Chapter 1:

My third attempt at Chapter 1 started off with the MC watching her son sleeping. She was slightly too neurotic. She was checking under beds and seeing phantoms all on the first page. After a few beta readers told me she was unlikeable and too crazy, I tried to patch up the chapter. But for some reason, it just didn’t work. Why? Because there were too many scenes changes in one chapter (at least 4, I think).

4th and hopefully the last attempt:

I ditched the first half of the chapter and now only have one section break. The chapter starts off with the MC waiting by the phone while her husband and the police department are out searching for her son. Since the novel follows her complete mental breakdown, I started Chapter 1 at the point when she begins to lose it. Is this the best place to start? I sure hope so, but I do know that this better than my previous Chapter 1 attempts.

Have any of your struggled with the elusive Chapter 1 and how many rewrites have you done on Chapter 1 because you know those sample pages must grab your dream agent’s attention.

Taken (no spoilers)

2009-03-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

We saw Taken over the weekend. I went in the movie with no expectations, and boy was I surprised!

First, the plot lifted from Yahoo!:

The seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father, the retired agent Bryan Mills that left the secret service to stay near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart; she convinces the reluctant Bryan to sign an authorization to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When they arrive, they share a cab with the stranger Peter and Amanda tells to him that they are alone in Paris. When Bryan succeeds in contacting his daughter, she tells that criminals have just break in the spot and they are kidnapped by an Albanese gang of human trafficking. Bryan promises in the phone to kill the kidnapper of his daughter and immediately travels to Paris to find Kim and chase the criminals.

My take:

Liam Neeson is right on target in the role of concerned father out to find his daughter. His acting was great and he was suprising good in the action scenes too. The movie is slow for the first 30 minutes, but once the action starts it doesn't stop to the very end. If you like your movie with a little family drama at the beginning, and a lot of revenge killings (like ME)... than this is the movie for you. (And they say revenge killing books and movies don't sell, yeah right! The show was sold out and it's not even a 'new' movie anymore.)

Rating:

4.5 of 5 stars

Passing it on: The Road on Sale

2009-03-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you like audiobooks and was thinking about picking up Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It's on sale over at the Itunes store for $4.95.

This. is. a. steal!

This book is one of those rare gems that's well-written, a good story, and both literary and commercial. You can't beat that! :)

Service announcement over!

What's more important: good writing or a good story?

2009-03-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

And for all of you who would straddle the fence on this debate, nope, you can't say they are equal. Just Kidding!

We writers write, edit, write, edit and occasionally we sleep. We obsess about writing rules, and technique, etc. No wonder we can be such an introverted group.

So on to the subject of my post:

There are a loads of books out there selling right now. So of those books, do you think the books selling lean more toward being well written or good stories?

Of course, we can always fall back on the ol' "it's all subjective" argument. But let's say for the sake of discussion, that good writing follows all the rules in Struck and White, or at less if it breaks the rules, it does so correctly. Well, if books sold entirely on the quality of writing, then all books with 'good writing' would sell the most books right?

Here are my example: I loved the Harry Potter series and I read all of the books. I can't tell you a thing about the writing because I enjoyed the story so much. Others readers will tell you something entirely different. Perhaps, someone didn't like the Potter books because of X or Y. But here's what you can't deny. Readers are buying books that they enjoy. My bets are that readers are buying books with good stories. Here's something else to think about: are we as writers just so tuned into the rules of writing and the publishing industry that we are too focus on the small picture not the big picture.

Bottom line: As a writer and especially as a unpublished writer, you have to know the rules of writing and you have to write well, but you also need to think of the big picture: the story.

Oust from the internet and housekeeping

2009-03-06T09:25:00.001-06:00

I've been quiet on the blogsphere since I'm unable to use the internet during the day anymore. (boo hoo). But I wanted to just say there's some interesting posts floating around on the blogsphere and I'm learning some interesting details about your writing styles and the habits you have as reader.

On another note, I've just have to line up my posts on the weekend or at night from now on, starting with this one.

Housekeeping:

Check out Rick's post over on My Daley Rants regarding his new project called Public Query Slushpile.

Here's the idea directly from his site:

"Aspiring writers submit their queries with 3-4 sample pages as a comment to the main post (link is at the top-right of the blog). I will create a new post for each query received, posting as-is. Then the reader community (which is currently just me...I need your help!) can comment on them.Aside from peer reviews and feedback, this may also give us writers insight into the world of an agent, sifting through a daily deluge of queries, trying to find a needle in the haystack. Of course, this all depends on how many writers know about this new blog and choose to submit queries for public viewing. Hence the plea for help..."

Who doesn't need help on their query! :)

Writerly Obsessions: Goal Setting

2009-03-03T11:05:00.002-06:00

As writers, we have quite a few obsessions. Writing queries, synopses, the perfect first sentence, the perfect first paragraph, or the perfect book for that matter. One thing that I've been sort of obsessing about lately is the word count on my WIP. I never cared about word count on the last book until I realize that it was going down during my editing sessions.

(Note: Word counts doesn't make the story. But there are some genres that usually fall into specific word count. See literary agent Colleen Lindsay post here for a breakdown.)

But why are we so considered with word count, page count, or writing 5,000 words a week? I'm guessing as a measuring stick. A goal of sorts.

Why set goals?

Goals can give you a target to aim for.
Goals can help you concentrate your time and effort.
Goals can provide motivation, persistence and desire.
Goals can help you establish priorities.
Goals can provide a road map to take you from where you are to where you want to be.

An important point to remind according to one source: Saying I’m going to have $5 million by retirement is not goal setting. Although it might sound like you have a goal, not developing a realistic path toward fulfilling it will, unfortunately, turn your goal into what it really is--a pipe dream. And pipe dreams are rarely realized. Goals, however, when properly set can usually be met. Through learning, and practicing, the step-by-step routine of goal setting.

So what are you measuring sticks for writing? What goals do you set for yourself, if any? Do you often meet your goals, and if you don't, do you modify the goal to make it more attainable?

Nonwriterly Obsessions: Cheese, Potatoes & Wine

2009-02-26T09:19:00.008-06:00

(This has been a busy week for me and I've hadn't had time to keep up with blogging. I'm writing, critiquing, got a writing group meeting coming up this weekend. But I'm back and let's see if I can combine of all my food and drink obsessions into one post.)

At the age of six or seven, I earned the nickname French Fry because I told everyone that I love love love fries, which I still do today. But as I aged, my love for fries expanded to a love for all things potatoes: baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, oven roasted potatoes, pan-seared potatoes.... (I could go on but I'll spare you!)

My obsession with cheese is probably just as ancient. I love cheese so much that when I went on my recent vacation to Galena, IL, I made a point to visit a cheese store (which mostly had Wisconsin cheeses...yum!). I ended buying one cheese with olives in it and this delightful cracked pepper cheese which I'm sad to say I haven't been able to find again. Right now, I'm really into French and Swiss cheeses. Any cheese with Gruyère in the name is okay by me.

My favorite drink to have with cheese or potatoes is White Wine, but I'm particularly into Riesling. This type of white wine usually comes from Germany, but as with all products in the global economy, it's now produced all of the world. Still my favorite Riesling is a Germany one called Dr. L Riesling. I discovered it in a restaurant but haven't found it in stores. Wine.com has it, but it's always sold out, which speaks to how wonderful the wine tastes.

Enough rambling, here are some picture of all this yummy food I'm at my computer salivating about:

Dr. L Riesling

Édel de Cléron

Gruyère de Comté

Homemade Fries

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Favorite dishes using the above ingredients:

Potatoes sautéed in olive oil, your choice of herbs and seasonings. Once the potatoes are cooked, melt some Édel de Cléron cheese on it. Ouch, good stuff!

Cheese fondue: mix Gruyère de Comté with a little dry white wine, a tap of butter and toast some bread. Good stuff!

So enough about my food obsessions, what foods are you into?

Non-writerly Obsessions: Cycling

2009-02-23T11:00:00.009-06:00

(Congrats Levi, Tour of California Winner!)

This week I'm going to be posting on my non-writerly obsessions, of which, I have many. First up, I would like to throw my congratulation in to Levi Leipheimer, three time winner of the Tour of California. He excels at "King of the Mountains" and he's a pretty good sprinter too.

Levi is the head honcho on Team Astana, which also boosts world class cycling champion Lance Armstrong (welcome back Lance!). By the way, Lance finished an impressive seventh place overall following his un-retirement (I think he was retired for four years).

But back to Levi. He's quoted as saying:

“I’ve been trying to think about how to articulate this and it’s tough,” said Leipheimer. “To win it once, that was huge. To win it twice, that was almost a little bit of a surprise and almost felt like luck. But now, to have won the Amgen Tour of California three times, it’s the sweetest victory of all. I think we proved that we were the best team in the race. There is no question about that.”

Levi started his career in cycling back in 1987 and went pro in 1997. His breakthrough performance was in 2001 at the Vuelta a España, where he finished in third place overall. In 2002 and 2004, he was the second-highest American finisher after Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, taking eighth and ninth place in respective years.

(Secretly my second dream career after being a writer would be to be a professional cyclist but for now I will continue to live vicariously through Levi's great success.)

Writerly moral to be learned:

Lei proves that if you work enough, have patience, endurance and the talent, you can achieve your dream.

The Time Traveler's Wife (review without spoilers)

2009-02-17T10:31:00.009-06:00

I finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger in January and I meant to blog about it awhile ago. I would definitely recommend it.

General description from Amazon:

On the surface, Henry and Clare Detamble are a normal couple. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper art, but in reality Henry is a prisoner of time. It sweeps him back and forth at its leisure, from the present to the past, with no regard for where he is or what he is doing. It drops him naked and vulnerable into another decade, wearing an age-appropriate face. In fact, it's not unusual for Henry to run into the other Henry and help him out of a jam. Sound unusual? Imagine Clare Detamble's astonishment at seeing Henry dropped stark naked into her parents' meadow when she was only six. Though, of course, until she came of age, Henry was always the perfect gentleman and gave young Clare nothing but his friendship as he dropped in and out of her life. (The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration.)

My take on the book:

If you like your books with a dash of sci-fi, a pinch of love story, and generous serving of literary, then this is the book for you. The characters are rich and complex. The narration is a close first-person, so you get deep inside of Henry and Clare's thoughts, their fears, their sadness, their joy. The book did a good job of making me really care about the characters.

As a Chicago native Niffenegger's descriptions of the city were dead accurate, right down the 'feeling' of particular neighborhoods, bars and restaurants. Love love love the details about the Art Institute. The writing was exquisite and just as Cormac McCarthy did in The Road, Niffenegger cradled both literary and commercial styles. I'm more of a commercial reader myself, however this novel mixes the two styles of writing perfectly. Think: literary tone but a commercial appeal.

I felt the ending was a little rushed, but I was so satisfied with the book as a whole, that the ending didn't matter much. And due to the nature of the story, I suppose the ending makes sense, but I'm still on the fence about that.

Again, I definitely recommend the book. The writing, the story and the characters are well executed.

Lean (not so Mean) Query

2009-02-16T15:33:00.002-06:00

(housekeeping note: Chapter 1 is back up on the blog. There's a link on the right sidebar. I'm due to run this version through critique circle in two weeks so as of now it's unread and I guess, more or less still a work in process)

I received a lot of really good suggestions since Friday on my little, ol' silly query. Thanks a million times for weighing it. Here's the newest version. It looks a little lean, and I was wondering if any of you thought it was maybe too lean. Do you get why Katherine has decided to take the law into her own hands? Is the flow okay? Are there too many adjectives in the first paragraph. Will the final five cylons save the cylon and the human race?? okay... enough, Crimey....

(btw, anyone who needs help with your query, synopsis, hook, whatever, I'm available. I tend to be more objective when not reviewing my own work. I would like to help you all out as much as you have helped me.)

Query below:

After discovering chilling similarities between her son’s brutal murder and her brother’s unsolved slaying twenty-five years earlier, Katherine Rice sets out to uncover the truth. But the search for answers puts her in danger when she learns the killer is part of a network of pedophiles called The Convent.

Unwilling to trust the justice system that has failed her twice, she vows to stop The Convent before they hurt more children. With the help of another parent who also lost a child to The Convent, she eradicates members of the group. But when Katherine’s thirst for retribution lands her on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, she must stay one step ahead of a tenacious lawman out to stop her. With the help of a few sympathizers she manages to outsmart the FBI, but unbeknownst to her, the leader of The Convent is on her trail and looking for a little revenge of his own.

(Note: But is used one too many times and with the help of is used one too many times. Any suggestions for fixing that? My brain is fried again.)

oh silly query! how I love and hate thee.

2009-02-13T11:33:00.004-06:00

I've taken another stab at the query. Any suggestions and comments are welcome. Now I'm going to hide in a corner and get those darn edits complete on chapter 1.

Query (without intro and closing):

After discovering chilling similarities between her son's brutal murder and her brother's slaying twenty-five years before, Katherine Rice sets out to uncover the truth. But when her search turns into an obsession, it consumes her every waking moment and destroys her marriage. With her husband on the way out of her life and the killer still at large, Katherine's grief and misery transforms into a thirst for vengeance. Soon after, she tracks down the killer and enacts revenge but gets more than she bargains for when she stumbles across a network of pedophiles called The Convent.

Unwilling to trust the justice system that failed her twice, she vows to stop them before they hurt more children. Another parent, who also lost a child to the Convent, joins her cause and together they go after Convent members. With the help of a few sympathizers they manage to stay one step ahead of the tenacious FBI agent hunting them. But things get more complicated when they realize that the leader of the Convent is hot on their trail.

Paul Blart, Mall Cop (without spoilers)

2009-02-11T16:04:00.005-06:00

Sometimes you have to just see a senseless comedy to get the juices flowing. After my last experience at the movies, the unmemorable, what's the name of that movie, um, actually I've forgotten. Anyway, this is definitely a cute movie you can see with the kiddies (maybe 10 and up), as there is some mall karate action scenes.

The plot (lifted from yahoo!):

A single, suburban dad tries to make ends meet as a security officer at a New Jersey mall. It's a job he takes very seriously, though no one else does. When Santa's helpers at the mall stage a coup, shutting down the megaplex and taking hostages (Paul's daughter and the girl of his dreams among them), Jersey's most formidable mall cop will have to become a real cop to save the day.

The review:

Paul Blart is your run-of-mill, simple guy looking for that special someone while trying to raise his daughter alone. (His first wife was an illegal immigrant who left him after the birth of their daughter). His daughter and his mother come up with a plan to get him a girlfriend through match.com, but he's got his eye on a wig sales lady at the mall. Things go nutty when some young 'punks' try to take over the mall. Then comes all these over the top, high-flying, stunts scenes performed by the criminals, who all have no personality, and are more like stunt doubles or better yet extras, than actors. I swear some of them don't have any lines that are intelligible.

My rating: 3 out of 5.

Kevin James' plays the role well. I loved him on King of Queens. I think he's been sort of unjustly ignored as a comedian compared to other actors in similar roles.

Will this award blow my cover?

2009-02-09T09:44:00.003-06:00

The always pleasant southern belle AC gave me a "Your Blog is Fabulous" Award a few weeks ago. Now, fellow crime fiction writer extraordinaire Lady Glamis has done the same. Thanks to the both of you. I'm glad you like my ramblings and I truly have enjoyed both of your blogs as well.

Okay, so this award comes with rules. I have to reveal 5 obsessions and pass it on...

5 obsessions:

Reality cop shows (I'm a.d.d.i.c.t.e.d) I can't help myself

Cheese

Potatoes

Working out (With being addicted to cheese and potatoes, one must work out)

Video Zune (music, audiobooks, and only my favorite tv shows in one place, excellent)
________

I bestow this most pretigious award upon
Countdown to Publication
Gutsy Writer
Ambition (Justus, I understand if you um, want to ignore the girly picture above).
The Long Road To Heaven
(and of course, Lady Glam and AC)

I have enjoy all your blogs, and gosh, you guys are awesome, talent writers! :)

See monkey write

2009-02-02T15:12:00.004-06:00

( I'm trying to figure out if the Monkey above is the famous Rally Monkey from Moonrat's Blog. Personally, I had no clue that "Monkey" was a bestselling author.)

My posts are going to be far in between for the next few days or weeks. I'm getting really backed up with work overload and I've got to trim off some time from extra activities so I can get some edits done on Just Cause and get some chapters done on the new WIP.

I'll probably still pop by once in awhile to post/comment on your lovely blog entries.

Best,

Rad tad tad :)

My Bloody Valentine 3D (no spoilers)

2009-01-29T12:04:00.009-06:00

Whew, I can breathe a little easier now that my submission for this week's critique group meeting is off. I reworked my query and synopsis, tried to give life to Chapter 1. It's like someone took a load off my shoulders.

Okay, as I'm a movie buff of sorts, I'm going to do a short review of My Bloody Valentine 3D, which so happens to be the first movie I saw in theatres this year. (Note: I almost forgot to add the 3D on there, which is important since it cost me an extra $2 bucks to see the movie.)

Premise (shamlessly lifted from Yahoo!): Ten years ago, Tom Hanniger, caused an accident at a mine that trapped and killed five men and sent survivor, Harry Warden, into a coma. Then, exactly one year later, on Valentine's Day, Harry Warden woke up--and brutally murdered twenty-two people with a pickaxe before being killed. Ten years later, Tom Hanniger's back in town, still haunted by the deaths he caused. And after years of peace, a mysterious murderer wearing a miner's mask and armed with a pickaxe is on the loose.

Could it be Michael Myers? Jason Voorhees? Or Freddy Krueger? Or Crimogenic? I promise it’s not me.

Believe me, you figure out the answer twenty minutes into the movie. It can’t be him, could it? But that’s too obvious. Oh, look, there’s a five minute scene with a woman running around naked. I. Kid. You. Not. Maybe it’s to distract the moviegoers, make them forget that we know the killer’s identity.

3D? Oh dear, what do you suppose the glasses are for? Too look cool, oh course! There were so little actual interesting 3d effects in the movie that I recommend that you skip the 3d version and catch it at a regular screening instead. You'll save 2 bucks.

My overall rating out of 5: 2 because my friends and I had a ball laughing at each other wearing the 3d glasses.

And answer me these questions:

How does a man in a coma for a year wake up and is able to immediately not only get out of bed, but kill twenty-five people?

How does he get the pickaxe? Was it just waiting for him beside his hospital bed?

It's true that every movie is better after a glass of wine? (yes, I can attest to that.)

Loco alert!

2009-01-28T11:32:00.002-06:00

Wow. Sometimes I swear.

I see why writers are a little um, what’s the word nutty (crazy, loco, deranged, cuckoo). I’m currently working on the query letter, revising my synopsis, revising Chapter 1 of Just Cause, soon to be reviewing work from my fantastic critique group, working on the first draft of the next novel, and trying to be productive at my day job (failing miserably). There are not enough hours in the day.

I repeat. There are not enough hours in the day.

On top of those activities add the various stresses in life. At the beginning of last year, I injured my ankle and here it is a year later, and it still hasn’t healed and doctors say there is nothing more that can be done. I’m a very active person and my bummed ankle has knocked me off the circuit. So now, I’m working out again and dealing with pain that varies in intensity, but is there every step of the way.

I’ve just been told that my rent will increase at the beginning of my new lease (three months from now). So I have to start looking for another place because hell if I’m going to pay more money when rent is falling all over the city. Plus, it’s not like they upgraded my unit or anything. They’re upgrading areas of the building that didn’t need it such as ripping up and replacing marble floors that didn’t have a scratch on them. Not my problem. Not paying for it. I hate hate hate apartment hunting, so stress hell soon to come.

How to I deal with all this? Sing? Dance on tabletops? Jump on couches like Tom Cruise? All of the above.

My usual suspects for stress relief are:

Writing (go figure)

Yoga (bummed ankle, remember?)

Working out (see a pattern here?)

Volleyball and skating (um, did I mention I injured my ankle a second time while playing volleyball last year?)

Okay, I’m done with the whineFest. Just saying there are definitely times in our lives when boy we need a break. Anyone care to share some of their annoyance with writing, the publishing industry, life, or your favorite tv shows?

P.s. I’m pee’d off with the death of Dee on Battlestar.

Okay, really rant over!

20 rejections later....

2009-01-26T11:50:00.010-06:00

(WEEEE... says the writer on the merry-go-round. Speed up a bit, horsey!)

I first started querying my novel Just Cause back in October 2008. I tend to query in batches of 5 agents for a few reasons.

First, I don't want to overload myself with query letters, tracking them and such. Secondly, I figured if I queried in batches and kept getting rejections then something was wrong with the query and I could rework it. Thirdly, I think I would take to the Bourbon if I had a dozen or so rejections in my inbox at one time.

So 20 rejections, four version of the query letter later, I'm back at the drawing board. Can't say I'm happy to be back. Although, I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't mean that I have to spend time away from my latest novel to work on the query letter for the last novel. But it's a fact of life for writers who aspired to be published.

We're all at various stages of the writing/ publishing process. Probably multiple stages. I consider myself as the querying stage, but also at the writing stage for my second work in process. It's all fun in the sun, or at least, that's what I keep telling myself.

This writer needs query help!

2009-01-22T15:30:00.011-06:00

(Caption: Pictured above: soulless dementors out to eat me if I don't make this query shine.)

Query query query. If I never hear the word query again it would be too soon. But as with everyone else, it comes time to ask other writers for query help. I've probably written my query 18,746 times. Recently a very, fantastic super patient Lady Glam helped (thanks endlessly).

I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with, but I know I can miss the smallest little things and hope I can get help from other writers on the nitpicking things, any grammar issues, passive voice, etc.

Here's the damn beast (pull out my whip):

I'm seeking representation for my crime novel, JUST CAUSE. [personalized statement here]

Katherine’s fear that something bad will happen to her young son gives way to reality when he’s abducted and later found murdered. When the killer eludes police, grief and misery rips a hole through Katherine’s marriage and transforms into a thirst for revenge. She sets out to even the score and discovers that the man belonged to a network of pedophiles called The Convent.

Unwilling to trust the justice system that failed her once, Katherine teams up with another grieving parent and storms across the U.S. in search of Convent members only to find out that their leader will do anything to protect his secret. As if that weren't enough, Katherine learns that the very justice system she ignored has come back to haunt her in the form of a tenacious FBI agent hell-bent on stopping them.

[Bio retracted]

JUST CAUSE is complete at 97,000 words. The novel chronicles Katherine’s descent into the underbelly of society and leads her through white picket fences, millionaire estates, and hot apple pie to find men and women with secrets to protect. I have included the first five pages below. I am able to send additional pages or the completed manuscript upon request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Interview with a Muse

2009-01-21T10:05:00.019-06:00

Shamelessly inspired by Lady Glam's post on identifying your muse.

Note: Although I tried to find a picture online to accurately represent my muse, it was impossible. Sometimes I worry if he's something more than human. If I had to describe his physical attributes, I would say that he's tall, has leathery pitch black skin, hairless and abnormally thin. At least that's the way he was years ago.

(Interview conducted in a little off-the-beaten-path spot with red velvet upholstered couches, and jazz playing overhead. The owner must have not gotten the memo: No smoking allowed inside public settings in Chicago.)

Muse: (lights up cigarette)

Crimo: You know I don't approve.

Muse: (Blows rings of smokes and crosses one leg over the other).

Crimo: (frowns and straight the notepad on the table)

Muse: (In a low raspy voice) I ain't got all day.

Crimo: So... you know you use to scare the bejesus out of me when I was a kid?

Muse: (conniving smile appears) That's so?

Crimo: When I first met you I thought I was crazy. I was sleeping and thought I had wakened up, but when I tried to move I realize that a 'force' was holding me down. Then I realizes the black mass before me was a person, of sorts. The more I struggled the stronger your hole. Then you screamed this nerve-wrecking high pitch scream. You know the kind that breaks glasses.

Muse: What am I, your shrink?

Crimo: (looks the waiter in the eyes as he brings Muse a bourbon): I'm just saying that's a odd way to introduce yourself to a 8 year old.

Muse: What can I say? I believe in a hands on approach. (pauses and swallows down the bourbon in one big gulp) And the screaming, well that was you.

Crimo: (frowns, surprised by this realization): Over the next 10 years, I dreaded seeing you. Although, you did end up the object of my obsession. You were the leading bad guy in many of the stories I wrote as a child.

Muse: I'm touched.

Crimo: Was that sarcasm?

Muse: Bingo.

Crimo: Tell me about your origins?

Muse: You know how in Greek Mythology Athena supposedly sprung from Zeus's head when he had a splitting headache?

Crimo: Yea....?

Muse: Et Voila.

Crimo: Double WOW. I love Greek Mythology and I didn't know you knew French.

Muse: Yea, N taught me a few words here and there.

Crimo: Cool.

Muse: The point is: I came to be from your elaborate dreams, your relentless building of worlds and universes in your head, your obsession with why bad guys were bad and the thin line between good and evil.....

Crimo: Ohh, yes, that's always been a reoccurring theme in my dreams: good and evil.

Muse: And the fact that you have long entertained friends and family with your tales. Not to mention, talked hours on end about your writing and stories. Speaking of which, can you give N a break?

Crimo: Why, did N say something to you about my ramblings?

Muse: I'm just sayin'.

Crimo: Tell me more about yourself?

Muse: This isn't about me, it's about you.

Crimo: You appear to have pick up a little weight since my childhood.

Muse: Yea, I'm growing. The more knowledge you gain, the more I develop. Remember before? I was born with no mouth, eyes, or nose. Hell if I'm lucky, I'll even have hair before you die.

Crimo: Thanks I think, you know, for the off beat compliment.

Muse: Don't even mention it.

Crimo: Well, I have got to get back to work. Can I finish this interview another time.

Muse: (holds up empty glass) Are you buyin' next time too?

Crimo: You betcha.

Writer's Block, A Disease?

2009-01-19T10:36:00.003-06:00

I have bouts of writer's block. I'm creating this post because of writer's block. For the past few days, I've been attempting to "write" my new novel. (It was going very well until this past weekend.) I say attempting because the white space on the blank paper just doesn't want to fill up. It's fighting me. For every word I write, the blank space counters. It's never ending. Every time I hit return, it grows. Sadistic, I tell you. Plain Sadistic.

So in my madness, I thought I'd research writer's block. What the frak is it? (Can't you tell I'm on the Battlestar wagon).

According to the Wikipedia Gods, writer's block is a phenomenon involving temporary loss of ability to begin or continue writing, usually due to lack of inspiration or creativity. *phenomenon* By using phenomenon rather than any ol' other word, the Wiki Gods have spoken and deemed writer's block a fraking BIG deal.

Wiki Gods go on to state that in the book Silence, by Tillie Olsen, the author argues that historically writers have been unable to devote themselves to, or concentrate on, their writing because their social and economic circumstances prevent them from doing so.

Heck, makes sense to me. I definitely have periods when work and my family life end up consuming all of my attention, or work is stressful and my brain refuses to function after 5 p.m. And I'm definitely not a early morning writer.

Here are some solutions to writer's block according to sources on the web.

Read a book

Take a break

Free write (turn off the internal editor)

Schedule time to write

Try a writing exercise

Meditate (my favorite)

Write basic plot outline

Brainstorm at the beginning of writing session

Get some fresh air

Listen to music

Join a writing group (hurrah for critique groups)

I'm wondering how wide spread is writer's block. Is this something that happens to a lot of other writers. What really causes it and what are others writers doing to combat it.

How do you write, start to first....

2009-01-12T15:10:00.001-06:00

Recently I have been focusing on the my new novel and for some reason I thought I would try to write the novel in order, from start to finish.

Here's the problem.

I have never written like that and just trying to standardize the creative process was driving me nuts. When I wrote Just Cause, I wrote the scenes, chapters and paragraphs that came to me first. One of the first chapters I wrote for the novel ended up being Chapter 12 in the final version. I keep telling myself it makes sense to write from beginning to end, maybe in hopes of knowing the complete direction of the story. But I just ended up rushing through scenes to get to the next one. In a way it sort of sucked the fun out of writing. So I stopped. I decided to go back to the old way, one chapter here, a paragraph there, a scene, a sentence, a phrase. I ended up creating multiple documents, saved under one folder called The End of Faith Project (End of Faith is the working title for the novel). Now when I have a new scene that doesn't belong in the current chapter I'm working on I just create a new Word document and type away, knowing that eventually it will all come together just like before.

This also reminds me of a recent argument regarding whether or not to turn off the internal editor when writing the first draft of a novel. I had reservations about turning off my internal editor, but when I realized how much "it" was slowing me down from getting new ideas on the page, I switched sides. Now I'm writing freely, with all the grammar and spelling mistakes shining through. I figure every three or four chapters, I can go back and edit a bit.

How do you write? From start to finish, by chapter, or as completely scatterbrained as me?

I Heart Writers

2009-01-07T12:50:00.005-06:00

Which writers inspire/ influence you the most and why?

Philip Roth: The Human Strain has some of the most beautiful writing I have ever seen. I wasn’t a fan of the story, but the writing was breathtaking so I read on wondering how a person could have such mastery.

Dean Koontz: Sometimes I wonder if this man coined the term thriller. He knows how to keep his novels fast-paced. If I want a quick, easy-reading thriller, I always pick up his books.

J.K. Rowling: This lady knows how to spin a complex story. She does an amazing job at world building. I was one of those kids who love all things magic, and the Harry Potter series make me feel like a kid again.

Alice Walker & Toni Morrison: If you want to feel emotions from A to Z when reading, pick up one of their books. When I read Beloved by Morrison, I went through moments of happiness, disgust, sadness, hope, and despair. They really know how to reel in the reader.

Cormac McCarthy: Speaking of mastery, Cormac McCarthy is another one who has a superior understanding on words, language, and storytelling and he uses them to toys with our minds.

Stephen King, Danielle Steel, & Mary Higgins Clark: Nope, I have never read anything by Danielle Steel, used to read a lot of Higgins Clark when I was a pup, and just starting to get into King, but no one can deny that these folks are prolific writers. They are book producing machines. I've heard arguments that some of their newer books are recycled from older books, but this doesn't deny the fact that they pump out books quicker than a wild west gunslinger.

Are there writers that influence your writing or inspire you and why?

Slave to Movies

2009-01-05T10:00:00.005-06:00

Another sad but true fact about me is that I'm a slave to movies. I love love love watching movies. I gravitate more toward seeing sci-fi, thriller, horror, and action movies in the theatre and leave the comedies and feel-good stuff for DVDs. Why? Because a sci-fi/thriller/action movie usual include explosive scenes, complex machinery, beautiful cars, kickass karate and brilliant special effects that are begging to be ogled. Some of them are just so sleek and stylized. My little tv at home just can't contain the beauty. Of course, I don't have a fancy lcd or plamsa tv, I just have an ol' regular television. I'm probably the last one on the planet with one of those...
Back on subject.

So far my 2009 must see list include (in no particular order). Click on the movie title to see the trailer or more information:

Star Trek

The Road (no trailer released yet)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Terminator: Salvation

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Angels & Demons

Maybe List:

My Bloody Valentine

Friday the 13th

Saw VI (unfortunately, I'm locked in the series, after seeing all the others, it's sickening) (no trailer released yet, but we all know it will be the same as the last 45000 versions of the movie).

What movies are you looking forward to in 2009, or are you too busy writing and reading to watch movies. (I'm feeling guilty already that I will definitely be seeing many of the above instead of writing. But then I think it's all about balance. Yes that's right, balance.)

To Read List 2009 (part 1)

2008-12-29T12:55:00.001-06:00

I received three new books for Christmas to add to my collection of books, one from a literary agent (will blog about that later). Looking back on the books that I read this year, there were great discoveries that touched my heart on so many levels: the writing, the style, the story. And there were books that left me shaking my head, saying what the (how does the Illinois Governor put it) BEEP.

Favorite Book Read in 2008: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Least Favorite Book Read in 2008: Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers
Book that I couldn't finish in 2008: The Kite Runner by Khalad Hosseini (and unfortunately can't say that I ever plan to finish it)
Book that I started in 2008 and will finish in 2009: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (what a lovely story. yes, I know I said I'm not into romance. It's not really romance, it's a disease. Okay, you got me on this one.)

There are so many books I want to read in 2009 that I had to break my list into 2 (or 3) parts. Here are the ones top on my list right now.

The Suicide Collectors by David Oppegaard

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

The Jack Reacher Series by Lee Child (yes, all of them. I read the excerpt from the latest book and was completely blown away by the writing and the voice of the narrator)

The Mind of Your Story: Discover What Drives Your Fiction by Lisa Lenard

Any favorite or least favorite books read in 2008? Books that you couldn't put down, or pick back up again.

Blogging World

2008-12-23T12:14:00.010-06:00

Thanks to my fellow writers (MA, AC, Kate, Justus, Pseudosu, and others too) for opening up a whole new world and experience for me.

The past few days (weeks) have been an exciting time for me in the Blogging World. Oftentimes when I'm writing and editing, I feel alone and sometimes as if I'm the only one struggling with crafting novels. Recently I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful writers, who are dedicated and serious about writing and pursuing a publishing career.

It all started with blogging.

I had no clue about blogs really, until around about April or May 2008. I was searching online for resources for writers, and came upon the writer's digest website and their annual list of the 101 Best Sites for writers. Starting there and clicking through links on various agents' blogs I found Moonrat, Janet Reid, Nathan Bransford, Jessica Faust, Colleen Lindsay, Kristin Nelson, Jenny Rappaport, Jennifer Jackson, Kate Testerman.....

I had no clue that literary agents (and super cool, secret editors) blogged, and about publishing no less. The information that these agents and many other provide is invaluable. After reading through a few posts, I realized that published and aspiring writers were commenting and offering each other advice. I couldn't believe it because outside of my writing group, I knew very few people who cared about books and writing as much as me. So finally I figured I'd try blogging out myself. So commenting a little, blogging a little, equals meeting some really fabulous writers. Who knew :)

Novel Pitch Critique: The Perfect Gift

2008-12-22T11:08:00.009-06:00

There is a heaven!

I’ve been struggling with my query letter for a few months now. Sad but true. I rewrote the thing at least six or seven times. Nevertheless, it was missing something, so after sending it out to about 15 agents and receiving rejections, I put it aside for a while, vowing to figure out the problem. Then along comes a Christmas gift from Jessica Faust at BookEnds Literary Agency. She recently offered to critique pitches for her readers on her agency's blog. The pitches were (are still being) randomly selected for critique. I jumped at the chance and got extremely lucky. Here’s her eye-opening critique of my pitch for Just Cause here:

Crimogenic said...
When Katherine Rice’s son is murdered, she doesn’t trust the system to punish the killer because twenty-five before, the same man got away with slaughtering her brother. She hunts for the killer but gets more than she bargains for when she discovers that he’s part of an online network of pedophiles called The Convent. Now Katherine’s dream of fading into oblivion is put on hold as she sets out to rid the world of these child predators.(Crime Fiction)

Jessica said...
This had potential in the sense that the length is perfect and I just thought maybe, maybe this is the perfect one. Unfortunately you're telling and not showing me your story. Wouldn't it be much stronger to say something like, "Katherine Rice is hunting a killer, the same man who (brutally slaughtered?) both her son and her brother twenty-five years earlier. Not trusting a legal system that has failed her before, Katherine stumbles upon The Convent, a network of pedophiles that has..." That could still be stronger, but I hope you get what I'm thinking in terms of making this more active.

I know that a pitch isn't exactly the same as a query letter, but the comments she made for my pitch make sense for the query. Bottom line for the pitch and query: The story needs to be shown not told to the reader. Jessica took my own pitch and rearranged it to show me exactly what she meant. I can't thank her enough! Her clients are so lucky to have her.

Funny thing is that I once had a version of the query that was more 'showing' but after running it through a couple of betas, I was told to trash it. Any who, Jessica has really opened up my eyes. I posted a "rough draft" of a new pitch below. Thoughts and comments are welcomed.

(updated, based on MA's awesome notes):

Katherine Rice is hunting the man who brutally slaughtered her son and her brother twenty-five years earlier. Unable to trust a justice system that failed to catch the perpetrator, Katherine not only finds the murderer, but stumbles upon The Convent, a network of pedophiles responsible for the exploitation of hundreds of children. Starting with her initial target, she picks off the child predators one by one and finds herself pitted against The Convent leader who’s hell-bent on stopping her rampage.

Stealing Christmas trees

2008-12-18T12:48:00.006-06:00

UPDATE: I found a 3ft-tall Christmas tree, perfect for my tiny apartment. I'm very satisfied now, but unfortunately, I don't think I can return the Christmas tree I stole online. Oh well, Merry Christmas to all! :)

-----
I’m sulky and a bit jealous. Okay, I won’t go so far as to say that. N and I were so darn busy the past couple weeks (months) that we never got around to picking out and putting up a Christmas tree. I love Christmas Trees. I love decorating them. Spending time writing in front of one. Staring at the lights and ornaments. I’m a big kid. I like to see the presents underneath the tree. It’s so magical. This is my first Christmas without a tree. I started looking for one last week but they were all sold out, so I’ve taken to stealing one online and posting it on my blog because it makes me feel a little better. Sad but true.

Opening lines and paragraphs

2008-12-12T11:55:00.009-06:00

I recently entered into the first line contest over at Miss Snark's First Victim Blog. (Authoress, thanks for hosting a wonderful, interactive competition.) I learned a lot. Right after, I entered the first paragraph contest at agent Nathan Bransford's blog. From reading the other entries in both competitions (some very awesome), I realized I should look to improve my own first paragraph. The paragraph, I submitted from my novel Just Cause is a part of a recently added new first chapter that hasn't gone through my writing group yet. Bottomline, I'm going to hurry this one off to the writing group soon so that I can get their advice on what works and what doesn't in my first paragraph.

Here's my rewrite of the first paragraph so far:

Katherine stood in the doorway watching the boy sleep. He slept in the fetal position, his face illuminated by the soft glow from the nightlight beside his bed. With grace earned by practice, she began her nightly routine. She checked underneath the bed and the closet and then she moved to the window. Just as she had half expected, there he was, standing on the sidewalk looking up at the second floor window. Tall and featureless, the silhouette from her nightmare disappeared at the blink of her eyes.

Newspaper Cutouts are for old time criminals....

2008-11-19T15:01:00.000-06:00

The above is a newspaper cutout puzzle of the title of my first novel. Two words. You have 30 seconds to figure it out. Go!

The characters in my first book wouldn't be caught dead sending ol' fashion newspaper cutout letters to the police because my criminals (oops, I mean characters) seem to think themselves a sophisticated & savvy bunch. One happens to be a hacker, so he's pretty e-mail and Internet friendly and gives the FBI a run for their money. The other can use the Internet very efficiently to find her next victim. Good luck coppers!

Nostalgia for Sci-fi

2008-11-18T11:47:00.004-06:00

The Boston Globe did a nice list of the top 50 sci-fi/fantasy shows of all time. After going through the list, I realized that at least 60 percent were shows that I adored as a child. Some of the shows were before my time but I equally enjoyed the reruns. I remember the anticipation of watching Fox Mulder and knowing that he was right even if his brilliant redhead partner could never be convinced. When Sam Beckett leaped into a new person’s body every episode, I was on the edge of my seat. I loved when he leaped into a girl; those episodes were always so fun. When Xena fought, I practiced my kicks and battle cry. Oh, the nostalgia! It almost brings a tear to the eye.

So...(I'm not crying, just got something in my eye is all)

Here are my top 10 sci-fi television shows of all time in no particular order because it would make me cry again if I had to rank them.

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
2. The Twilight Zone
3. Quantum Leap
4. Sliders
5. Star Trek (Original)
6. The X-Files
7. Farscape
8. Xena: Warrior Princess
9. Stargate SG-1
10. Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica (reimagined), Tales from the Dark Side, Star Trek: DS-9 (okay, I cheated a bit with the last entry).

And it makes me nervous to think that I'm forgetting some great masterpiece.... oh, I hope not.

Cormac McCarthy, part 2

2008-11-12T12:14:00.001-06:00

Ever read a book that was so brilliant that the word brilliant couldn't describe it? In fact, no one word in your vocabulary could describe how the book touched you. This is how I feel about Cormac McCarthy's The Road. So in sharing how I feel about this book, I warn you, I use a lot of "ly" words.

At first, I was a bit surprised by how painstakingly simple the writing seemed. No commas, no quote marks for dialogue, characters without names, no complex, mind-twisting sentences. The story-telling is straightforward, eloquent and flows extremely well. The story really draws the reader into this post-apocalyptic world and the characters are full-realized. The Road shows how love, hope and dedication can survive in any condition. The bonds between father and son are tested but never broken. A father struggles to teach his son how to survive, and in turn his son teaches him the meaning of humanity.

I won't be a spoil-sport by giving away the story, because afterall, this is one if you haven't read, it should be on your to-read list.

Thank you Cormac McCarthy for this masterpiece.

Cormac McCarthy, part 1

2008-11-06T10:18:00.009-06:00

If you haven't read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" than you should be ashamed. I'm ashamed that I just got around to starting the book less than a month ago. It's brilliant I tell you, absolutely brilliant. A true mastermind at work. When we're all decrepit and mostly senile we'll be thinking about the great books of our time (Of All Time), and this one will be right there. I'm saving my review for after I've had time to ponder the novel....

But in researching all thing McCarthy I saw that the movie version will be coming out in 2009. How so exciting! And.... I nearly passed out when I saw that mega cool actor Viggo Mortensen (from Lord of the Rings) will be the lead in the movie. I'll be seeing this one on opening night. Boy, I can hardly contain my excitement, I want to jump for joy. By the way, the picture above is of the "movie tie-in" cover of the novel.

Rejection

2008-11-05T12:23:00.004-06:00

Ouch, rejection hurts. It’s worse than a bee sting.

I tested the waters with my query and within five minutes, the agent sent me a rejection. I will keep on querying, but probably not until I have reconstructed my query letter for the 1,000 time.

Not to long ago I thought that writing the novel would be the hardest thing I did, now I see just how naive I was. I queried last month when I thought my query was great, and was rejected 6 times and didn’t get replies for the other 6 therefore I consider them rejections as well. So this makes number 13.

I have worked hard to craft my novel and edited it shamelessly, so like so many writers out there, I trully feel I have the potential to make it as a writer. I will keep on truckin' because, well, that's what I've always done.

NaNo WriMo Who?

2008-10-31T15:34:00.004-05:00

Yup, it's that time of year again. Don't pretend you don't know. Wait who am I talking to exactly? No, I'm not talking about Halloween.

Okay, to the point: November is National Write a Novel Month (note: not an official federal holiday yet) so the folks over at Nano WriMo are hosting an annual month long writing event, where writers are encouraged to write 50,000 word novels. Quantity is emphasized and quality is thrown out the window. I think, all and all, it's an interesting idea, but I rather spend my time polishing up my query or synopsis over the next month.

If I were to participate in Nano WriMo, I can't imagine that I would complete 50,000 words in a month with my busy work and social life (okay not so much of a busy social life, ha!). But I don't think Nano WriMo works for me for one reason: I like to edit what I write to an 'extent', which means I can't with a clear conscious write a chapter riddled with spelling mistakes and grammar errors and move on. I have to at least try to make it half-way decent first.

Good luck to the writers who enter Nano WriMo, you are brave and fantastically crazy.

Meet The Inlaws

2008-10-27T11:00:00.010-05:00

N's father has a fantastic dog, Pavik, who is of the newfoundland breed. He's huge at 150lbs. I haven't meet the black beauty yet but I hear that he's a gentle giant. Apparently, all visitors are welcomed, but if he doesn't know you he'll block the door if you try to leave. Imagine a 150lb dog blocking your departure (arhh...). Sounds scary. But once he knows you're welcomed by the family, he's nothing but a 150lb baby (wow!). For a big dog, he's pretty agile because he likes to jump up and lick faces. So that means when I finally get to meet him, I'm going to brace myself for impact.

The pictures above are of Pavik. He lives on the edge of a forest, so I wonder if he was out digging up the forest before this picture was taken.

Test

2008-10-20T11:50:00.003-05:00

I'm testing the waters. Taste a little fishy to me. Fishy is good.