Text Crumbs

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier...Fine

2012-01-26T20:37:00.004-07:00

I have always loved spy novels. Cold War novels by John le Carre and Len Deighton. The stories about the Enigma cipher (WWII). Ken Follett wrote some good ones before he fell into historical triumph with Pillars of the Earth. The James Bond books were not so cartoonish as the films, but they weren't of this same gritty, realistic ilk. Most of the these I'm referring to weren't made into successful single films because they were too complex for a two-hour adaptation. BBC did a wonderful miniseries version of John le Carre's Smiley's People, one of the best of the genre. But films??

Now here comes Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a 2011 sleeper that, from the look of the theater today, no one has heard about. You might have seen a mention in the Oscar nominations for Gary Oldman (yes, Sirius Black! and many other wonderful portrayals). And well deserved!

Oldman plays George Smiley, the aging MI-5 operative, put out to pasture after a disastrous operation gets an operative killed, and brings down George's mentor Control, the head of "the Circus" as the spy agency is called here. But a young agent (an excellent Benedict Cumberbatch of the new Masterpieces Sherlock series) has gotten wind of a rumor that could bring down the increasingly marginalized agency. Someone in the inner circle is a mole - a tool of the Russian spymaster known as Karla.

The file evokes the gritty (yes that word again) shadowy world of the 70s cold war. Hot wars were fought through surrogates, but the cold war was fought on the wet streets of East Berlin and Paris...and Budapest...and in the concrete block offices of London, each side hunting for intelligence - the kind that could only come through defectors or agents in place. Dangerous business. No flashy car chases. And in those days, no dazzling sensors or cell phones or laser beams or Mission Impossible impossibilities.

Oldman's performance is beautifully nuanced. He is a taciturn man. Serious, intellectual, but hopelessly enamored of a wife who is unfaithful. Hearing the reliable report of a mole--a double agent--in the highest echelon of his kingdom's secret service--men he has worked with--grieves him, yet he never says a word to convey it. A masterful performance. And the film spins back and forth in time and place, yet never needs labels to tell us when we are looking at a Christmas party in happier times for the agency or when we are in Budapest watching the fateful meeting and murder or when we are seeing the patient, dogged George unraveling a case for the ages. No being lowered from the roof, no pressure sensors, no leaps, just good work, and a great story. Loved it.

A great cast as well besides Oldman and Cumberbatch: John Hurt, Colin Firth, Ciaren Hinds, and a really excellent Tom Hardy

Good news!

2012-01-16T08:35:00.006-07:00

There are many kinds of good news an author can receive: good reviews, positive reader comments, new contracts, new translation agreements, award news, and so forth. But on Friday, I heard two of the best lines an author can hear.

News the first. We've had to go back to press on the new book. That is, the print version of The Daemon Prism has outsold expectations in the first two weeks.

News the second. We're taking Transformation back to press. Copies should be available by the end of the month.

This is a tough publishing environment. No one can really predict the impact of electronic publishing on a new release. The percentage of a new release bought in electronic form is increasing dramatically with every year that goes by. I'll bet thousands of readers are sporting new Kindles or Nooks since the holidays. Yes, authors get paid - in my case fairly equally - for both print and electronic books. But I still hold that new readers are more likely to find my books by running across them in bookstores. Either the cover art or the back cover blurb might attract them, or they will recall mention of my work by reviewers or my wonderful readers on Facebook or book blogs or at parties or writers events. It is always nice to exceed expectations.

As for backlist... Many of you notices that my very first published book Transformation has been pretty scarce for most of the last year. It is awful when the last two books in a series are available and the first one is not. Certainly an author's nightmare! But warehousing books is a huge expense for publishers and everyone is waiting to see if e-books really do replace the mass market paperback, especially for older works. Evidently my publisher has decided that the demand for Transformation is such that they can't wait and see any more. Hooray for that! Transformation holds a special place in my list. It's where many of my readers started out on a journey that's taken us all to some deeper and darker places.

So anyway, thanks to all of you out there for encouraging my publisher to this point of view! Now back to work on something new.

Come talk with me and win books!

2012-01-11T19:19:00.007-07:00

Come join me on Thursday, January 12, at noon CST for a conversation about The Daemon Prism - and any of my books - at Bitten by Books. It's part of a five-author book launch event, with many giveaways, contests, and a grand prize awarded at the end of the week that includes $200 worth of book gift cards, books, and goodies. Lots of ways to get extra entries into the contests. I've never done one of these before, and it's a bit daunting.

I'll also have a blog post up about The Five Things a Kind Author Should Never Do to a Fantasy Hero - and you know I can tell you about that. You might recognize a few incidents...

UPDATE: Here is the actual Bitten by Books link to the live conversation!

So which autographed books am I giving away?

The Spirit Lens

Son of Avonar

Flesh and Spirit

Song of the Beast

Don't let me hang out alone! And I would love for one of my readers to win the grand prize. I'll be checking for questions into the evening hours, as well. See you there!

Release Day!

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Four years after writing the first page of The Spirit Lens, the third and final novel of the Collegia Magica, The Daemon Prism, appears on bookstore shelves and online ebook lists today. What a ride!

I poured a lot of my favorite ideas into this series, which began with a simple double-agent, murder mystery investigation, and ended up in an entangling adventure tale of magic, love, destiny, faith, death, life, and the order of nature. (Somehow my stories just grow!) I took on a risky business of multiple narrators again, knowing that if people grew attached to my quietly confident, always logical librarian, Portier, as I hoped, they might have trouble switching to my shy insecure young heroine Anne. By the time I got to The Daemon Prism, I trusted that readers would love to get inside the crusty, violent Dante's head and see what he had been thinking all along. I know it was fun for me! Of course the demands of the story, said that Anne's keen observations had to be called into service again, and I felt the need to give a brief closure to two other characters as we raced to the ending.

Now that the series is done, what do I like the best about it? The characters and their relationships. I was so pleased at how they developed. Both Portier and Anne hid themselves for a long time. Dante and Ilario were more...overt...about their personalities. I loved the exposure of the Sabrian world in the first book, the court intrigue of the second, and the wide-ranging and yet very "interior" adventure of the third.

To celebrate this launch I'm going to take off for the mountains and start working on a new project. There will also be EVENTS - which I will post about later. As every author, I need my readers to let people know if you like the books. Post reviews. Spread the word.

So, on to the book itself... What's up with the uneasy alliance formed at the end of The Soul Mirror?
Here's a bit of a teaser, the opening paragraphs of The Daemon Prism...

30 Ocet, 883rd Year of the Sabrian Realm, sunset
Pradoverde

"Stop right there!" I bellowed. My student’s resolute little inhalation signaled her ready to bind her first complex spell. I resisted the temptation to shatter or repair the well-structured but ill-conceived little charm. She had to learn.

Mercifully, she was well disciplined. Though her will tugged fiercely against mine, she obeyed.

"Concentrate. Look deeper. A hundred thousand streams in Sabria comprise water, rocks, willows, and trout. But to draw on this stream's keirna - its essence - you must unearth the secrets that make it unique. You're no child swatting a fly. Misjudgment could drown us . . . or bury us . . . or turn yon pasture into a swamp." In this case, likely all of them and worse.

She knelt along the stream bank, not half a metre from my boots. Having spent most of every day for two years in her presence, I could sense her every muscle twitch, accurate signals for divining her level of confidence. It had taken her a very long time to prepare for this step, and she was very sure of herself. She hated mistakes.

"There’s nothing wrong with it," she said after a few moments' contemplation. "Sealing the snag will just divert the water around the end of it, digging out the far bank a little more. I'm not blocking the water flow completely. There's plenty of leeway."

She readied herself again.

"No!" I drove the heel of my staff into the rocky streambed.

She jerked but held her ground, not yanking her hand from the water. It wasn't so easy to startle her into attendance anymore. So I assaulted her weakness with words. "Have you learned nothing? There's mud between the rocks. What color is it? What consistency? Does the sun reveal glints of metal in it? What would that tell you of the stream's origins and use? You're a woman of science. Where is its source? Has its course evolved as nature prescribes or has it been purposely altered? Your friend Simon provided you the Pradoverde land grants. If you'd studied them with half a mind, you'd know this land was once a disputed boundary between two blood families. Why?"

"None of those things have to do with a snag of twigs formed this past summer." She was so sure. So calm.

"Wrong! If you’d studied the legends of the Fremoline outcrops, where our stream has its source, you’d know there were persistent tales of gold deposits - "

"There are no gold deposits anywhere in the demesne of Louvel." I could imagine her rolling her eyes. "The rocks are almost entirely limestone. The rumors provide nothing useful to weave into the spellwork."

Breaking her prim, scholarly ways of thinking had been my most difficult challenge. It was why I had chosen this particular exercise on this particular day.

I repeated my probe of the streambed. Again, and then again, moving upstream until the muffled jar of metal shivered my staff and the razored sting of long-bound enchantment flowed up my arm. The virulence of the spell threatened to dissolve the bone. But I held the staff in place and tapped it sharply with my forefinger, my signal that she should touch it, too. She had to feel the magnitude of her error.

Her discipline held. A gurgle out of place in the rhythmic bubbling of the stream told me she’d withdrawn her hand from the water. A quiet chink, a scuff of dirt, and the release of pent power said she'd kicked aside the length of slender chain she'd laid out for her spell enclosure. Determined steps and a brush of skirts brought her to my side.

"If you’d looked deeper," I said, cooler now I'd snared her full attention, "you'd have found a bronze casket buried here at the seventh metre past the dogleg bend - the corner of the disputed territory. This is how the one faction, intending to ensure that they alone could harvest these rumored riches, shifted the streambed to fit their desired boundary."

I could not see her face any better than I could see anything else in this daemon-blasted world. Yet, even had I not smelled her soap-scented sweat or heard the tight hiss of her annoyance, I’d have known her in the moment she laid her finger on the carved hornbeam of my ancille - the moment the spells bound into my staff became instantly more useful, more lethal, faster, sharper, swollen from the inborn power she brought to any working. One would have to plumb the tangled depths of a forest's roots or the moldered residue of an ancient battleground to match Anne de Vernase's potential for magic. That she possessed a mind and will fully capable of wielding such power made her reluctance to take hold of it inexcusable . . .

You can find a larger excerpt of The Daemon Prism on my website.

Want to win a copy?

2011-10-15T18:46:00.005-06:00

I'm giving away three copies of the new Song of the Beast and an advance reader copy (ARC) of The Daemon Prism in the next couple of months through Goodreads. Here are the links. They're free, of course, but you do have to sign up on the site.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Song of the Beast
by Carol Berg

Giveaway ends November 30, 2011.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

And for The Daemon Prism ARC (Note this one doesn't start until November):

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Daemon Prism

by Carol Berg

Giveaway ends November 30, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Goodreads is an interesting site. I haven't spent as much time there as I would like, but I intend to. What I've seen, I like. Lots of book reviews, reading groups, and some good discussions (especially in the fantasy realm where I've peeked). It is a site that is devoted to readers, and you can get recommendations on books from serious readers. There are lots of ways to trace through particular reviewers, or authors and so forth.

Fantasy and Science Fiction Sampler

2011-09-30T15:59:00.006-06:00

Are you into ebooks? Always looking for new authors?

Twenty-five First Chapters from Twenty-five Writers

I'm on a number of professional fantasy/science fiction author discussion forums, but one of the coolest is sfnovelists - something like 200 writers. We decided to put out a free sampler of our work, in hopes of reaching new audiences. I'm a bit late to the show, but here it is...

SF Novelists proudly offers you OPENING ACTS, a free ebook presenting twenty-five first chapters across the spectrum of science fiction and fantasy. Twenty-five tastes, to tempt your appetite for adventure...to lure you into unknown worlds...and give you something new to read.

Download a copy in epub format (Nook, Sony, iPad)

Download a copy in mobi format (Kindle)

Download a copy in pdf format

A list of the authors represented...

7th Sigma by Steven Gould
Bone Shop by T.A. Pratt
Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
The Brahms Deception by Louise Marley
Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee
The Cloud Road by Martha Wells
Dangerous Water by Juliet E. McKenna
The Dread Hammer by Trey Shiels
Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
Fright Court by Mindy Klasky
The Heretic by Joseph Nassise
House of the Star by Caitlin Brennan
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Medium Dead by Chris Dolley
Midnight at Spanish Gardens by Alma Alexander
Play Dead by John Levitt
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
The Snow Queen’s Shadow by Jim C. Hines
Spellcast by Barbara Ashford
The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg
TruthSeeker by C.E. Murphy
Up Against It by M.J. Locke
With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan

Learn more about sfnovelists at our website

In the Mail!

2011-09-15T22:41:00.008-06:00

What should show up at my front door today, but this box of lovely books! Yes, these are the new trade paperback editions of Song of the Beast, winner of the 2004 Colorado Book Award.

I wasn't too sure of the new cover when I got a jpg of it a couple of months ago. Thought it was too dark. But, wow, I think it came out really nice! I've gotta say, thought, Aidan probably wasn't looking quite this...robust...after seventeen years in prison. But I'm ok with it!

So what's new? And where does this story fit in my brood of thirteen?

Cover, format, print size, and the Introduction by the Author are new. The actual text is the same as its initial release.

Song of the Beast is actually the earliest written of all my published books - though it was released after the three Books of the Rai-kirah, Transformation, Revelation, and Restoration. I tell a bit about how the story came to be in the new introduction. It was my break-through book in many ways. I think it suffered a bit from being released after the Rai-kirah books, as it is a much simpler story. It is a story that poured out of me when I was making a big step forward in my writing, and so is not quite as polished or nuanced as my later work. But I think in some ways it is a microcosm of what I have been trying to do. Good stories with complicated characters and a plot that isn't always as expected, told in vivid language.

So why did my publisher choose to do this? It was time for another print run. All of my books have stayed in print so far, but every time the supply dwindles, the publisher has to choose whether to reprint or not. I like to think it is a measure of faith in both story and author that Roc chose to reinvest in the artwork and larger size. (And maybe if it does well, they'll do the same for other books and get rid of those green wings!)

If you've not read it, I hope you enjoy it. And if you have, I hope this reissue reintroduces some good friends and some pleasurable hours.

WorldCon in Reno - Day 3

2011-08-23T14:59:00.006-06:00

The late night and the blackout curtains in the hotel room did their work. I didn't wake up until almost 9:30 - and I had an event at 10! The hike through the sprawling hotel and the half mile of skywalk into the convention center seemed extra long. Made it in time and mostly put together.

My first event was the the BroadUniverse Rapidfire Reading. We had about twelve readers and a gracious hostess in Anne Wilkes. Each of us read for 4 minutes. As on Wednesday at the library I chose a bit of Song of the Beast to read - in honor of its re-release coming up in October. The first page of Song is one of my favorite of my openings. Ahh...poor Aidan.

I love BU RFRs - you get to hear bits of all sorts of speculative fiction, as you are introduced to published and unpublished women writers. Fantasy writer Elaine Isaak, as I've seen before, topped the day with an hilarious short piece exactly designed for four minutes. Don't miss Elaine at an RFR - and don't volunteer to be one of her heroes.

Fortunately, I had half an hour before my long reading to get a drink and catch my breath. There are lots of things in the writing life I don't do at all or don't do well - blog tours, tweeting, cold calling, keeping up with giveaways and such. But I adore reading aloud. I don't so much "act out" the story as shift my voice slightly between speakers. But I know all the emotion and subtle meanings that are lurking in my characters and I think I do a pretty good job bringing all that to the fore when I read.

Unless one is the guest of honor, con readings are most usually given a strict 30 minute time slot. Thus it is extremely rude for a reader to linger past time. I always sweat this, as I try to cram a sizable piece into my reading! And this was to be my inaugural reading from The Daemon Prism. So it was truly distressing when the reader who had the slot before mine lapsed 10 minutes into my slot. Even after I stepped into the back of the room, she continued, even at one time holding her pages in front of her face. I discovered later that she was the widow of one of my favorite writers, but she should ask for more time if she needs it. Some of the first things you learn as a neo-pro is to time your readings, respect other professionals, and respect the attendees, both those attending your session and others. OK, enough of my rant...

I did have a good-sized and appreciative audience - thank you all for that! (I'll be doing this same Daemon Prism reading at MileHiCon, World Fantasy, and Tuscon.) Used most of the following hour visiting with people I hadn't seen in a couple of years! Found out my friend and reader Corky had sold his first story to Fantasy Magazine - that is FINE!

There is nothing so good for one's humility than sharing an autographing with Robin Hobb, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Patty Briggs. I really, really appreciated my steady trickle of readers! I had been looking forward to a chance to meet Robin/Megan and talk with her a bit, but it was not to be. She was still signing when I hurried off to meet my good friend Diana Pharaoh Francis, paranormal romance writer turned Tor fantasy author Susan Krinard, and my agent Lucienne Diver for a drink and a discussion of the new world of e-publishing. Many literary agents are looking for ways to support their clients in the e-publishing as well as the print publishing sphere. It's always important to research agents carefully - and now that this new wrinkle is popping up, it's even more important. I feel very fortunate to have Lucienne as my agent.

After dinner, we sat over at the other con hotel shooting the breeze and watching the people wandering in and out of the masquerade. A short bus ride back and it was time to crash.

WorldCon in Reno - Day 2

2011-08-20T00:21:00.004-06:00

Thursday was my busiest day at the con - non-stop from 9am to 2am. I was scheduled for two panels, a kaffeeklatsch, my publisher's presentation, plus I wanted to attend two of my friends' debut readings, their book launch party, and a couple more parties where I might run into people I knew.

Well I ran into people I knew all day, as it happened. Writer friends, readers, convention acquaintances from Montana, Seattle, and other WorldCons. That's the part I love about conventions, running into all these people, when I used to know no one. Then I can introduce them to each other. Still a lot of folks I don't know. In the cafe at breakfast time were George RR Martin, Joe Haldeman, and Robert Silverberg. Well, I've been introduced, but...

The panels were interesting...
The first one was on how to make it as a full time writer. Interesting perspectives from a delightful Bud Sparhawk, Dean Wesley Smith, Christina York, and Tom Negrino, who writes mostly non-fiction. We concluded that there was a great deal of difference between those who have to support a family as a full time writer and those, like me, who graduate to being a full time writer after a decently paying day job. Also talked about how many writers find it either more stimulating or less stressful to intentionally pursue their day jobs, even when they could probably make it on writing alone. Full time writing is not always the glamor job aspiring writers imagine. But we all agreed writing was the best job in the world.

After a fine hour kaffeeklatsching with five questioning readers, I moderated a panel on creating non-human characters. We had a big audience, and it became clear that this was a huge topic, when one considered everything from enhanced humans (Kathleen Anne Goonan) to lizard or cyber intelligences (Robert Sawyer) to fantastic creatures (Martha Wells and me). Another panelist, Amy Thomson, stirred things up a bit speculating on why it is so hard to get stories with entirely non-human characters published. And we talked about the problems of getting readers to identify and sympathize with characters so entirely alien.

My friends Courtney Schafer and Brad Beaulieu did beautifully on their first WorldCon readings. Both have debut novels just out from Nightshade Books. Saw far too many books I want to read at the Ace/Roc "What's coming up?" presentation. Party-hopped with my agent, Lucienne Diver, best-bud/fine author Diana Pharaoh Francis, and friend Kendra from MisCon who was soaking in her first WorldCon. Mostly very hot and noisy, so after an hour or two, Di, Kendra, and I grabbed Sue Bolich and retreated to a quiet, smoke-free lounge area and talked and people-watched until about 1:30am. Now THAT is the best of convention life!

WorldCon in Reno - Day 1

2011-08-18T08:47:00.003-06:00

Mostly travel today. A smooth trip - nice to travel west and get an extra hour. Got into the Atlantis "Casino Resort Hotel" about 2. Walked in the door and struck by the smoke. I am just not used to smoky venues anymore. As in all these places, the main floor is a smoky labyrinth of neon-lit money sinks. This is one vice that just does not tempt me, thank goodness. Really, I just don't get it. Dropped my stuff in the room and found my way over to teh convention center.

This venue is HUGE. Besides two of these casino hotels (we don't fill both of them up) the convention center is the size of an airport. It is "across the street" which means a 10-15 minute trek through casino, skywalk, and vasty hallways the length of runways. Got credentials and schedule and decided to explore a little. Immediately ran into two friends - TI Morganfield and Barb-Galler-Smith - which was nice considering the number of friends who canceled on me - you know who you are Brenda and Justin. Found program ops in case of any snags and the Green Room - a nice place for program participants to meet each other and get a snack or cuppa during the day. Hiked back to the hotel and got ready for my first event, which was...

...a reading at the public library across the street. Not too hot ffor the walk - yea! Heard Sharon Lee and Steve Miller reading, which was fun, and was gratified that everyone didn't leave. Several new people came in even though it was 5pm. I read from Song of the Beast in honor of its re-release coming in October.

Caught good friend and fine writer Sue Bolich before she caught the shuttle back to the other hotel and we had a great con dinner - just the two of us talking writing for three hours. How nice is that! At 9 we made our way upstairs to the party floor. I generally avoid the "sweaty cheese" events as they are always crowded and hot, but this was the "bid party" for the 2015 WorldCon for the city of Spokane. Just like the Democratic National Convention, the Olympics, and other large moveable gatherings, prospective WorldCon host cities must raise money, promote their venues, and get a vote from the relevant people (in this case the members of the convention) to get the bid. This has to happen several years out as it takes reams of planning and multitudinous volunteers to put on one of these. As it happens the party hostess for Spokane's bid was Patty Briggs - the NYT bestseller, fabulous writer, and altogether delightful person and I wanted to make sure to see her.

Yes, the room was hot and crowded, but it was fun to catch up with Patty and some MisCon friends. The SpoCon people and MisCon people are sort of joined at the hip (though Justin and Bob, my MisCon hosts weren't there, darn it). Stopped by the San Antonio in 2013 bid party on my way out. They had so much good-smelling food, it made me wish I hadn't eaten dinner. Much more than sweaty cheese and baby carrots. But I settled for a root beer (yeah, not even the hard stuff) and a nice conversation with one of the first people I ever met at a WorldCon - Deidre Saoirse Moen. (Another fine writer.) WorldCons really are like family reunions.

But by this time I was fried and tomorrow (actually today) I have to moderate two panels, so I hauled back to the room and spent a little thinking time before cashing in my chips for the night. More tomorrow...today...

Coming to Reno?

2011-07-28T09:43:00.000-06:00

WorldCon 2011! Renovation - Reno, Nevada. Have you got your boots strapped on, your wallet tucked away, and your backpack loaded with books to get autographed? WorldCon is less than a month away.

I'll be there this year, after missing Australia (2010) and LA (2009). Looks like I have a good, solid program, too.

Panels:: Thu 1pm: Making It as a Full-time writer with Bud Sparhawk, Christina York, and Dean Wesley Smith; Thu 4pm: Writing Non-human Characters with Robert Sawyer and Martha Wells; Sat 1pm: Religion in Fantasy with Tim Powers and L.E. Modesitt
Readings:: Wed Aug 17 5pm at the Sierra View Library across the street.; Fri Aug 19 11:30am (The Daemon Prism, yes...)
Kaffeeklatches: sign up for a small-group session to ask whatever you want: Thu 3pm (don't leave me lonely!); Sat 10am (don't know how I got two, but it should be fun!)
Autographing:: Fri 1pm (or any time you catch me, espcially if we can have a cuppa or a drink!)

My first SF convention was WorldCon in Chicago in the year 2000. I had never imagined so many people getting together to talk about books, movies, games, writing, science, costumes...anything and everything science fiction and fantasy related. There can be as many as 30 events going on at one hour. But as my agent told me at the time, science fiction conventions - especially WorldCon and the World Fantasy Convention are family reunions for the professional fantasy and science fiction worlds. Writers, agents, editors, critics, anthologists, and LOTS of readers attend. It is a great place to network and hang out with your favorite writers.

WorldCon is huge - well, I thought so until ComicCon soared into 100K+ territory. But I haven't ventured that one yet.

Come and join me in Reno!

Where is Transformation?

2011-07-27T16:01:00.000-06:00

Got a question today about why Transformation is not currently available new on Amazon.com. I asked my publisher the same thing just a few days ago. No, it is not out of print! It is just running low. Roc is watching how the release of the new trade paper version of Song of the Beast goes in October, before deciding whether to reprint Transformation in trade or mass market. Transformation is now in its 14th printing, which is pretty cool indeed.

Happily there are other places you can find new print copies!

It is still available new through barnesandnoble.com and at various stores through indiebound. Or you could call my dear friends Ron and Nina Else at Who Else Books at 303-744-BOOK (2665)and order one. They keep a good supply of my books and might even have one that's signed.

The Daemon Prism - DONE!

2011-07-19T22:07:00.005-06:00

This has been an intense year. I got a late start on The Daemon Prism, thanks to the previous intense year writing The Soul Mirror. Every time I got moving on TDP, I would get sidetracked by Soul Mirror revisions or copyedits or proof pages or postcards or whatever. And then holidays. By New Year's 2011 I felt I was barely started (well, ok, 40-50K words) but I certainly didn't have a good handle on the underlying themes of the books. Which meant I had exactly four months to finish the book, not to mention figuring out what it was about. So what did I do?

I completely immersed myself in the book. Every day I wrote until I made some kind of progress. My Exceptional Spouse took on all the other necessities. The dust piled up. The weeds grew taller. The house looked like sleeping beauty's wall of thorns. But late in March, I got up one morning and wrote a creation myth for Sabria's world. I realized that this piece of the Collegia Magica mystery stemmed from the fundamental truths of the world. By April 48th (deadline was end of April!) I turned in a raw, rowdy, oversized manuscript to my editor. After a week to catch my breath, I started revising. And on July 15 I sent in a finished, trimmed, coherent, and mostly polished manuscript. It was like...magic!

Song of the Beast - Resung!

2011-06-21T15:40:00.004-06:00

It's almost here! The new trade paperback edition of Song of the Beast will be released in October 2011 with a broody new cover and a new Introduction by the author.

Song was not my first book published, as my editor wanted to release the Rai-kirah series before releasing the standalone. So, although it was my fourth book out, its writing predated Transformation.

After several years of writing, this was the book that told me "maybe someone out there might want to read this." For the first time in my (then) brief writing journey, I felt like I got it.

Some people say they see similarities between the two books. Possible, as the ideas for Transformation were germinating as I wrote Song. But they are two very different stories and two very different heroes.

As for the follow-on Song of the Beast novella? More will be forthcoming over the next few months, once I get The Daemon Prism wrapped up.

Writing Evil

2011-06-20T11:50:00.003-06:00

Blogging on my agent's livejournal today. The topic is Writing Evil.

I talk about how I try to avoid the Snidely Whiplash or anonymous Dark Lord kind of villains and aim to introduce ambiguity, choice, and realism into my work.

Peeking out from under

2011-06-05T08:07:00.004-06:00

Spring of 2011 has vanished. No magic in my books could have done it so effectively. I have been immersed in The Daemon Prism, the third and last novel of the Collegia Magica, emerging every once in a while to attend a conference or convention. When at the computer, I've been working on the book. Two weeks ago now, I sent a first, very rough version to my editor. Whee! The freedom of having the story on the page is huge. Now I can start revising and make it a real story. But for a few days I've had to play catch-up: family, house,yard, plus one of teh most fun conventions I've ever done - MisCon, a regional sf/fantasy convention in beautiful Missoula, Montana. This is no podunk con - I blazed a trail for one George R.R. Something-other who will be the Writer Guest of Honor next year. (More about MisCon in another post.)

Now I've had a little vacation, it's time to get back to revising The Daemon Prism, as well as catching up on the blog, updating the website, and other tasks that feel by the wayside. Here is a teaser for what I've been working on. (Warning: possible spoiler if you've not read The Soul Mirror.)

Thou’rt Fallen, Dante. Born in frost-cold blood; suckled on pain. Thy repentance was ever a lie…

Dante the necromancer is the most reviled man in Sabria, indicted by the King, the Temple, and the Camarilla Magica for crimes against the living and the dead. Yet no judgment could be worse than his enemies’ cruel vengeance that left him crippled in body and mind. Dante seeks to salve pain and bitterness with a magical puzzle - a desperate soldier’s dream of an imprisoned enchantress and a faceted glass that can fill one’s uttermost desires.

But the dream is a seductive trap that can drive a man to murder. Its tendrils have ensnared Dante's own past and his one-time partners, threatening to unleash the very cataclysm he fears. Aided by the unlikeliest of allies, the mage embarks on a journey into madness, slavery, ancient magic, and sacred legends, only to discover the appalling truth of his own role in divine mystery…

Cover Redemption

2011-02-11T20:32:00.005-07:00

I have been very fortunate with cover art. As I've explained before, I--as with most authors--have no say in it. My editor now solicits my input as to who might be featured on it, that person's description, and what kinds of artifacts one might find lying about that person. I really appreciate that, as it might have avoided a few problems along the way.

Only two of my covers fall into the "ooh, I wish they hadn't done that" category. I'll leave it to the reader to speculate as to which two. A few years ago one those was featured on a "mock the cover" website with funny captions, along with a bunch of really sweaty romance covers. Oh, the humiliation!!

But today, that humiliation was redeemed...

...on a website reviewing covers for January 2011 releases. Here is the link. I fully agree with the reviewer's assessment. I'm sorry The Soul Mirror cover didn't make it in the female category. Maybe these were only for mass market pubs, and Anne's image will top the list in 2012.

Upcoming events

2011-02-09T19:45:00.004-07:00

I am emerging from deadline pressure cooker to remind all Colorado folks that the last stop on my Colorado Soul Mirror launch is coming up.

Saturday, Feb 12th, 2pm
Barnes and Noble
2999 Pearl Street
Boulder
[Chocolate will be served!]

Then I go into writers' conference mode with

Fri-Sat March 11-12
Northern Colorado Writers Conference
Fort Collins Hilton
Fort Collins
[I'll be doing a workshop on Voice and one on Character Development.]

Later in the spring, I'll return to the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, consistently one of the best conferences around. More about that later.

And over Memorial Day weekend, I'll be Writer Guest of Honor at MisCon in Missoula Montana - check it out if you're in the territory!

Soul Mirror Release Day!

2011-01-04T09:45:00.003-07:00

Hard to believe, but The Soul Mirror is here at last. Picture Carol wrestling with a 300-pound book for more than a year...well, no maybe don't picture that. But that's what it felt like. It is a big story and it took me some time to get it right. (And the third one is proving to be just as obstreperous.)

Anne de Vernase was a tough narrator. Portier was not entirely an extrovert, but he was accustomed to living in an academic environment, at least, dealing with students and teachers and visitors to Collegia Seravain. But Anne is a true introvert and was not at all prepared for what was awaiting her.

She has lived most of her life in the country with her family, reading, studying, learning under the tutelage of loving parents. When a young girl, her family traveled widely, but she was always sheltered under the protective arm of her father and viewing politics, natural science, and magic through his eyes. Her lively intellect and skeptical view of the supernatural reflected both his love of learning and his pragmatic approach to the wider world.

But when her father vanished, and later when he was convicted of treason, Anne was left on her own. Her mother went into a mental decline, and the king kept her brother hostage against her father's return. Though burdened with responsibilities for a grand estate and its tenants, she was still cocooned by the walls of her home and a few people who cared for her. And then?

Matters got worse. The Soul Mirror begins when Anne is coping with the sudden death of her younger sister, Lianelle, a talented, vivacious student of magic. And then Anne is wrench from the only home she has ever known and thrust into the intrigues of a queen's household...and a murderous plot in which she can't tell friend from enemy. Bad news...

I hope you all enjoy it, while I am hard at work on The Daemon Prism, the third and final chapter of the Collegia Magica tales, written from yet another viewpoint in addition to Anne's.

Allllmossst here...

2010-12-09T11:19:00.004-07:00

As the days of December rush past, I'm beginning to believe The Soul Mirror is on its way to release. I'm setting up launch events (check the website if you're anywhere near Colorado this coming January.) And I'm starting to see reviews. Publisher's Weekly gives it a starred review, saying:

Berg refreshes and reinvigorates the familiar trappings of epic fantasy, shaping a novel that rings true both linguistically and imaginatively. This is one to savor.

Needless to say I'm delighted with that. Many authors claim reviews shouldn't matter, but of course they do!

You can find the opening chapter at Soul Mirror Opening on my website.

So what else goes on in the month before release?

Distributing fliers and postcards to bookstores (I've been slack on this).

Giving away ARCS and copies - see the website for details.

Scheduling conventions and appearances for all of next year.

And most importantly, writing the next book, the third and last in the Collegia Magica series: The Daemon Prism.

And another giveaway - short deadline!

2010-11-07T18:03:00.003-07:00

My most excellent friend, the Vampire Shrink Lynda Hilburn, has posted an excerpt of Flesh and Spirit as a part of her series of Excerpt Mondays blogposts. to win an autographed copy of Flesh and Spirit...

...just visit Lynda's Paranormality Universe blog and comment on my excerpt.

DEADLINE: this Tuesday, November 9.

ARC Giveaway!

2010-11-04T20:35:00.004-06:00

I am giving away an ARC of The Soul Mirror. I told people I'd draw in a week, but as I got delayed posting it around (due to two conventions and a cold) I'm extending the deadline. I'll give you an extra entry, if you can answer the following question:

What was Portier's mother's favorite scent?

To enter:

Send me an email with "Drawing" in the subject line.

If you want a double entry, put the answer in the body of the email.

Mystery on an Autumn Night

2010-10-25T13:04:00.003-06:00

Point, the first. It wasn't the candy. Honest. I liked the candy, yes, and our neighbors were generous. (Though I was never a popcorn ball fan. Yes, those were the days when some people actually made Halloween treats and gave them away.)

Point, the second. It wasn't the dressing up. We dressed up all the time to play. And by the time I lusted after the long, gorgeous blue mantilla that a friend of the family had brought from Mexico, my elder sisters were too old for Halloween and my younger sister too little to wear the mantilla, so I pretty much got it whenever I wanted to be a princess or a dancer or a fairy queen. And, oh yes, I wanted.

Point, the third. It wasn't the tricks. Please! I was a good girl with three sisters. We never played tricks (except on each other). Besides, see point, the first, above.

Then why, you ask, was Halloween second only to Christmas Eve in dreamy deliciousness to this girl who never imagined she would become a fantasy author?

It was the dark, of course. Early sunset. And even the night's magical lights, the stars and moon, could hardly push the weight of it aside. Our flashlights and lanterns certainly couldn't. We would run down the street through the piles of oak leaves, our steps pushed just a little faster by the pooled shadows just beyond the light beams. Why does darkness cause those delicious shivers?

Vincent Van Gogh said that "the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."

Uh-huh. He knew. There's a reason I love his "Starry Night" better than his "Sunflowers."

Certainly marvelous things can happen after sunset. Unexpected visitors. Romance. Fireworks. Escapes. Rendezvous. Kisses at the front door. Or in the garden. Or while floating down the Thames. Danae dance under the autumn moon.

But, of course, the dark can hide dangers, too. Thieves. Potholes. Spiders. How often do you read about "the Light Forest?" Ghosts, invisible in the daylight, take shape against the dark. Whispers and rustling are lost in the noisy business of day, but not in the night.

And the highwayman comes riding, riding... Wouldn't have been the same if it was noon and the road was a ribbon of asphalt.

Shapes blur. Endless possibility. Uncertainty blooms...

Ah, there it is. Uncertainty and possibility create tension, the magic ingredient in any story. It's what keeps us hooked, peeking around that next corner...or page. Night's essence is mystery.

Or perhaps Lemony Snicket said it best: "It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting."

Magic!

On the air at Colorado Gold

2010-09-11T07:33:00.004-06:00

A great first day at the Colorado Gold Writers Conference in Denver. I love doing writers conferences, which are multi-genre,rather than fantasy/sf specific, and intensely educational in nature. It's a change of pace from sf/fantasy conventions, which are networking, celebratory, and lighter weight. So how did the day unfold?

Breakfast with writer friends.
Sat in the lobby watching people as they arrived, excited, nervous, curious. Three hundred writers in one place means an explosion of words. Awesome.

My first workshop - Communicating Character. A great audience, but, as usual, I talked too much and ran out of time. Thus I had to rush the end and skip some cool examples and exercises. I do dry runs, but they are...dry. I should always double the time allowance!

Listened to the incomparable Connie Willis talk about Mushy Middles - and realized I DID a lot of the things she suggested. Her delivery is so delightful and her examples so good and so varied and so clear, I just wanted to scoop it all up to savor later. Hmm, I COULD buy the CD...

A strawberry margerita in the bar while enjoying the company of some of my critique partner/friends and the incomparable Connie.

Hosted a table of aspiring fantasy and sf writers along with Roc sf writer, Laura Reeve. The food was good and the company enjoyable, though it is impossible to talk with the people across the table, as it is just TOO noisy with 300 verbal people in the same room.

Listened to RMFW Writer of the Year (and conference chair) Pam Nowak talk about her poignant and inspiring story of learning to write.

Book sale - talked to readers - because writers are ALL readers - and signed books for a couple of hours, before retiring to a quite conversation group.

And then a dash up to the roaring hospitality suite to talk more (not quietly) and get silly before crashing.

I love this job!

The Soul Mirror - in revision

2010-07-03T21:29:00.009-06:00

What a hectic spring! The last few months have just been a blur. Writing, writing, writing. So I turned in The Soul Mirror on May 12, big and rough and raw. Only now am I feeling it tightening into shape. I've two weeks left in the revision cycle and hope to have a tight, taut story by then.

So how does the second novel of the Collegia Magica relate to The Spirit Lens?

The story begins four years after the conspirators' trial. No further attempts have been made on King Philippe's life, but all is not well in his city, his house, or his marriage...

Superstition is rife throughout Merona and the royal court. Our friend Portier is laying low, working as the queen's household administrator. Watching. But he doesn't tell this story. Our narrator is Anne de Vernase, a witness in the trial that culminated The Spirit Lens.

Consumed by the Soul Mirror

2010-04-13T08:42:00.004-06:00

Here is a new interview with a freshly scrubbed book review site Speculative Book Reviews.

If you are wondering where I've been, I am in Deadline Hell. I got an extension on the Soul Mirror deadline to April 30 - thank you, dead editor. So I am determined to make it. The Soul Mirror is complicated...surprise!!...and unfolding at a steady, but stately pace. That is, I am really poky.

I feel extremely guilty when taking time out to write a lovely, articulate blog post, while my heroine languishes in indecision or mortal peril. My outside writing activities have been pretty much limited to Spirit Lens appearances, readings, and Norwescon (a delightfully fun convention) and the occasional Facebook status update (join me there - Carol Berg, Northern Colorado). I promise to return here soon.

Interesting survey

2010-03-17T08:33:00.003-06:00

A month or two ago author Jim Hines invited published authors to participate in a survey that would look at how people broke into publishing. (I participated.) After approximately 250 responses, he has just published the first part of
his results.

I really like his approach to a subject that is fraught with rumor and recycled opinion. There is so much he said/she said that floats around the pub-o-sphere, I was happy to see something halfway scientific. Jim explains his methods which are certainly not Gallup quality, but certainly informative.

My take?

So far, the results meet my expectations. As one who finds it tough to capture the rhythm and pacing of short stories, I was very happy I could break in without writing them! (I am one of those data points.) And the Eragon story is not exactly an everyman kind of story.

There are some interesting comments after the posting as well.

The Business of Titles

2010-03-01T06:51:00.001-07:00

On one of my local writing organization forums, an aspiring writer, ready to start submitting his work, got worried when he discovered that the title he'd chosen was already in use. He immediately started trying to come up with a new one. I threw in my two cents, of course, and thought it might be useful to summarize my contribution.

Titles definitely matter. Titles set reader expectations. A title might be totally cool and unique, and yet totally wrong for YOUR book. Titles speak about genre and scope and epoch and most certainly the kind of read one might anticipate - humorous, serious, mythic, adventurous, fast, slow... Think Nymphos of Rocky Flats vs Ysabel vs Blood Drive vs Breath and Bone vs The Bell at Sealy Head vs The Fellowship of the Ring. All are fantasy. All very different.

Should I panic if my title has been used?

No. A quick check at an online bookseller (yeah, Amazon is really good for this) can tell you if the exact title or close variants have been used and how frequently. You can also get an idea of how relevant that usage is. That is, who wrote the books, when were they published and by whom (a publisher you would target?). Are they in the same genre as yours, and are they still in print? (If the works are not being sold "new" by Amazon, it likely means that edition is out of print.) If you're not familiar with the author, look him or her up. You can figure out pretty easily if this is a conflict that's going to bother an agent or editor. An older book or a book by an obscure author, especially in a different genre, likely poses no conflict IF yours is the perfect title for your work.

On the other hand, if the books are fairly recent, in your genre, and by a prominent author from a publisher you might target, there might be some merit in changing the title. Yep, avoid Carrie or The Da Vinci Codex. If you can think of something better...and by better I mean more original and more evocative - giving a better feel for the theme of your work - it would behoove you to do so.

You should always reconsider your title when you finish a book. That's when you actually know what the book is about. That's when you really know whether the book you started as a comic myth turned out to be an angst-filled, serious adventure. (Mine always do that!)

Bottom line - think, don't panic. If you can come up with something better, great. If not, it's not the end of the world and you can work with your acquiring editor to create something better.

Does the title make a difference when submitting a book to an agent or editor?

Well, sure! A good, evocative title can pique the interest of an agent or editor in the same way an excellent log line can, so definitely spend the time to come up with a good one. A good title shows that the author has a handle on both the marketing world and what the story is really about. Both are good signs when you are selling yourself as well as the book.

Will my editor change the title?

Maybe. Some editors will encourage you to rework a weak or conflicting title on your own. Some will suggest alternatives right away or will pass on suggestions from the marketing department. Titles are hard and some people are good at writing them and some aren't! In a big house, you can be sure that a book won't be published without a title that the marketing department approves, because titles ARE marketing. If you sell to a small press it will behoove you to make sure the research and "marketing think" that a marketing department might supply gets done. This might mean ditching your beloved title for something that sets the right reader expectations.

Historical note: Out of my 13 (11 published, two forthcoming) books, I've been asked to consider a different title for only two of them. In the first case, my UK editor thought the original title was more evocative of horror than fantasy. A moment's reflection told me he was right. In the second case, the original title was very close to that of another book already on the schedule from my same publisher. In both cases, being forced to THINK about it, gave me much, much better titles. The resulting titles were Revelation (the first case) and Breath and Bone (the second), two of my favorite titles.

Events and Deadlines and the Partridge in the Writing Tree

2010-02-27T17:58:00.010-07:00

Hello, hello. anybody there? Yep, I'm alive. Poking my head up from the hole like the February groundhog after a seriously overwhelming few weeks. Last night I was feeling pretty awful about having written so little (deadline for The Soul Mirror 4/30) and blogged even less over the past six weeks, but then I started counting. Over the past seven weeks, I've done:

Nine bookstore events - two of them here my own town, one in San Diego, the other six elsewhere in Colorado. Each involved program preparation - whether it is readings or coordination with a couple of fellow authors who shared a few of the events - as well as email, snailmail, forum and facebook notifications, and coordination with the bookstore involved. Thank goodness for Shannon Baker and Janet Fogg, two author friends who shared the coordination of our four-stop Three Adventures Tour and made gorgeous posters, and launch party invitations, and to Karen and Julie, who organized the most fabulous launch parties in Boulder and Denver.

My first podcast reading for Broad Universe, a great organization that supports women writing fantasy and sf. This involved...

... downloading recording software, preparing a five minute reading - which is not simple - setting up microphone, learning to use the software, test reading, paring out words, more test readings, getting Exceptional Spouse help with setting up an amplifier so one could hear the reading, more test recording, paring out more words, editing out hiccups, etc. Now that I've done it all, it should only take a short time for the next one in April. Yeah, uh-huh.

A five-day writing retreat in Fairplay. OK, I did get good writing done those days.

Three critique group meetings with associated reading, of course.

One extensive written critique I had donated as a prize to a writing organization.

Travel planning for two convention trips.
Planning for a Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers March workshop, called Words Words Words, to be presented with my most excellent fellow writer Susan Smith (aka Mackay Wood.)

An extensive written interview for The Dallas Examiner and a shorter one for the Denver Examiner.

Writing up proposed back copy (one of the most difficult tasks for this writer) and cover ideas for The Soul Mirror, due to my editor for a cover conference.
Writing up workshop proposals for two writers conferences.
Four doctors' appointments, three days working on income tax, two screening procedures (all is well), and a partridge in a ...

Well, no wonder this felt like a fragmented season. That doesn't even count watching for reviews and references to the new book, and all those other things one should not fret about (but only non-humans could ignore).

So, with the schedule clearer for March, I hope to get back to regular blogging. In April, panic mode sets in with book deadline, Norwescon - doing not only the program of one of my favorite conventions but the Fairwood Writers Workshop, a terrific opportunity for new writers to get pro critiques - and the Pikes Peak Writers Conference - speaking at one of my favorite conferences.

Whew.

Release Day!

2010-01-05T08:17:00.005-07:00

So the day has come. The Spirit Lens is released to the world. (Well, OK, some bookstores and online sellers have leaked it early. Lest you have mistaken me, I'm not JK Rowling, whose publisher enforces strict on sale dates so they know how many million copies a minute she sells.)

So how does it feel?

Scary. Exciting. A relief. A deep and lasting satisfaction, especially for a person who never in the world imagined she could produce a whole book, much less eleven of them. I wrote for a number of years just for myself, and that was fine. But knowing that other people will now meet the characters who live in my head is just excellent. Portier, Ilario, and Dante are out there.

For those of you who have followed the crumbs these past two years, thanks! It has been fun to share the development of the story with you. I hope to get back on track with the second novel of the Collegia Magica.

For those who have read and critiqued - you know who you are - and encouraged and spread the word, thanks so much!

News...

2009-12-29T20:15:00.006-07:00

I have been terribly laggard with this blog of late. Apologies to all. The holidays and family gatherings have occupied lots of time, along with preparing for the launch of The Spirit Lens on January 5th. Preparations included:

setting up events (see the schedule on my website)

writing a piece for the Roc newsletter about the novels of the Collegia Magica and how The Spirit Lens took shape

writing a piece for the Knight Agency holiday blog

sending out postcards to bookstores

etc. etc.

Should likely have done more, but I've hardly had time to write as it is! When a bit of minor surgery clogged up the works, my kind editor gave me an extension on The Soul Mirror, which is an incredible relief. I hope to get back to serious work on the book in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, in the hullabaloo surrounding the release of The Spirit Lens, I don't want to forget the Lace and Blade 3 anthology that should be hitting the shelves in mid-February with my Song of the Beast follow-on story called, "The Heart's Coda." Here is the lineup for the anthology:

LACE AND BLADE 3 Table of Contents

Kari Sperring, "Featherweight"
Sean McMullen, "Culverelle"
Sheila Finch, "Fortune's Stepchild"
Judith Tarr, "The Horned King"
Jay Lake & Shannon Page, "Embers"
Tanith Lee, "Question a Stone"
Dave Smeds, "A Swain of Kneaded Moonlight"
Rosemary Hawley Jarman, "Fire and Frost and Burning Rose"
K. D. Wentworth, "The Garden of Swords"
Diana L. Paxson, "Blue Velvet"
Samantha Henderson, "Outlander"
Carol Berg, "The Heart's Coda"

Whew! Is that a lineup or what? I am so pleased to be a part of this project. Should be seeing cover art soon!

I'll keep you posted, and get back to regular blogging as I get into the last third of The Soul Mirror development. You can catch more regular, brief updates on Facebook. I'm "Carol Berg, Northern Colorado."

ARC Giveaway

2009-12-08T11:52:00.002-07:00

My publisher is giving away ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) of eight forthcoming Ace/Roc novels at the Dear Author blog today. Hie thee over there and you could win one of eight different new releases, including, as it happens, The Spirit Lens.

All you have to do is comment on the post, telling which are your first two choices and who among all Ace/Roc authors you recommend.

Supporting Your Local Booksellers

2009-12-04T11:13:00.003-07:00

I wanted to order a book this morning. A fellow member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers has written a couple of mysteries about an elderly man with short term memory loss (Mike Befeler's Retirement Homes are Murder and Living With Your Kids is Murder)and I think one of them will be perfect for someone on my Christmas list. Ordering occurred to me when I got an email from one of my favorite independent bookstores announcing Mike's signing this Sunday. Unfortunately, I can't make the signing. So I promptly boinked my bookmark for Amazon.

Uh, what's wrong with this picture?

Don't get me wrong. I love Amazon. It's so easy. I can research book titles and availability instantly. I can get free shipping and discounts on popular books and films, notification when the price drops on something I'm hedging about. They have worked hard and developed a great online shopping model. BUT...

When I'm not sure of what I want, when I want to see what's new, what's captivating, which Italian cookbook has the prettiest pictures and easiest directions, which travel guide for France has things laid out in a useful way, I need to browse... I need to read the backs, flip the pages, compare, read a page here and there. You can do this at online booksellers, but it is actually slower (and much less satisfying) than having a stack of books at your side and comparing. The Amazon business and transaction model is primo, but the browse model falls short. And although Amazon will recommend "if you like this, you might also like this," it is the result of database tags and sales data and not the recommendation of someone who loves mysteries or fantasy or cookbooks.

So, one can browse a bookstore and then rightfully compare prices to get the best deal, right? Well, sure. Except that if we all do this, the brick and mortar stores will vanish right before our eyes. And they are doing that.

I just sent out about fifty packets of bookmarks and fliers to bookstores recommended by readers and fellow writers. As I had last sent out bookmarks in 2007, for Flesh and Spirit, I decided to validate the addresses on my list. Fully one-third of the bookstores on my list had gone out of business in the past two years. Many of them were independents who had messages on their dead websites: "After 65 years in the Bay Area..." or 50 years or 80 years, or "All of our stores in the DC area..." Many were Waldenbooks, small, friendly shops that a number of my readers mentioned had knowledgeable staff who loved reading. Borders/Waldens just announced another round of store closings last month.

And so, I left Amazon on this day, and bopped off an email to my friendly independent in Denver, asking them to get Mike to sign a book for me and ship it up here. It might cost me a few dollars more. I might have to pay for shipping. But I'm hoping Ron and Nina will be there next time I need to browse.

Buy at least one book from a local store this season. Chain or independent, big or small. Call it a vote for browsing!

A Writing Exercise

2009-11-12T10:27:00.006-07:00

The past couple of days, I've been consulting with a friend who has been invited to submit some chapters and a synopsis to an agent. She sent me her first attempt at a synopsis. There are many good books and blog posts on how to write an effective synopsis (one is Pam McCutcheon's book Writing the Fiction Synopsis). All of them will tell you to
- write in present tense (no matter how the book is written)
- tell the whole story including the ending
- use your best storyteller's voice.
(A synopsis is not an essay.)

But here are a few of my own extra tips and an exercise I think can be valuable:

Highlight the goals, motivation, and conflict of your main characters. This is much more important than he went here and there and did this and that. That is, don't overload your synopsis with stage direction. It's more important to know what your heroes, heroines, and villains are trying to accomplish and why, than all the steps that get the result.

Don't overload with names. Name your protagonists and antagonists and the city/village/kingdom where the story takes place (especially if it gives a flavor of the story milieu - Chicago, Arbonne, Derzhi Empire). Be very selective about any name beyond this. Identify characters by roles, such as "Valen's sister, the diviner" if possible.

Even though you have limited space, don't minimize character introductions. Your characters and their conflicts are the heart of the story, and their personalities and problems are what will distinguish your "search for the lost sword" or your "werewolf in Denver" from someone else's. To give good character introductions means that sometimes you have to tell, not show. You don't have the space to slowly reveal character as you do in the novel itself. Don't be shy about using adjectives. "Seyonne's father, a gentle, scholarly man, wholly without magical talent, must accept the life of a farmer..."

Sketch out character and relationship growth. You do have in there, right? Highlighting it in your synopsis will show the synopsis reader that you know what makes a rich story.

Inject your passion. You only have room to show a few incidents, the turning points in the story. These are usually the pieces you like best as well. So use vivid language, not formal or stripped-down language. And consider carefully every incident you include. Trying to include too much detail in the synopsis leaches out the color and warmth.

Exercise Before writing the synopsis (or before tearing your hair out with one you've been working on) try writing the back copy for your book. Back copy, like the synopsis, is a sales tool. It needs to be vivid, and sketch out what's interesting about the protagonist, as well as the primary conflict of the book. In the back copy you're not going to give away the pasyoffs, which you must do in the synopsis, but that's ok. Read the backs of lots of books and feel the rhythms. Figure out what grabs you. The juicy bits, right?

So write your own. Let your critique partners read it. Then use it as a basis for writing your synopsis, layering in the secrets and the ending (YES, you must include the secrets and the ending in the synopsis) as well as the turning points in the story, including all the juicy bits and how they affect the progress of the story. I've found that writing sample back copy forces me to think about what attracts ME to the story, what I think might attract a reader to the story, and what sets my story apart from other books on the shelf. Think about it.

Momentum and Description

2009-10-12T11:48:00.008-06:00

I've talked several times about working to regain momentum after life events, vacations, distractions such as revisions or proof reviews for earlier books. I usually have a few days of spotty work, where I'm easily distracted, trying to pick up the threads of plots and subplots, the dynamics of character understanding, of relationships, of evolving mysteries... At times words flow. At times, they're balky and spurty, like turning on the water after the main system has been shut off for a while and is full of air bubbles.

For me, three things contribute to word flow:

1. Familiarity with characters and situations; ie. not having to pry details of goals and motivations from a character, or invent that parallel world I've been putting into square brackets to look at later;
2. Knowing (and liking) where I'm going;
3. Having my mind immersed in the writing - the ability to focus

There are also some important intangibles, like having chosen the right starting point for this section of the book. If I hit a major block, it's usually because I've headed off in a wrong direction - see earlier postings on what I do when I'm stuck.

I'll also get bogged down in description, especially the first time I visit that particular place. Sometimes I go around in circles for not much reason, like the library at Castelle Escalon. Is there a need for this library to be all that different from other libraries I've described? Probably not. Back up. Go a different direction.

Sometime the thinking time is fruitful, like my time figuring out what I meant by "three water gates" to the Spindle Prison. It expanded what I thought was a throwaway scene between Anne and her hostage brother into something creepy and meaningful.

I wrote the first few paragraphs of her journey to the prison on my last wonderful, productive few days in the mountains with fellow writers. I figured I'd be done with the chapter within a days of getting home, as I had gained so much Momentum from the retreat. But completing Chapter 14 took me an entire week. The crucial reunion at the end of the journey kept moving further away. Why? What happened to Momentum?

As Anne was seeing the city of Merona after half a month in the closed world of palace life, I wanted her to witness more evidence of the changes that were happening in the city as a result of the Bad Things Rising in the world. Which meant, of course, that I had to figure out what they were. Something different, larger, creepier than the things she had seen fourteen days before when arriving at the city. That took a bit, but I was happy with what she discovered, like:

A few turnings farther down the hill, Duplais pointed out another deserted tenement. A cracked signboard, painted with three gold balls, dangled by one corner over the door. The windows and door gaped black like empty eye sockets. Air rushed into them as if they were sucking every breath out of the world.

Then we got to the Spindle.

It's important to judge how and when to describe settings in detail. Too much can slow the pace of the action. There are even times when the first visit is not the time to do it.

We visited the Spindle once in The Spirit Lens. Portier visited a prisoner there. The problem was, we were building up to the climax of the book. Portier was in a hurry, and I didn't want to reveal the details of his discussion with a certain prisoner. It would have been cheating to give readers a detailed description of the locale, and then skimp on the meat of the visit. The narrative is supposed to reflect the point-of-view character's state of mind. Portier was in a hurry to accomplish something on his visit. He was focused on that and not on the prison itself. So we learned that the Spindle is a grim tower prison, set on a nub of rock in the deepest channel of a river. And it has three water gates. That's it.

In The Soul Mirror, the atmosphere of the journey to the prison, the place itself, and what my heroine discovers there is quite relevant to the actual events that occurred inside, and her growing certainty that there is something BIGGER going on.

And, of course, there is. Poor Ambrose. Not a good place at all.

Fascinating and Depressing

2009-10-07T11:56:00.004-06:00

Here is a great blog post about science fiction and fantasy's continuing struggle for literary recognition:

John Howell on sffmedia

As anyone who's ever heard me rant, this is a pet peeve of mine. I groan every time someone says, "Oh, you're published! What do you write?"

And I say, "I write epic fantasy."

And the face blanks out. "Oh, my kids read that."

Or, "Oh, I don't read that sort of thing. I like to read about real people."

And, of course, it doesn't help that fantasy is dissed by many hard sf writers in exactly the same terms as Atwood disses sf. "Oh, fantasy is nothing but elves, dragons, and unicorns. That soft and fluffy crap. Where's the tension, when any problem can be solved with magic?"

But, of course, such criticisms have to keep us honest. Bottle up those elves and unicorns. And don't let magic solve every problem!!

The Heart's Coda

2009-09-30T23:36:00.003-06:00

Last spring I received an invitation to submit a story to an anthology of high fantasy. With such a tight schedule for the Collegia Magica books, I wasn't sure I'd have the time. (Still not sure I had the time!) The editor offered to send me copies of her previous two anthologies so I could see if I wanted to join in the third of the series.

The anthologies are called Lace and Blade, from Norilana Books, a small press that puts out absolutely gorgeous editions of classics, as well as some original works and these anthologies. Check out the luscious cover art for the first and second volumes.

Well, I read several of the stories in the two volumes, including the lovely novella, "The Night Wind" by Mary Rosenblum that had just been selected for this year's Nebula ballot. Not only was I impressed (and intimidated) by the quality of the stories, but I really wanted to have a story in the new one. So I told her yes. The due date would be August 1.

So, of course, the next thing was to figure out what to write. Length could be variable, wrote the editor. Write tight, but make it as long as it needs to be.

The only way I can produce short fiction while writing another book is to piggyback on one of my existing worlds. Which was quite all right, said the editor. And when I spun the bottle and got to thinking, the right project stared up at me.

Song of the Beast was not my first novel published, but I actually wrote it before Transformation. I always intended it to be a standalone, and I was happy where it ended. The primary story arc was complete and satisfying (certainly to ME!) But, in truth, I did leave Aidan MacAllister's world in upheaval. He had changed the world so dramatically that nothing would ever be the same. His personal story - a visionary musician imprisoned as his fame reached its height, released after 17 brutal years, unable to sing or play his harp or hear the voice of the god of music who had guided his musical development - led him into a wilderness where he hoped to repair half a millennium of injustice. And I never told readers whether or not he got the girl who helped him do what he had to do.

Needless to say, I heard from a lot of readers that they wanted to know what happened after. That was what I wanted to write.

But once I got to thinking about it, something unexpected happened. As I told the editor:

Like many authors, I don't believe that my heroes' and heroines' lives end on the last page of my books. Which means, of course, that when you check up on them long after the grand and terrible events are over, you occasionally discover that their futures haven't gone quite as you expected. Thus it happened when I looked up Aidan MacAllister, the visionary musician-hero of Song of the Beast. What I found compelled me to write "The Heart's Coda."

Forthcoming in Lace and Blade 3 from Norilana Books, February 14, 2010

The Proof is in the Pudding

2009-09-28T19:40:00.000-06:00

One thing electronic copyedits did for my publishing schedule was to shorten the time from turning in copyedits until seeing proof pages! Well, it certainly seemed to shorten the time, because the Packet of Proof Pages from Penguin arrived last week while I was off having a great weekend at the Colorado Gold Writers' Conference.

Of course, just because they got them back to me quickly, it didn't mean I had a lot of time to work on them - about ten days. And darned if I wasn't just getting back into The Soul Mirror development! But, in general, reviewing proofs means one read-through and goes pretty fast. I just wasn't sure how things were going to look after my interesting experience with the copyediting.

So how did all those complicated copyedits hold up?

I was really impressed. Everything looked GREAT! It took only a few pages to realize that all the changes I was so worried about were correctly reversed, and all the tweaks I had made were incorporated smoothly.

Only one small thing did I notice (and, you observant ones will note, I mentioned it as a risk when I was writing about this process). Never have I needed to correct so much punctuation in proof pages.

The problem is that Word's TRACK CHANGES function draws lines from all these margin boxes to the place in the text where the change occurs. Just as when you're trying to type punctuation into an online form, the lines overwrite the punctuation, so you can't tell whether the period or comma is there just by looking. In TRACK CHANGES, you have to switch to FINAL mode (hiding all the layered corrections), to look for stray or missing puncs. And I just didn't have time to look at every line. So we're back to paper and pencil now. I mark them, return those pages, and that will be that.

The verdict: The Spirit Lens is done!

By the way, email me the name and address of your favorite bookstore and I'll send a batch of Spirit Lens bookmarks. We want to make sure your store is well stocked!!

A Gritty Myth Goes Live

2009-09-20T18:54:00.005-06:00

So I don't write short stories very often. When our local non-profit writers organization, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, asked me to contribute a short story to their anthology, Broken Links, Mended Lives, I hesitated. I was in the middle of working on The Spirit Lens, and I only had one piece of a story in my trunk. I really wanted to support the organization, though, so right after I turned in The Spirit Lens, I pulled out the fragment and spent a little time with it. If I could finish the thing in a reasonable amount of time, I'd submit it. Otherwise I'd pass.

The story was mostly a voice. A girl's voice. She didn't even have a name. But she lived in a pretty nasty world, and her story would definitely fit the theme of the anthology. Every "link" she had was broken.

As it happened, I had a lot of fun with it - and to my surprise, I was able to tell a whole story within the guidelines of 5-6K words. Well, here's how this nameless girl introduced herself:

My parents never told me I had Talent. Perhaps they thought it undignified for the daughter of a city magistrate, or believed it might frighten me or make me insolent. Or maybe they just left it too late, and had the lack of consideration to die of plague before warning me.

Now don’t think me unfeeling, but when one is ten years old and the whole world is dying of plague, or slaughtering each other for fear of it, or taking flight to escape it, one has little time to mourn, or even to recall why one should. When civilization has erupted into chaos, the next meal looms much larger in importance than past grieving.

Six years I spent scrabbling in search of that next meal before I trudged up a rock-blasted hill and through the iron gate of Fenwick Priory. By that time I had seen far more of men and life than was really necessary, and taking up residence with a group of similarly exhausted women seemed sensible. The sisterhood grew vegetables, kept to themselves, and did no good works to speak of. I had no illusion that this would be a permanent situation. The sisters didn’t seem that agreeable, and entanglement of any sort made me want to cram a shiv in someone’s craw.

"You'll tend a plot, Girl," said the bony Prioress, licking the beaded honey from a suckle blossom grown right out of the crumbled courtyard wall. "Each of us has one."

"Don't know how," I said and scratched my itchy foot on a cracked step. "Not opposed, but I never learnt. My parents called planting hireling’s work. I’ll scrub for you. Fetch and carry. Steal, if you want. I'm good at those."

"You don't tend a plot, you don't eat. Go or stay, as you will."

I stayed. The road had got tiresome of late. My boots had fallen to pieces, and a thieving tallyman had jacked my knife. Bare hands or sticks weren’t enough to fend off the skags now I was ripe. Last thing I needed was a squaller planted inside me. My own belly was empty half the time.

The story is called At Fenwick Faire, and I would call it a gritty myth.

The anthology is Broken Links, Mended Lives. There are some excellent stories in the anthology - some by published authors, some by authors who certainly should be. It is mixed genre - in keeping with the organization's membership - but I would estimate that more than half the stories are in the "speculative fiction" realm.

If you'd like to support an organization that works hard to educate and support aspiring writers, as well as catch some great talent, give it a try.

So Right!

2009-09-11T10:32:00.001-06:00

My friend Kathy pointed me to this blog post.

http://www.stephenfry.com/2009/09/05/emerging-into-the-light/

Yes, yes, writing is really hard. I had no idea, but then I never really wanted to do it either.

Though I loved to read, it had never been a dream of mine to write books. It seemed like it would be too hard. So it always surprises me how, upon hearing that I am a writer, so many people say, "You know, I've been working on this novel..." or "I'm going to do that when I retire." As in I'm working now, but when I don't have to work, I'll write.

Before I took up writing I worked full time, paid attention to my family, gardened, wrote letters, exercised, cooked, did needlepoint, volunteered, read multiple books a week, canned peaches and tomatoes, made jam, and numerous other things. And my house was always clean. Let's see, I try to spend some time with ES (Exceptional Spouse) and the kids when I can and they're around. I am dreadfully behind on my reading. I volunteer for one program a year. I still cook, more this summer with all the fresh veggies coming in (that was one of the objectives), but with far less variety (another objective.) And I obsess about my books (as anyone who reads this blog will know).

Watch out for what you're getting into, folks. It eats you alive!

The Soul Mirror Redux

2009-09-07T00:35:00.003-06:00

Here we go again. After intensive revision on The Spirit Lens, some family fun and summer timeouts, writing the Song of the Beast story, and spending almost ten days doing nothing but reviewing Spirit Lens copyedits, the new book has sat sorely neglected over the last few months. Scarily neglected, in fact.

As always when I've been away, I take the first couple of days to read through what's there. I can't really fault it, except that it's wordy and perhaps a bit repetitive in some areas. (And who is surprised about that?) The first three chapters feel pretty solid. But something nags about the five following.

There are lots of interesting tidbits. Our heroine - yes the narrator of The Soul Mirror is a young woman, whose family has been torn apart by the events of The Spirit Lens. Anne is smart, well educated, and braver than she thinks. She considers herself plain and very dull compared to the rest of her family. She has a terrible habit of thinking of what she really wants to say hours or days after the opportunity to say it. All of which results in a person who is very reserved. And she has nasty case of hayfever. Bummer.

But after being away from the story for a while (yes, this is a really good thing, even though that February deadline is much larger than it appears in the mirror) I could see two things:

First, there wasn't enough spooky music playing. Spooky music is not just for murder mysteries like this one, where bad guys are playing around with spectres and ghosts. Spooky music is what a reader hears when something bad is going to happen. It's what tells the reader that things are not going to always seem as peaceful as they are now. It is tension, of course. Tension signals potential conflict, one of those words writers sling around like reams of paper.

A story is populated by [we hope!] interesting people. These people want certain immediate things, whether it is a shelter for the winter [like Valen, in Flesh and Spirit] or to survive the rest of his horrid life without thinking about the past [like Seyonne in Transformation]. If the characters are realistic, they have longer term wants, too, as we all do, but sometimes they can't articulate what those are at the beginning of a story. But tension is the growing certainty on the reader's part that these poor people are not going to get what they want - at least not for very long. Tension draws readers into a story and keeps them reading.

In the case of The Soul Mirror, we're starting off four years after the end of The Spirit Lens. Though the overarching mystery posed in that story was solved, some strange things were happening in the world by the end. Anne is forced out of a self-imposed blindness and into the wider world, a place far out of her comfort zone. Trouble happens along the way (chapter 3) but then, godlike, I lifted her up and set her in the new place without allowing her to get a sense of the effects of the badness of the first book. No effects implies no unsettling certainty that she's found herself in the middle of things worse than she can imagine. No tension. No story.

The second problem, as one of my critique partners so eloquently confirmed: "Geez, Carol. This is all good stuff. She meets some interesting people. I can see clearly where she is. But...nothing happens!"

Well, yeah, OK. Once she gets through the traumas of the first three chapters and is dropped into this new place, Anne meets a lot of people, some nice, some not. She takes stock of her surroundings, hears some gossip, gets set up to look into some Very Bad Things that triggered the opening of this story. But in chapter 4 and 5, nothing of note really happens. You can get away with this for a chapter - maybe, but not two, and certainly not three or four. (Yes, by Chapter 8 things were popping.) But you need action to keep the story moving forward. We can't let Anne just observe and prepare. Being a retiring sort, she needs to be challenged with events.

Now this wasn't all bad news. Everything I had written was necessary. Most of it, I'll use (except for the usual reduction of wordiness and repetitions). Writing it got me into Anne's head and her world and the situation and her feelings about what had happened to her family.

So my work is set out for me. I need to consider the ramifications of the "strangeness" at the end of The Spirit Lens and thread them into the background as Anne arrives at the center of the new mystery. And once I've wired these chapters for "tension," I'll know what events need to happen.

I start back with the beginning of chapter 4, where instead of jumping ahead to find Anne in her situation, Anne and her escort are just approaching the gates of Merona:

"Will they truly shut the gates with all these people outside?" I asked. My crawling skin and buzzing skull worsened with every centimetre closer to the city. "We’re not at war — not with anyone close enough to threaten Merona." Not that I’d heard, at least.

"It is certain...disturbances...inside the city cause the gate closings." Duplais did not shift his roving gaze from the crowd, examining the multi-hued sea of faces as if the king himself might arrive to explain further. "Officious fools believe they can stay the wind by locking the gates."

Do you hear a bit of spooky music here? Let me see if I can go find it.

I'll keep you posted.

Spirit Lens Copyedits: The Nitty Gritty

2009-08-24T00:33:00.000-06:00

As my long ago post noted, I've been fortunate with copyeditors through the years, having only one bad experience - an overzealous copyeditor who worked on Revelation. I had to spend a lot of time undoing what she had done. I've never had any problem getting my copyedit changes accepted, whether I've rejected or altered the CE's suggestions.

One glance at the Spirit Lens manuscript, and I knew this was going to be more complicated than usual.

As you might be able to tell from other postings, I am meticulous about words. I tweak and change, ever searching for the right words to evoke mood, time period, character information, action. The difference between shout and scream is important. Burned and the archaic form, burnt, have a different sound and feel to them, and egads evokes a very different time locale than godamighty or by Grapthar's Hammer. Words are an intricate part of world building. I feel that my job isn't done until I have all the right ones.

I was also well trained in grammar and spelling, and a lot of my craft learning was how to adapt the formal writing rules I learned in school for fiction writing. My manuscripts are long, somewhere between 150, 000 and 180,000 words. By the time I turn it in after revision, most of the words are the ones I want, and almost all spelled right, and put together with every regard for proper grammar. Where the grammar is informal or incorrect, I've chosen it to be that way. Though, to be honest, I am terrible at compound words: sylph-like or sylphlike, mid-afternoon or midafternoon, and so forth.

Words are also a critical component of narrative voice. Is my narrator educated or ignorant? Thirty years old or ten? Is he verbose or terse? Is he a storyteller or is he a librarian converted into a royal investigator? All these things should be revealed not only in the character's dialogue, but also in the narration of the story if it is told in an intimate point-of-view. Sometimes, a character speaks in a rural or uneducated dialect. Sometimes a character speaks in fragments. Sometimes particular archaic or peculiar words show up in a character's voice to evoke a time that is not 21st century USA.

These were the sources of most of the corrections caused the problem with this copyediting experience.

One of the CE's tasks is to make "suggestions" for clarity. I deliberately chose to use the metric system in these books, rather than make up a system of measurement. Because Sabria is in the throes of a scientific explosion akin to the first half of our 17th century, I wanted the feel of a very precise measurement scheme. [And yes, I know the metric system came into use somewhat later than that, but this is not historical Europe! It certainly COULD have been in use in the 17th century!] Sabria is also a kingdom that is very much a Mediterranean-style landscape and feel, so I didn't want to use the US spellings of the metric measurements. I preferred centimetre to centimeter, and litre to liter. The CE kindly changed all the spellings to the US spellings and queried every single measurement as to whether I wouldn't rather use yards, miles, and gallons for measurement. Aarrgh. Lots of "no"s and lots of stets ensued.

Another of the CE's tasks is to correct grammar, and to make sure that a manuscript adheres to the publisher's styleguide with respect to spelling [honor vs honour, backward vs backwards, and so forth]. So I found some words in the narrative, which is Portier's voice, had been corrected. The aforementioned burnt as the past participle of burn. He speaks of ten days previous, rather than ten days ago. I had to stet all those well-intended corrections as well.

Portier also is a librarian, an intensely scholarly and logical man. He thinks in lists. He often speaks and thinks in bullet points. I express this in fragments. Every CE knows that sentence fragments are OK in fiction. Certainly in dialogue. Mostly they leave them alone, resisting the call of their formal English training that says sentence fragments are a no, no. This particular CE was really bothered by Portier's fragmentary thinking and attempted to create complete sentences out of many of them. In a few cases, her point was well taken, as the fragments did not follow logically from the prior sentence (which is what makes them work.) But for the most part, these efforts to neaten up the prose didn't work. That was a LOT of retyping and correction. I was really irritated as I did it.

But once I was done, I mellowed. The CE had been meticulous about the things she caught. Though I wished she had focused on more useful aspects of her tasks, the book was better for our mutual efforts. And that's what counts.

Spirit Lens Copyedits: Electronic!

2009-08-19T13:23:00.001-06:00

So how is electronic copyediting - as implemented by my particular publisher - different from paper copyediting?

Roc has hooked its electronic copyediting to Microsoft Word 2003's version of Track Changes. [Note: they may also have other varieties for authors who don't use Word, but I do, so this is what I received to work with.] I am familiar with Track Changes, and unlike many who curse it, I find it very useful, especially late in the revision cycle. Say I want to change the personal history of a secondary character at the last minute. I can figure out where I need to thread the needed changes/additions throughout the manuscript and have those things highlighted by Word. I can then read through the appropriate sections, taking a look at how the new work flows. If I decide I don't like it, I can reject the changes. If I like how it reads, I can accept each piece, further modifying as I go, if I wish. Since my manuscripts run 500+ pages - this kind of functionality is really helpful.

I was curious to see how this was going to work for copyediting, which has to be a very precise operation. A copyedited manuscript is, in essence, a set of instructions for how a manuscript should be translated from the author's typed document to a correctly spelled, "grammared," and styled printed page.

The electronically copyedited version of The Spirit Lens is laid out fully justified, with page headers as they would be in the actual book. Titles, chapter heads, extracts [such as letter texts or poems or book extracts], blank lines, and such are attached to Word "styles" that will apply the appropriate fonts and sizes. Ellipses, em-dashes, italics, labels, and so forth are set according to the house rules.

I see the copyeditor's [CE's] changes highlighted throughout the manuscript. Additions to the text are in red. Deletions are shown in "margin bubbles" with dotted lines connection to the text location where they were removed. The CE's questions and comments are in pink margin bubbles attached to the word or phrase to which they are related. I see only a few purple bubbles, which from the initials AS rather than CE, I can tell are comments from my real editor [Anne Sowards]. So far, so good.

So how do I go about interacting with all this?

I get a list of instructions along with the manuscript, which tell me how to set up Track Changes options to be compatible with the file they've sent me. I am also to set up my identity as "Author" and initials as AU. This way, my comments and changes are linked to me, distinguished from those of the CE and AS, (and, I hope, will take precedence over all others!)

My task will be to review all the changes already made, approve or disapprove, and answer any queries the CE has made. In addition, I want to add in all the changes I've decided on in my readthrough.

To add in my own stuff is easy, of course. I just make the alterations in the manuscript. Additions show up as red, deletions in blue bubbles, etc, all with the initials AU attached. I don't take a single pass to do this, but plan to add them in as I step through what the editor and copyeditor have done.

If I agree with the change the CE has made, all I have to do is leave it.

If I want to answer a query, I just click on the colored bubble, click on the "new comment" box on the Track Changes toolbar, and type in my answer. It is labeled with AU and linked to the CE's bubble.

What gets interesting is how to disagree. On a paper manuscript, one put dots under the changed text and wrote stet in the margin. This says "leave the text as is." If I wanted to change that particular piece of text in a different way, I would use my differently colored pencil and change it.

One might assume that I could just use the Track Changes function to "Reject" a change the CE put in, but, in fact, the file has been set up so that the [Accept or Reject Changes] function is turned off. The publisher wants a record of the suggested change, and the author's acceptance or rejection. At first this seems clumsy, but then, they had the same record before - it was just paper and colored pencil marks!

So I can't just reject the CE's changes that I don't agree with. They give me two methods to reject a change.

I can link a comment bubble to the change and type in stet.

Or I can just go into the text and put it back like I want it - or alter it in a different way. The newer change will be labeled with my initials.

The problem with #1, is that it leaves the text in the incorrectly altered state. Somehow this bothers me more than that old paper stuff. On paper, the original text is still present. [Yeah, yeah, the electronic version of the original is still present, but you can't SEE it.] Having the new text actually incorporated into the manuscript seems more "real" somehow, than colored pencil marks on paper, even if the final reviewer [don't know who does this] can just hit reject and it all goes back to the way it was before. And one more thing, some "changes" like rearranging a sentence can result in five "delete bubbles" and two added phrases. I would have to stet each one of them. What a mess if I didn't get them all!

So I choose the second method and put the words back the way I want them in the text, sometimes exactly as they were, sometimes slightly modified. Sometimes I add a comment box to explain why I rejected the change. It is certainly easier to do all this electronically. It's much more readable than anything I penciled on a page. And I can make sure I get the words exactly the right place, rather than using arrows.

So what are the problems I ran into? From a software point of view, this technology is pretty astounding. Keeping all the versions right there so you can see how it was, how it is, and how it would look after the changes are applied, as well as showing all the individual changes and comments is really complicated.

Where the complexity gets in the way is often with [Find and Replace]. It is great to be able to say I want to change all instances of the word Librarian to librarian because the CE didn't understand that this was only a job and not a formal title in this culture. But somehow the change tracking functionality interferes with Find and Replace (probably because it goes off in the weeds adding deletion bubbles and so forth) and it can't find them all. I have to search one at a time. And then switch to just [Find] and then switch back to [Replace]. What a pain.

It is also very difficult to make sure that punctuation marks are correct around a change in the text. All those little dotted lines to connect changes with the bubbles in the margins often cover up periods or commas. To make absolutely sure it's right, I have to switch to Final mode, where it shows me what the text will look like when all the changes are applied. I think there is a lot of room for punctuation errors.

Yet another anxiety (smaller) is that sometimes words that are styled italics, don't show up that way. You have to know to look in the style box on the toolbar. I don't have confidence that they're going to be done right if I can't see it. (I believe in WYSIWYG.) And yet, not having the clues to the installed "styles" means I'm not sure which one to use or even whether I need to do anything.

I wouldn't want to be the person who has to go through all of this to choose which set of changes to use. But I'm guessing it will be easier than sorting through the paper and trying to figure out where the pink arrow goes and decipher people's handwriting.

I guess we'll see when it all comes out in the wash - or the proof pages.

But, of course, the big question with copyedits is: did the CE make good changes or ask good questions or was this a copyeditor who wanted to play god? It sure looked like there were a lot of changes in this "clean" manuscript of mine.

Stay tuned...

Spirit Lens Copyedits: Readthrough

2009-08-13T21:31:00.011-06:00

No sooner had I come off a month of family visits and working on a short story last week, than the copyedited manuscript of The Spirit Lens arrived.

First task? Do a complete read-through without looking at the copyedits. Well, OK, I could have done this the week before the copyedits came, but...did I mention family fun? Short story? A little bout of summer surgery? Updating website? Actually, I wanted to wait until the last possible moment to maximize my distance from the words.

The purpose of a readthrough is not just to "get a feel for the story" again in preparation for final edits. This is the last chance to make any substantial revision. So I want to read carefully, looking for places where the logic doesn't work, getting a feel for the pacing and ferreting out plot holes. I watch for bits that got left out (or duplicated) in the revision process. Yes, I needed to make sure the dark incident in Portier's past was made clear, but maybe I overdid it, put in too much too soon, or some such. I hunted unresolved issues, eg. did I ever mention what became of the haunted guard captain? And I wanted to make sure that the resolution of The Spirit Lens was rock solid, ready to lead in to The Soul Mirror.

So what did I find?

It is amazing how your perspective changes after not looking at the mss. for two months. I found myself pleased with what I was reading. All the warts that I saw when up to my eyes in the details of revision had faded out because of the enforced breathing space. I found that my doubts about whether I had really laid out the chain of events clearly and whether I had belabored certain bits of history overmuch were laid to rest. And indeed, I did not miss those 10,000 words I cut out of it in the least. Nor had I left five thousand ragged edges where I'd pulled them out. It all seemed to work.

One of the best parts was reading those pieces I really labored over during revision. Mostly these were the pivotal scenes, the big changes in direction and emotional upheavals that MUST make sense, and yet only come clear once you've gotten to the end of the story. All of these pieces were much more improved than I remembered. I think the grand mystery - for, as I've said, The Spirit Lens is at heart a murder mystery - unwinds clearly and logically. And I think my three investigators' relationships - which form the primary emotional arc of the story - do the same. Whew! I really expected to need some continued revision, but all I found that needed doing were some word and phrase improvements and some very minor paragraph reordering. I even cut out a sentence here and there - bits I'd clung to, but suddenly stood out as wholly unneeded.

So now it was time to take a look at the copyedits.
[To review what the copyediting cycle is all about, take a look at From Sale to Shelf: Part 3.]

First thing I had to do was get set up. For the first time, I was going to be dealing with electronic copyediting and not a paper manuscript marked with varicolored pencil. OK, technology doesn't bother me. And even though I was given only a week to get the manuscript turned around, I didn't expect any problems, especially given my feeling that the book was pretty clean. That was before I looked.

Stay tuned...

The Lion

2009-08-08T22:20:00.004-06:00

Just arrived.

It is lovely. Stone. Heavy. Suitable for bookend. Very nice.

The Heart's Coda (maybe)

2009-08-03T22:20:00.000-06:00

This has been quite a month. The aforementioned medical issue included my first ever surgery - as I said before all with most satisfactory resolution. But I kept wanting to take naps all month - and I hate naps. And then the Song of the Beast story, tentatively titled The Heart's Coda, just ate my brain! Aidan was always such a sweetheart, you know, but he's been out there with the dragons for three very long years...

Oh, did you think I was going to tell you something else?

Since you looked, here's a snippet:

The man towered over me. Senai born, no doubt of it, with such exceptional height, thick, black hair, and strong, lean features. He appeared not so much burnt as angry. Not so much dead as tired and dirty and underfed. Eyes closed, face twisted in effort, he blurted, "Who?"

I swallowed the knots collected in my throat and attempted to bow from my prostrate position which I was not confident enough to alter. No Elhim in the world, not even my progenitor who is exceptionally tall and broad in the back for my race, would reach this man's shoulder. And the shredded garments, and the tangled hair grown out in all directions, even sprouted from his face—which I had been told was not at all his customary aspect—gave MacAllister a savage appearance. Surely living in the wild so long alone with beasts must tax a man's reason.

The speaker, as you may note, is an Elhim named Glyn par Davyn - yes, Davyn's "progeny." And no, the story does not address Elhim procreation. That will be matter for another story.

But thank goodness, the story is now done and sent away. Hooray! I will update with publication news when I have some.

Cover Art

2009-07-31T22:39:00.006-06:00

At last, I have the final cover art for The Spirit Lens to show off. I think it is smashing. The artist is Gordon Crabb.

And here's the back copy:

In a kingdom on the verge of a grand renaissance, where natural science has supplanted failing sorcery, someone aims to revive a savage rivalry…

For Portier de Savin-Duplais, failed student of magic, sorcery’s decline into ambiguity and cheap illusion is but a culmination of life’s bitter disappointments. Reduced to tending the library at Sabria’s last collegia magica, he fights off despair with scholarship. But when the king of Sabria charges him to investigate an attempted murder that has disturbing magical resonances, Portier believes his dreams of a greater destiny might at last be fulfilled.

As the king’s new agente confide, Portier — much to his dismay — is partnered with the popinjay Ilario de Sylvae, the laughingstock of Sabria’s court. Then the need to infiltrate a magical cabal leads Portier to Dante, a brooding, brilliant young sorcerer whose heretical ideas and penchant for violence threaten to expose the investigation before it’s begun. But in an ever-shifting landscape of murders, betrayals, old secrets, and unholy sorcery, the three agentes will be forced to test the boundaries of magic, nature, and the divine…

And the Winner Is...

2009-07-19T22:33:00.003-06:00

Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone have won the 2009 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. Here is the press release. [I have to keep rereading to believe it!]

This award is really special. One has only to look at the list of finalists and winners to see it. So many of the writers and books I adored before I ever became a writer.

So they asked me to send "acceptance remarks." Here they are:

I stand in the company of giants. How can I possibly say more than that?

Well, I purport to be a writer of epics, thus I always have extra words. As I am accustomed to spending a great deal of my time in a world that is not present reality, I'm not sure I quite believe I am to join such august company. Perhaps you could all pinch yourselves and email me if you actually heard my name called.

I am terribly sorry I can't be in Los Angeles tonight to take all this in and thank every single person who opened up this world to me. The nun who put Edith Hamilton on the sophomore reading list every year. That college roommate [Yes, you, Kathy!] who shoved her battered copy of Lord of the Rings into my hands in 1968. And that dear friend [Yes, you, Linda!] who persuaded a software engineer whose kids were needing less of her time that writing some email letters in character might be fun, "as it wasn’t like writing a novel or anything."

I am deeply honored that you have found something of truth in my story and seen fit to let my dear Valen hobnob with Merlin and True Thomas, Aragorn, Corwin of Amber, and all the rest.

That's it! I'm psyched!!

Lazy, Hazy Days...

2009-07-14T08:58:00.004-06:00

Whew, it's been a month since a post. What kind of blogger am I? [Head hangs in shame.]

After the May revisions push, I started work on a short story promised to a great anthology. Dithered about it. Got distracted by a health issue which has just come to a happy resolution. Got distracted by a mountain trip where I found out Breath and Bone won the 2009 Colorado Book Award for genre fiction. [Hooray!]

Meanwhile, The Soul Mirror beckons and the short story bothers, because its opening just keeps dragging and dragging. I think I've got a good setup, but need some concentrated work [yes, really, concentration has been absent for the past 6 weeks.]

I want to base this story on Song of the Beast. I've had so many people ask for a sequel, and I did leave Elyria in a terrible mess. The primary relationship - of two people who each woke the other person's heart and courage - was resolved. But their future relationship was only hinted at. As the two people are very different and have been abandoned in messy circumstances, a variety of interesting things could happen. I wanted to give just a hint of resolution and/or new direction to Aidan's story. So what's the problem?

Well writing short, for one. I am just not accustomed to it.

Basing a story on the resolution of a novel, for another. How do I avoid too much backstory? That's where I'm bogging down. World background. Relationship background. As well as new characters and new situation to resolve. I feel as if I need to write completely for my own benefit, but I have to trust that I'll be able to pare it down enough to make it a great story for those who haven't read the book, as well as those who have. Tough. Think about it.

Timing. I need to get this done. How do people dash off short stories over a weekend?
More tomorrow.

Prequel and Sequel

2009-06-17T07:44:00.008-06:00

Here it is the middle of June. How did that happen? May vanished in a blur of revision. I posted about the various aspects of The Spirit Lens revision process. I know the book is stronger, tighter, and cleaner than when I turned it in the first time. I believe that both motivations and - very important in the context of a mystery - my investigators' deductions are clearer. The ending is much stronger and more satisfying.

So now I am leaping back into the development of Book 2 of the Collegia Magica series, The Soul Mirror. I left off back in April with a few solid chapters written and several additional chapters left over from a time when I thought the story of The Soul Mirror would be the first of the series.

Whoa, you might say. How did the first book of a series become the second before any of the series is even released?

The original story idea for the novels of the Collegia Magica, derived somewhat from some very early writing I did, had to do with a reserved, bookish young woman whose family had been described as "as perfectly balanced as the elegant ellipses of the planets" in a kingdom where new discoveries in science were elbowing magic out of the way. Through a series of circumstances, that unique, vibrant family had disintegrated, leaving Anne standing alone in a place she had no desire to be, faced with a mystery she had no qualifications but her own intelligence to solve. I wrote maybe ten chapters of that story before realizing that,

I was having to cram in tons of backstory to explain the family's disintegration. As this was the foundation for Anne's mystery and the solution to it, it felt very flat,cramped, and rushed. It was like making a sandwich when you'd eaten all the bread the day before.

the overarching mystery I had initially set out was much too simplistic.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided that the characters involved in all that backstory, Anne's family as well as the other players, were too interesting to be relegated entirely to backstory, especially when their nature and characters served as motivations for the book. Thus, I decided I wanted to start much earlier so that I could give this backstory real life, that is, to make it frontstory.

At the same time, I gave thought to the mystery and came up with a much more complex idea (which is still evolving, by the way.)

Figuring out where to start is an important decision. Sometimes it is simple. The most significant, world-altering change in the saga of the Rai-kirah - or rather in the story I wanted to tell about the Rai-kirah - was Aleksander purchasing a new slave - the day he met Seyonne. The story I told in Song of the Beast was that of a musician rediscovering the wellsprings of his art. It was not the story of a musician being clapped into prison at the height of his fame and being tortured into silence, though I had to refer to that piece of the story to give a foundation to Aidan's journey. Thus the proper beginning was the hour Aidan was released from prison.

Sometimes, you can only know where to start by knowing precisely what story you're trying to tell. And sometimes you can't know that until you've told a a part of it.

Revision 5 - Illumination

2009-06-05T22:16:00.000-06:00

For me, the best aspect of revision is the opportunity to think deeply about plot, structure, and character now I've got the entire story in my head at once. I can't get these insights if I'm too focused on word count and grammar, so I have to formulate a list of problem areas beforehand or as I do the tighten and clean-up pass. Then I take care of those issues on the content pass, and verify on the final readthrough.

In the present case, I've had an insight that I believe will strengthen both the mystery and the character arc. [Don't worry, I'm not going to get into spoilers!]

In abstract terms, I had hedged a bit on the villains of the piece. We know some of them for sure - there is a complete story arc in this book. A few other people we're not so sure of will be sorted out in The Soul Mirror. What I'm thinking of doing is placing one of these ambiguous characters more clearly into either the villain or not-villain camp.

So why would I do this, as it seems to remove a bit of lingering mystery?

First, because it will more clearly define the positioning of another, more important, character. [Think of how a scarecrow standing in the middle of a completely harvested cornfield stands out quite starkly.] It completes a character arc that contributes to a more solid ending.

Second, because I wasn't feeling good about "exonerating" this particular person as he or she stood in the work as written. Portier and Ilario and Dante are none of them stupid. To let someone wholly pull the wool over their eyes would be unrealistic. On the other hand, to have a wholly innocent person remain darkly ambiguous for so long would also be unrealistic. So I had to make a choice--is this person a villain or a naive? Then I had to go back through that character's thread through the book and make sure my decision was well supported.

Third, because I had planned to carry this ambiguous character over into the The Soul Mirror and wasn't feeling good about it. I've had a fresher idea...

There, you see? Revision leads us into tough decision making. If we push hard enough for clarity - the goal of revision - we can feel the uncertainties we've left in our writing. Choosing, and repairing, rewriting, and repositioning, can - and did!! - leave the work stronger.

I send off The Spirit Lens last Wednesday (the 34th of May, right?) and feel really good about it. Total words cut: approx 10K. Total words revised: every other one. Beginning stronger. Ending stronger. Climax stronger. Ultimate uh-oh - much stronger. Motivations clearer, both in my head and on the page.

Now it's back to The Soul Mirror. Hooray!

In the Company of Giants

2009-05-28T11:34:00.003-06:00

Hi readers,

Just got a mind-bending bit of news. My two-book series, Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone, is a finalist for the 2009 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. Other 2009 finalists include Ursula Le Guin, Patricia McKillip, and Gene Wolfe, along with debut author Daryl Gregory. Holy moly!

When I scan the list of past Mythopoeic finalists and winners, the first name on the list is Mary Stewart and The Crystal Cave. I read and adored her romantic suspense when I was a teen and twenty-something, but this delightful, lyrical tale of Merlin and Arthur brought them into my head as real living persons as no other Arthurian tale ever has. Also on the list are Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber and Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer...along with other works by Le Guin, McKillip, Susan Cooper, Richard Adams, Donaldson, McKinley, Willis, Kay, Tepper, works that shaped my love for fantasy, as well as feeding the writer I am. And they still sit on my bookshelves! Need I say what an honor that my name is now listed on the same page? Still reeling...

You can read more about the Mythopoeic Society, their connection to the Inklings (Tolkien, CS Lewis, et al), and the awards at their website.

Revision 4: Cutting Words

2009-05-28T00:36:00.000-06:00

In these times, editors are having to push back on writers more and more to keep their stories lean. This is not necessarily a factor of the reading market, but rather a factor of the bookselling market. Readers may love their Big Fat Fantasies. But paper is expensive. And booksellers are jealous of their shelf space. And, of course, more words does not make one a better writer! You CAN make a grand, complex story with luscious prose in less than 900 pages. (Keep telling me that.) So what do you do when your editor says, "Pare it down by 10-15K?"

First remember that the story, characters, and setting are the most important. Get them out there in the most wonderful fashion you can. That being said, we all have fat in our prose. I know I write lots of extra words. I think it's a product of my "start from the beginning and go" plot development. I think I'm writing tighter these days, but at revision time, here are some techniques I use - very fresh in my mind from these past three weeks.

1. The Easy. Start with a goal of removing one line per page. That's pretty painless unless you are a truly "spare" writer. (In that case you probably don't run into the cutting words problem!)

2. Nibbling. Look at any paragraph with just a word or two dangling on the last line. Challenge yourself to move those danglers onto the previous line by shortening the paragraph. Somehow this tactic makes you read the paragraph more carefully and find lurking phrases you don't need.

You can do also do this with sentences at the end of the chapter. If your chapter runs onto a new page by three sentences, challenge yourself to push those sentences onto the previous page. You can always find a way. Don't ask me why this works even after you've reread the chapter and worked until you feel as if it is drumhead tight. There is always a little more slack.

3. Fat Patterns. Look, for example, at dialog where you've put a short response and then an explanatory response:

"No, I won't," said George. "I never take a girl to the prom."

Why not just answer:

"I never take a girl to the prom," said George.

You still get the negative and the explanation. Much more concise. Now consider the dialog tag. Is it needed?

4. Two to One. I am an inveterate "say it two different ways" person. Read carefully to see if you're saying the same thing twice.

This sequence: Time was short. I needed to get down to the harbor. Midnight approached.

Could be rewritten as:
Midnight approached. I needed to get down to the harbor.

(Note that these are much briefer sentences than I embroil myself in, but you get the idea.)

This also applies to multiple comparisons or multiple metaphors. Your prose is often stronger with just the one really good one. "He was strong as an ox, tough as nails, and he wore a crust on his skin like barnacles." Drop the tough as nails and you can recast the sentence without the second "he". [Of course strong as an ox is cliche,too, but this is an example, OK?]

5. Excess Baggage. Target long descriptive paragraphs. If you have five sentences of description when Portier first sees the estate of Montclaire, which one can you leave out? Target the least vivid, the most cliched, the one that doesn't reflect anything unusual. Put in the four best ones and the reader will fill in the rest. If you're in a smelly alley, you probably don't have to mention the refuse. If you've got a lurking cat in the refuse heap, you probably don't need to mention the rat. Things like that. Vow to reduce all descriptive paragraphs by one sentence. Often when you start pulling out the least vivid, you realize you can actually do with only three little goodies. Or can combine two so-so pieces into one.

6. Micro-management. Look for places you're boring the reader with extraneous movements. "He walked across the room." First off, "He crossed the room" is stronger and shorter. But why not skip the walking and use the preceding and following text to indicate the change of position? Is the walking itself so important?

Or, "She lifted her purse, rummaged through it, and pulled out her wallet." Unless the lifting is particularly meaningful (ie. she's a paraplegic or you are focusing on micro-movements for a literary purpose) lose the lifting. "She rummaged through her purse and produced her wallet." Micro-movements get tedious.

7. Macro Removal. Deleting whole threads or scenes hurts. But sometimes, something that seemed a good idea at the time you wrote it, doesn't pay off. Yes, you like the words, and it's interesting, but will the reader miss it if it's gone? I found a couple of those. Maybe worth 500 words each. And what was left was cleaner. The cool thing in these times is that you can save those deleted scenes for your website or blog. If you read your work aloud, you'll hear when the pacing bogs down because of a digression. Lose the digression.

8. Sinkholes. These are little places that chew up wordcount. Things like dialog tags. We often put in far more than we need. Empty dialog exchanges. ["Did you really?" "Uh-huh." "Really?" ] Repetition. Extra adjectives that can be obsoleted by using a better noun. Extra adverbs that can be made unnecessary by picking a better verb. If you use two adjectives to describe a newcomer onto the scene, try to eliminate one. Summarizing statements that do nothing but reiterate what your character just said, offering no new insight. "Those were the reasons I hated him." All of these things clutter your prose. The story will be stronger, cleaner, and clearer without.

Good luck and happy revising!

Agent Tips

2009-05-24T12:17:00.002-06:00

A reader sent me a query last week, and as it wasn't the first time I'd received the question, I thought I'd post it:

When I told my editor that I was looking for an agent she advised me to seek out the advice of successful authors whose works are similar to my own. Can you give me your agent's name and some tidbit of information that will help me plead my case? Thank you.

My answer?

Sure, I can give you my agent's name, as it is already a matter of public record. She is Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency. But sorry, I can't give you any insider tidbits, because there is no pleading a case with a good agent.

Agents are business people who happen to love books. Your adviser was right that you should look for agents who represent work similar to yours. But that's only a part of it. Agents read both with heart and head, and aren't going to take on something they don't think they can sell or an author they don't think they can work with.

Here's the challenge:

First of all, you've got to get pages in front of the agent. This means you must write a query or pitch your book in person. The object of the query or pitch is to

convince the agent that your work is the kind of thing the agent represents.

intrigue the agent enough to request pages.

demonstrate that you understand the protocols of the profession, ie. following the agent's posted guidelines and presenting yourself in a literate and professional manner wrt/manuscript format, expectations, and so forth.

These three items imply homework. You started #1 with your question to me, but I can't tell you if my agent likes the particular elements that are in your book, because I don't know them. You need to look at what else she represents, and check out her blog or her postings on other blogs or interviews or articles. #2 implies working on that pitch paragraphs. #3 means learning more about the business, like whether this agent wants paper submissions or electronic. No pink paper, no "my mother loved this," no chocolate, no tiny fonts. All those things. Learn.

Secondly, an agent must love your work (or at least believe that this is the best thing to come across his or her desk this year and every publisher is going to be mad to get it), which means you must write, revise, hone, and polish as best you can, so that when you do get pages in front of the agent, he or she will not want to stop reading.

Yes, this is the heart part. Sometimes your work is terrific, but it just doesn't connect with this particular agent. But certainly don't knock yourself out of contention by sending in something that no one but you has ever seen, that has bad grammar or misspellings or cliched plotting right on the first page.

Third, the agent must believe your work is marketable. This varies by time, season, and the whim of publishers, booksellers, and readers. But you can certainly aid this by learning as much as you can about the business before you present yourself and knowing where your work fits in. Don't write vampires just because that's what's hot right now. Write the story that lives in you. But by golly if it is about vampires, KNOW that it is hot and know what makes your vampires different from every other vampire out there.

No author can give you any shortcut past these requirements. And even a hearty recommendation from me (assuming I had read the book in question and loved it!) is not going to make a difference once that first page is in front of an agent's nose.

For more specific information about what gets a particular agent's juices flowing, check out that agent's blog. Lucienne's blog is Authorial, Agently, and Personal Ramblings, and a quick read of her archives will tell you a lot more about what she likes and is looking for than any tidbits I could drop. Agent Kristin Nelson has a great blog called Pub Rants, where she posts specific examples of queries and submissions that intrigue her or cause her to throw it back. More and more agents blog, and it is well worth your time to read up on anyone you plan to target.

This barely scratches the surface. Write well. Good luck!

Now That's What I Like To See

2009-05-19T21:50:00.006-06:00

My agent sent me this photo of a bookstore shelf in the Atlanta airport.

Shelf space is at such a premium in airports, so it is great to see one of my books there. And Daughter of Ancients, which is one of my personal favorites of all my books, is often a forgotten child. Lots of people assume The Bridge of D'Arnath is a trilogy and never get to the fourth and final volume! Those who've read it can tell you that there is still much to be worked out in Avonar and in Gerick's life.

Please, please, if you don't see your favorite authors' books on a bookstore shelf, request them. Bookstores are looking for any reason to order fewer and fewer books in this tight economy. And if new readers can't browse and find them, they are much less likely to take a chance.

Revision 3 - Pervasive Changes

2009-05-11T21:33:00.006-06:00

One week in. How is the revision going? Overall, I've dealt with the easy issues. The first six chapters are much leaner, much cleaner, much clearer. I've cut out some 2500 words in a fairly painless fashion.

Now I just have to move forward on the linear review, tightening and weaving in the more pervasive changes.

Here are some examples of things I'm keeping in mind.

1. Characters At one point a character we've met only peripherally turns up dead. The implications of the death are huge. In order for this event to carry the weight that it should, readers really need to have a better handle on who this person is. My solution? Rewrite a scene in chapter 3, involving this character instead of the person who was formerly involved. Also, keep this character in mind as I read through the book and look for further opportunities to involve the person, at least enough to keep his or her identity clear in the reader's mind.

2. Worldbuilding Mages are very much resented in this world. Not only do their magics not work reliably, but "licensed" mages have a stranglehold on magical practice and do their best to eliminate the competition of small practitioners, old grannies and hedge-uncles who work magic by instinct. By the time I got to the end I realized I had not demonstrated this until somewhere around the middle of the book. I need to look for opportunities to drop in little tidbits to make this clear.

3. Dropped Threads My investigator/sorcerer Dante purposefully lets it be known that he possesses a particular set of unsavory skills. By the end I discovered that I had sort of lost that thread in the story. I know he is pursuing it, but the reader might not, and it will be extremely important in The Soul Mirror. I need to keep this near the surface of the reader's mind.

4. Clarifications One of the first things a student of sorcery learns is how to sense enchantments. There are three states that are very different: those spells that are bound and waiting to be triggered, enchantments that are active, and the residue left by enchantments that are finished. As these are essential forensic skills for our investigators, I need to make clear the difference in these three states.

I have about ten more issues, and seem to be adding items to the list faster than I'm taking them off.

Next up - the very best thing about revision. The insights that come once you get so totally immersed in the story as a whole. And yes, I had one. I'll have to figure out how to describe it without giving anything away.

Revision 2 - Editorial

2009-05-03T11:14:00.002-06:00

Official revision time for The Spirit Lens has arrived, ie. I received editorial comments from my editor at Roc, along with the dreaded, "Can you have that done by the end of May?" As I've got another book to write and a short story due in August, I'd jolly well BETTER be able to do it by the end of May. This is the time when I must refine and finish and polish and perfect the story. There will opportunity for some changes later, but not so much a total rewrite.

So what did I hear? Several very good things. Hooray! Writers are notoriously pessimistic and confused when they submit a manuscript. Is it garbage? Does it make sense? Did I overlook the simple look over the shoulder that would have made the whole plot moot? I heard intriguing, marvelous, fascinated, fantastic (all selectively applied!) First rule of critique, tell the writer what works and don't leave out the overall kudos! (Thanks, Anne.)

And then she had a couple of pages of comments. And yes, she would really like it a few K words shorter. No big rewrites, no wholesale chopping or lopping. The comments coalesced into three main areas:

Clarifications: most of these are "short answer questions," in this case having to do with the mystery. "How did he conclude that...?" or "Was Maura from Mattefriese? I missed the connection."

Faulty threads: these are slightly larger issues (only two in this case) that are more pervasive. In this case, the comments deal with

clarifying one metaphysical thread. I knew this was murky (as I kept developing it along the way). But I just happened to have an insight on this very issue while working on The Soul Mirror yesterday. At some point, you MUST know what is going on.
the gradual unfolding of one character's personal history. This is a piece I have already improved and should require only a little tweaking.

Pacing: Some pieces just move too slowly. This is a perennial problem with me, as I want to lay in so many layers that readers can come back and say, "Ah!" I am writing for re-reading. And yet, I really need to drive the pace into the heart of the action, especially in the few places she mentioned (all right on target). This should also take care of some of the excess verbiage.

Unlike in some editorial letters, there was nothing I disagreed with. (I am always free to disagree.) And, as it happens, I have a revision list of my own that is MUCH tougher than this one.

My first moves? Pick off the low-hanging fruit. Take care of the clarifications. Some of them can be fixed with three or four words. Some, a few sentences. For a couple, I chose to rewrite a piece of a scene. I love this part! The extra insight - and the distance of not considering this particular piece for a while - makes the resulting words SO much clearer and better, more in tune with all I've learned since I first wrote them.

Next, I cleaned up my own revision list and looked for low-hanging fruit. Most of that I picked off long ago. In all, this took me a few hours.

I always turn on Word's change tracking for revision. As I address an issue, I can easily review a thread of manuscript changes throughout the book. I'll put in a change, go on to another piece, and another. At some point I'll parse through all the current changes and OK (or revise) the simple ones. The more complex rewrites I'll leave in overnight. Today I went through these. I often work on these a bit more before OKing them. This process works well for me, helping me keep track, especially of changes that affect several places in the book.

Now that's all done, I am printing out the whole book. Starting day after tomorrow, I'll read from beginning to end, keeping my editor's remaining issues and my own list of much more complicated revisions close to hand. I'll talk about that next time. Meanwhile, it's back to The Soul Mirror.

The Truth About Writing Your Passion

2009-05-01T23:42:00.002-06:00

Michelle Sagara West, FWE (fantasy writer extraordinaire), has written a wonderful and enlightening post about learning some hard truths re. writing what you love. She talks about why some of us do what we do despite greener (ie. more lucrative) pastures elsewhere.

Di Francis, another FWE, posts the grim reality of the present bookselling market.

The link to Michelle's post is, as they say, on another blog network. You'll need a (free) login to add comments, but not to read it or comment anonymously. [Thanks for clarification, Alyssa.]

Ditto for Di's post.

Revision 1 - Looking at the Whole

2009-04-27T09:35:00.006-06:00

Somewhere in the reexamination of motive, direction, and emphasis spurred by sorting out the opening of The Soul Mirror, I found a bit of enlightenment on a structural problem with The Spirit Lens. Now, I swore not to start on Spirit Lens revisions until I had put sufficient distance between my head and the manuscript to enable me to see what is missing, confusing, or non-working. I'm not sure I'm completely there yet.

Some revision work is methodical.

Complete read through on paper.
Tracing the development of an individual character or relationship or theme through the manuscript and adjusting as seems right.
Removing excess verbiage (always a big one for me.)
Going through my editor's list of issues
Going through my own list of issues

And so forth (we'll look at more of these as the revision heats up.)

But some things, like dealing with this insight, come on me all at once.

The Spirit Lens is a mystery that is solved (in a fashion - yes, picture grin here) by the end of the book. In the unfolding of the investigation, much bigger mysteries are uncovered. Are they solved as well? Maybe, maybe not. One of my revision tasks is to make sure that the distinction between what is solved and what is not is clear - and satisfying to the reader.

But the story is also the three investigators themselves - their individual personalities, secrets, and the relationships between them. As I look at the finished manuscript, I realize that my emphasis was wrong. The solved mystery is really a structure for the much more interesting story of the interplay of these three men and the dramatic arc of how they change.

Now, you may say, "Well, Carol, that's what your books always turn out to be. Wasn't that what you started out with?" Well, yes. To me, complex people are much more interesting than complex puzzles. But what one knows and intends, and what shows up on the page, can often be different. Thus that unsettled feeling that "things are not quite right." Distance and perspective allows a writer to see this. Thus, revision. (Thank goodness!)

So how do I deal with this? Sometimes it's a short phrase at the end of the prelude. Instead of

I, Portier de Savin-Duplais, librarian and failed student of magic, was charged to stop it.

We now see:

I, Portier de Savin-Duplais, librarian and failed student of magic, was charged to stop it. And every instinct, and every conclusion of logic and inference, insisted that my first business must be to find us a sorcerer.

More or less. Do you see the difference here?

Of course, this kind of structural emphasis permeates the book from beginning to end. I started out by tracing the evolution of the characters and their relationships through the sequence of chapters. Fortunately I keep a timeline with chapter notes, and I used that as a basis. I found several places where I needed to change the actual incident that happened, some places where just a few words would do to highlight the elements I wanted. That got me into reading some of the interior chapters where relationships change. It's feeling better. More to come...

Grammar Peeves Update

2009-04-19T00:00:00.001-06:00

I met a friend Dawn at Norwescon, and she has enlighted me on one of my pet peeves, the sudden usage of "troop" in referring to an individual soldier. Here's what she found out:

* Webster's New World College Dictionary 4th edition (often used in newsrooms) allows for such a use, but not as the primary definition. "... 3: [pl.] a) a body of soldiers b) soldiers [45 troops were hurt] ..."

* The 2008 AP Stylebook allows for troops to be used when meaning soldiers in certain instances. It is a change, though, because my older version made no mention of it. [AHA, says Carol, I knew it!]

"troop, troops, troupe: A troop, in its singular form, is a group of people, often military, or animals. Troops, in the plural, means several such groups. But when the plural appears with a large number, it is understood to mean individuals. There were an estimated 150,000 troops in Iraq. [But not: Three troops were injured.] ..."

So, it still sounds wrong to me. But thanks, Dawn!

Norwescon Day 4

2009-04-17T15:39:00.000-06:00

Ah, sweet redemption. My last panel of the con was a really good one – well moderated by Patrick Swenson, the editor-in-chief of Talebones magazine. (Be aware, those of you who write short stories that might fit his magazine, he sends complimentary copies of Talebones to all NY editors.) Along with Jim Glass, Grá Linnaea, and Renee Stern, we talked about ways to get good feedback on your writing, from critique groups to contests to first readers, writers conferences, and workshops to Writers of the Future, to long gritty (and expensive) ordeals like Clarion. Each of us had slightly different perspectives and backgrounds.

Our most important points?

The critical importance of getting feedback and the truth that no one way works for everyone. We all agreed, too, that you can learn more about writing from giving critique than from almost anything else in the world. After taking a quick turn about the dealers’ room to sign the remaining stock of my books, I took off with friend Brenda for two days of writing in a cute B&B at soggy Gig Harbor. A very fun cozy couple of days. Good progress was made by all!

Norwescon Day 3

2009-04-15T15:33:00.002-06:00

Friday was my busiest day, but Saturday was packed as well. And I’ve never been to a convention where so many people costumed. What an array! As Saturday was the Masquerade, I saw everything from goggled Steampunk outfits to a 6-foot-six (at least) angel – no kidding.

I did two writers’ workshop sessions. Did I mention how terrific these are? The Fairwood Writers organization does a tremendous job running this workshop, getting 3-4 pros to site down face to face to give thoughtful feedback to a beginning writer. The pros critiquing are both truthful and kind in all the cases I saw.

I’ll say one thing to those who want to participate in such a thing, especially if you are submitting work written during NaNoWriMo. Show respect for those who are giving hours of their time to review your work by reading it over and polishing it before submission. It is cool to write 50k words in a month, but submitting even 10k words of it in such a raw state is like raking your nails on a blackboard!

Saturday was autographing also. This is always a slightly depressing time. Why?

You come hoping to find a ton of readers, but maybe two or three actually come to get books autographed. This one was especially depressing because the guest of honor was R.A. Salvatore who has about eight thousand books out, many related to role-playing games, and the convention was heavily populated by young people of the gaming persuasion. His line was endless. The upside is that you get time to sit and talk to other authors who are not the guest of honor. I had a nice chat with Maggie Bonham and Alma Alexander. I did have a few readers who popped out of the Salvatore line to come tell me how much they enjoyed my books or to have me sign their program. And one reader sent me the COOLEST buttons he had made me from images of my bookcovers. They are awesome, and I can’t wait to wear them at my next con!

Saturday was also my worst panel of the con. There is always one that gets hijacked by people in the audience who just want to sit there making comments or giving life histories and this is exacerbated by a poor or unprepared moderator. Enough said.

At 10pm, I joined in a Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading. These are always fun. Six to ten people get together and read four to seven minutes each. There is always a delightful variety of stories and an appreciative audience. Broad Universe is an organization that supports women writers of speculative fiction. Hats off to the BU motherboard and a great volunteer contingent.

Norwescon 2

2009-04-11T11:37:00.002-06:00

OK, my evening violence panel was really a panel on the Rhythm, Meter, and the Use of Language. A great panel with Andrew Dolbeck, poet, actor, and writer, and Jenna Pitman, a fantasy writer. We talked a lot about why rhythm is important in drawing a reader through the story, as well as revealing character and world. Great audience, too. The evening party was noisy and hot - what else is new - but lots of nice people. I left early in hopes of saving my voice.

Day 2 began with a writers workshop session. Fairwood Writers run a writers workshop in conjunction with Norwescon and it is excellent. One writer sits with 3-4 pros to who have read about 10K words of his or her submitted work. The pros are kind, but thorough. Really valuable for an aspiring writer, especially someone who is coming to feel the work is submission worthy, but hasn’t gotten it in front of anyone as yet. I’m doing three of these this weekend.

Later in the day, I sat on a panel about point-of view, a little different spin, as we were talking about how to choose the POV character. Talked a lot about advantages and disadvantages of first vs third, as well. Greg Cox, a contributing editor at Tor and writer of media tie-ins, said that for a third person story with multiple points of view, he used the rule of “who has the most stake in the events of the scene.” Sometimes, though, it’s important to have a secondary character be the witness to a “big entrance” like when Batman arrives on the scene. Lots of good things to talk about.

After a leisurely, writerly dinner with Mike Moscoe and brother Bruce, Greg Cox, and my writer friend Brenda, it was time for my violence panel. Yes really. I shared the table with Josh Palmetier, and Michael Erhart. We mostly agreed on everything about the necessity of using violence as aspects of character, whether exposing or developing or pushing characters into “change” and not putting it in because “you need to have some heavy action by chapter 5.” Talked about what puts it over the edge into gratuitous mayhem (I like the term “violence porn”). And also our shared belief that the most effective techniques for writing violent scenes is similar to that of writing good sex - show it through the eyes and reactions of the characters, rather than just the grisly anatomical details.

Another hot, noisy party, and lots of people had left by the time I got out of the panel at 11pm. But I ran into a great con friend, Gigi Gridley, a walking party. We were both surprised. (I love this!)

Learning from Critiquing

2009-04-10T11:27:00.000-06:00

One of the best ways to hone one's writing skills is to critique other writers' work. Yes, I know I've said this before. But even after writing eleven books, and learning an incredible amount, it never hurts to get reminders.

I just completed critiquing seven manuscript submissions for several workshops. All of these were the opening pages of fantasy or science fiction works. These ranged from utterly beginner level to one that made me sorry the submission was only 20 pages. And I want to state right here up front a Bravo! for all seven submitters. It takes a lot of moxie to put your work out there for someone else to scrutinize. Some aspiring writers never get there...and they'll never get anywhere. Because as much as we must write for our own pleasure, publishing means communicating our ideas to someone else.

This exercise reminded me of several important lessons about openings.

Open with something important - the story!
Be specific
Go deeper - step back and view the big picture
Strip TV and movie cliches from your writer's vocabulary

Open with something important - the story!
Even the most die-hard seat-of-the-pants writer [me!] knows a lot before beginning to write. Backstories of characters. World history. The nature of magic. You need to know those things. The reader may need to know them, too, but not necessarily everything, and certainly not in the first two chapters. Be ruthless. Get to story developments - events – in the first two pages. It is story that draws in the reader, not history. If it is page 16 before we know the gender of your main character or page 18 before the first “event” occurs, you will have lost most of your readers.

Be specific
Specificity is what separates generic prose from vivid prose. Think about moving from place to place. Walk is a generic movement. It almost always requires an adverb to tell the reader what kind of movement we’re talking about, eg. walked slowly or walked briskly or decisively. English is rich with verbs, especially for something so basic as movement. Pull out that thesaurus - not to find hifalutin words your characters would never use, but to find the right word: stroll, meander, stride, trot. For nouns, don’t just say flower or cup or animal. Find a word that will evoke the world you’re describing or reveal something about the character who is describing it. Tankard and teacup give us more vivid scenes without excess verbiage. Think replacement, not addition. When your characters hear a prophecy, don’t leave us with generic, “Beware of the evil one. Shadows will drown the light,” come up with something interesting and specific to your story.

Go deeper - step back and view the big picture

Strip TV and movie cliches from your writer's vocabulary

How many people in the world can actually survive their boat going over a waterfall? A blow on the head severe enough to cause unconsciousness will generally cause a concussion. Look up the recovery time and symptoms of a concussion. Repeated concussions cause brain damage. [See the NFL statistics on players who are held out of games or retire because of repeated concussions.] Is it really possible to do the Jason Bourne thing and pick out the evil perpetrators from a mobbed train station? Visit a mobbed train station and try picking out one person! Labor almost never begins with one violent contraction. See what I mean? Don’t rely on film or TV for any medical advice, historical fact, or mechanical reality, ie. guns, bombs, car flipping etc. [Watch TV with a doctor, historian, or mechanical engineer and you’ll hear about it!] Besides being inaccurate, they are cliché. Boring. Unoriginal. And editors, agents spot them right away.

Norwescon 1

2009-04-09T18:28:00.003-06:00

First day of Norwescon.

It is chilly and rainy here in Seattle, but the trees are budding. The place is already greener than Colorado.

The hotel is nice, but crammed up here by the airport, so there's not much but junk food. Too bad for such an eating town as Seattle.

I've spent the day catching up with my friend Brenda. This evening I get to moderate a panel on violence, attend the opening ceremonies, and then go to a party honoring small publishers to cap off the evening.

Why would I end up on a panel about violence???? We'll talk about why we use it in our books, how we deal with it, and whether we impose personal limits on where we go. At least that's my plan!

My own reasons revolve around the need to challenge my characters enough to affect their behavior while in an "adventure" setting. But there are other reasons. The time periods I write about were pretty violent. Our own society is violent (I was just talking with a guy from Binghamton NY) and yet we live in a relatively peaceful era.

I'm going up now to try to finish off this scene with the nasty little attack. Hmmm...

More reports later.

Traveling

2009-03-29T22:45:00.006-06:00

So, the Exceptional Spouse and I are taking a little family spring break jaunt up Chicago way this week. Though I don't expect much time to work, I don't feel as if I can leave writing totally behind. So what pieces can I do while traveling?

I usually take too much, but I want to allow for "how the mood strikes me." I will always take along:

1. a laptop in case I want to enter edits, update the website, blog (!!) or just check email. Since Christmas, I've had a tiny laptop for traveling in addition to the sturdy Sony that I live with. This is my first air travel with the little beastie, and it is great. Very lightweight. Fits on the tray table without any worries that the person in front of me will lean the seat back and crush the screen. Nice.

2. Something of the current WIP printed on paper (for the times with no electronic devices, at the least, or in case I run out of battery power). This time, I brought the first two chapters of The Soul Mirror along. Also, despite my intent not to revise for a while, I brought a few middle chapters of The Spirit Lens that I hadn't looked at in a while. Just in case...

3. Other pages I have for review. I completed the reviews I was doing for a writers conference. So I brought the three page sets I'm reading for the Norwescon Writers Workshop. I've done a first read on two of them. Still one to read fresh, and then the actual review and writeup to go for all three.

So what won out on the trip up here? The internal chapters of The Spirit Lens! They're some I haven't looked at in a while - and presage an important turning point in the book (and they're some I really like - Portier is in real trouble). I did some word tightening and cleanup. A little updating according to the new things I learned by the time I got to the end. Best of all, I had an insight as to the climax...not of The Spirit Lens, but of the new book. Somehow, having been immersed in the new book and going back to a place where I sort of strip Portier down and learn what he's made of, gave me an idea about the destination for his character arc in the second book - which meshes nicely with Anne's arc and several others. Yes, Yes, I like it.

If I get all these edits put in before heading home later in the week, we'll see where the muse might take me as I journey home. I'm glad she was along for the ride!

Beginning Again

2009-03-25T11:10:00.004-06:00

OK, it's time to get serious about The Soul Mirror. For a couple of weeks, in between life and the short story, I've been dabbling with a couple of opening chapters that I wrote WAY a long time ago when I was first developing the proposal for the series. Originally I had thought I might begin the series with this piece of the story. But it turned out there was too much backstory...and so I developed that into The Spirit Lens. But, of course, now that I'm back to these chapters, they don't quite fit anymore. Not so much that the story left them behind

- the narrator is the same person I had envisioned (her name is Anne and she is 21).
- the place she finds herself in chapter one is the same (a graveside in a ravine).
- her "life predicament" is the same (that is, she is very much alone, because her family is scattered to the four winds: one dead, one missing, one held hostage, one confined because of madness. Whew!)

but because...

...the circumstances that underlie all of this are much richer (a euphemisn for more complicated!) I know about spectres, hauntings, pendulums, religious beliefs (or lack thereof), the illicit practice called "transference," and who the bad guys really are. I know the circumstances of her family's dissolution. And I know Portier.

Portier started out as a "device" - a surrogate observer to tell us the story of The Spirit Lens. As seems to happen with me (see Seyonne!) my narrative observers take on an importance of their own in the story. So the first thing I have to do is decide whether I'm going to time share the narrative duties. Which means I have to do a lot of thinking about the coming story... I HATE that.

There are some other reasons I have to give more careful advance thought to a sequel story...

I will have a limited window to make needed alterations in The Spirit Lens.

My hands are overflowing with character threads, mystery threads, unanswered questions, who knows what lists, and other hard little nuggets that have to be accounted for. A first book has infinite flexibility. A middle book is a pipeline between the first and third and must take the outflow from the first and make an exciting and sensible transition to the climactic events of the third (while have its own climax.)

The schedule is tightest for a second book, as I'll have first book revisions to deal with and third book development to deal with all in the same year.

So I've written an eight-page list, including

incidents that have to happen

questions that have to be answered

things that I don't know yet

what has been happening in the four years between books

More later on how it works out!

Writing Short

2009-03-18T21:25:00.003-06:00

So what have I been up to since turning in The Spirit Lens? Besides catching up on some business around the house, I've been working on several writing projects.

First, despite my best intentions to avoid looking at The Spirit Lens for at least a month, I spent about a week rewriting those last 30K words. I sent it in having scarcely read it over, so there was lots to do. It is now much cleaner and I've put it aside. Giving yourself time away from a manuscript is the first rule of Revision.

Second, I've been dabbling with the opening of The Soul Mirror. I've written some notes in the line of "Unanswered questions" and "What's been happening in the four years between the books?" Much more about that in another post.

But my most serious work has been on a short story for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' 2009 anthology called Broken Links, Mended Lives. This is a 5K word story, as opposed to the 25K word novella Unmasking (Elemental Magic, Berkley 2007). As you may have guessed, I just don't write short, mostly because I don't read short. I like to get invested in characters, and I just hate it when I've just gotten involved and it's over. But I agreed to do this story - the editors are my excellent friends - and I had to do it quick. And my enjoyment in writing Unmasking had a lot to do with my agreement to do this!

So 5000 words. Not much time for world building. Not much time for character development. I am convinced that people who write excellent short stories are akin to poets. Because the trick seems to be, Make every word count. No time for those wishy-washy verbs or weasel words like very, quite, half, really, almost. No time for a plethora of adjectives or extra dialog tags.

Even more difficult, you still have to produce a story arc. Some kind of beginning, middle, end that incorporates a fundamental change. My first draft turned out flat, a young woman in a post-apocalyptic world finds out something stunning that changes her life, only...I didn't show it. Her reaction was so subtle, her character so accustomed to holding everything in that she...held everything in. I knew it. I felt it. My critique group confirmed it. And...

I fixed it! It only took a few extra words. A few reactions on her part. A clearer presentation of her choice. A slightly more visible struggle. And just three or four words at the end that demonstrated her fundamental change. And it came out 5017 words.

Want to read a teaser?

At Fenwick Faire

My parents never told me I had Talent. Perhaps they thought it undignified for the daughter of a city magistrate, or felt it might frighten me or make me insolent. Or maybe they just left it too late, and had the lack of consideration to die of plague before warning me.

Now don't think me unfeeling, but when one is ten years old and the whole world seems to be dying of plague, or slaughtering each other for fear of it, or taking flight to escape it, one has little time to grieve, or even to recall why one should. When civilization has erupted into chaos, the next meal looms much larger in importance than past grieving.

Six years I spent scrabbling in search of that next meal before I trudged up a rock-blasted hill and through the iron gate of Fenwick Priory. By that time I had seen far more of men and life than was really necessary, and taking up residence with a group of similarly exhausted women seemed sensible. The sisterhood grew vegetables, kept to themselves, and did no good works to speak of. I had no illusion that this would be a permanent situation. The sisters didn't seem that agreeable, and entanglement of any sort made me want to cram a shiv in someone's craw.

"You'll tend a plot, Girl," said the bony Prioress, licking the beaded honey from a suckle blossom grown right out of the crumbled courtyard wall. "Each of us has one."

"Don't know how," I said and scratched my itchy foot on a cracked step. "Not opposed, but I never learnt. My parents called planting hireling's work. I'll scrub for you. Fetch and carry. Steal, if you want. I'm good at those."

"You don't tend a plot, you don't eat. Go or stay, as you will."

I stayed. The road had got tiresome of late. My boots had fallen to pieces, and a thieving tallyman had jacked my knife. Bare hands or sticks weren't enough to fend off the skags now I was ripe. Last thing I needed was a squaller planted inside me. My own belly was empty half the time.

Early on my second morning, Prioress marched me down the long valley back of the priory, past twenty or so vegetable patches. "Choose," she said, waving her hand around the empty scrubland.

I didn't know squat about gardens, but I walked about and settled on a spot. "Here."

With sticks and knotted string pulled from dead women’s dresses, the Prioress staked out a square of hard gray dirt. "There's wood in the shed and a chisel to make your tools. When you're ready to plant, we've seed stock in the vault."

One of the sisters, digging nearby, mopped her sweat and snickered. She sounded like the cicadas rasping in the dry brush. "Can't eat the weeds, stupid Girl. Got to pull them before you can plant. You just chose yourself more work."

So I had. Spiky thistles and snarls of threadweed littered my plot. Thistles would sting, and tough, fibery threadweed would cut my hands, but it made sense that if something grew there now, something other might.

To be sure, the cultivated plots roundabout looked little better. Stunted beans. Wilted greens. The sisters saved them from parched oblivion by hauling water from a nearby stream, doling it out drop by precious drop. The stream itself was scarce but a trickle of spit.

You see, our land had been thirty years without rain...

Demons and Shapeshifters

2009-03-12T10:07:00.005-06:00

I am a guest blogger today on Authorial, agently, and personal ramblings, which is my agent, Lucienne Diver's blog. The topic? Gargoyles, and Demons, and Shifters, Oh My!

In my offering, I list my four rules for story development, especially when incorporating some fantasy trope like shapeshifting or the fae or demons. And these four are...

Make things really bad for heroes (could you have guessed this?)
Make things different than in other stories
No black and white
Reverse it all

I illustrate these points with the rai-kirah books.

Over the past week, Lucienne has hosted guest blogs from a number of her writers who do shapeshifters and demons and other beasties - including Lynn Flewelling, Faith Hunter, and Susan Krinard.

Grammar and Usage Peeves

2009-03-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

As I was typing today, my fingers accidentally stuck an apostrophe in a plural word. I caught it instantly, breathing hard. It is one of my pet peeves. I'm starting to see it everywhere, as in, The Markowski's went to the store or Stock up on the advantage's of insurance. Aarrgh.

Apostrophes are used for contractions:

it is = it's
is not = isn't

Apostrophes are used for some possessives:

Mary's ball, The Fratellis' horses, the nation's president, the Markowskis' house or George Markowski's house

Apostrophes are not used for possessive pronouns:

his horse, her horse, its mother

And apostrophes are certainly not used for plurals.

Here's a usage blooper I caught in a news article the other day:
It doesn’t take a musical scholar to deduct all of this wasn't as 'artistically significant' as what came after.

Ouch! We deduct charitable donations from our income taxes, or deduct the cost of goods sold from the sales price to calculate our profits, but we deduce conclusions from evidence using our reasoning processes.

Here are a few more things I'm seeing everywhere lately.

troop: Since when did troop come to mean an individual soldier? Troop is a collective noun. Like Girl Scout troop. If you say "five troops were injured in Afghanistan today," that's really more than five individuals.

I think perhaps our news people are shying away from soldier. Or is it that they're trying to be gender inclusive? Well, soldier or sailor can be either. How odd would it be if we said, "George is an army troop"? But that's what we're implying when we talk talk about troops as individuals.

momentos: No such word! Keepsakes have to do with memory. Thus even if they are fleeting keepsakes, they are mementos.

graduate high school: Graduate is not a transitive verb. It does not take a direct object. Thus one "graduates from high school."

decimated: I'm thinking that people are confusing decimate with devastate, as in this quote from CNN: "Australia's raging wildfires have decimated massive spans of land."

Decimate actually implies a much sparer kind of destruction. OK, we don't have to limit its use to exact 1 in 10 destruction as its origins specify. To decimate derived from the Roman custom of killing one in ten rebels in the army. But decimate certainly implies a more selective destruction.

I'll bet the rest of you have some pet peeves, too. Let's air them out!

Reprints

2009-02-28T16:24:00.001-07:00

Just saw something very cool today - a 14th printing copy of Transformation. This is very cool, even in the day of better technology so that publishers can reprint in smaller, more $-efficient quantities.

So, here are some questions I'm often asked:

How can you tell what printing?

Is a 14th printing the same as a 14th edition?

If one of your books is only in 2nd printing, does that mean it's less popular than a book in its 14th printing?

How can you tell what printing?

For some books you can't tell by looking at the book. But for many books, including mine, you can look at the copyright page in the front of the book. Look at the list of numbers in reverse order. Something like this

20 19 18 17 16 15 14

Look at the last number, and it will tell you which printing. This list says 14th.

Is a 14th printing the same as a 14th edition?

Nope. An edition is a typeset version of the text. So a new edition is something that requires re-typesetting. That is, the text is revised in some way, such as the "2010 edition of Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, or the text is typeset for a different format, eg. a mass-market-paperback edition or a trade paperback edition." A reprint is just a new batch of the same book, and usually does not include any revision of the book's text. It just signifies that the publisher is getting low on the book in the warehouse and needs to print up some more to keep in on the market. A 14th edition would have been revised at least 14 times, and I've not touched the text of Transformation since it was published.

If one of your books is only in 2nd printing, does that mean it's less popular than a book in its 14th printing?

No. If an author's books do well, then chances are that the first printing of subsequent books are larger than the first printing of previous books. So it might take longer to empty the warehouse and get to that second (or later) printing. Breath and Bone reprinted within a month of its initial release - which is great.

My current tally on the rai-kirah books (which have been out longest):

Transformation 14
Revelation 11
Restoration 8

Some others: Son of Avonar - 7th, Breath and Bone - 2nd.

All of my books, have gone to multiple printings, which is very gratifying. It shows that my publisher has faith that readers will continue to buy my books and tell other people about them.

Thanks, all of you!

The Right Ordering of Endings

2009-02-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

Having so recently emerged from the boiling kettle of devising an ending for this book, I thought it might be well to speak to some ending considerations.

I think of endings as a ziggurat - a stepped pyramid. Once the rising action of the climax begins, there is no going back down to the beginning level. Of course, there may be several parts to an ending, and you can have a short breathing space between them, but you don't want to let down and rest, as you might with story arcs earlier in the book. And the level step, or breathing space, should be short, compared to the elevation gain with each piece of the climax. Never let yourself lose the elevation gain.

Once you've reached the summit--the final battle, the climactic confrontation, the split, the bomb, the rescue, the cataclysm, the unveiling, the kiss, whatever it might be--it's time for a brief denouement. Contrary to popular misconception, the denouement is not the climax itself, but the winding up of threads, the actual resolution that follows upon the climactic events of the story. It is what you find on that summit, not the climbing action of getting there. And you notice that the actual area at the summit is much smaller than the base of the pyramid, and much smaller than the combined effort of getting to such a height. The harmonious shape of the ziggurat demands it.

So what are my rules of thumb wrt endings that my recent efforts (and six chapters in two weeks is definitely an effort for me!) recalled to me?

1. Don't introduce something new - a new power, an artifact we haven't seen, or a new character who is the exact locksmith needed to work things out. It's too convenient. It smacks of deus ex machina - and readers will throw the book across the room. You might get away with such a thing earlier in the story (though you shouldn't) but never, never at the end. Many people consider this a common flaw of fantastic literature - "oh, the author can make anything happen at the end, magic, reconfiguring the tachyon particles, or whatever. It's just too easy." I believe you have to make the rules of your magic or science or culture or alternate reality so clear that your climactic events can most definitely lead to failure. DOn't let it be easy.

2. Use people and events from earlier in the story to bind the whole thing together. If your story starts with a book (like Valen's book of maps in Flesh and Spirit) think carefully about what part the book plays in the climax. If you need an unlocking spell, make sure we know they exist in this magic system. If a dead body turns up, make sure your readers know the significance of that person (hmmm...oops...a matter for revision) and can feel the emotions you want to drive the conflict and climax.

If you are lacking the particular whizbo, person, or talent you need to feed the action, go back and put it (or him or her) in earlier - but seamlessly please. Don't hang a bright red arrow pointing to the golden ball that's just the right shape to plug the dike! The ball needs to serve a function in the earlier part of the story, too.

3. If you find yourself explaining too much, stop. Remember those short steps on the ziggurat? If you make one step horribly wider than the others, you've thrown off the balance. So look at what you're trying to explain and figure out how to salt in the explanations earlier, so that the reader will say, "Ah, yes. Wow! Of course!" as she is swept to the ending.

4. Be meticulous about your characters' decisions that lead them into and get them out of the climactic events. Explore all options. Why did he choose just the right path that would get him out of a jam? Let the climactic events flow naturally out of the building tension of the story, and your characters' dramatic reversals - maybe the thing they said they would never do - build upon the trail of evidence you've laid.

5. Did you tie off enough threads? Endings should not be a checkoff list, but don't leave the reader hanging with the big stuff. You want to leave readers with the feeling that life goes on, but you want to satisfy their most urgent questions. "Well did Gerick stay in Avonar or go back to where he had been living?" "Did Valen ever get a chance to have that great party he kept hankering after for a THOUSAND PAGES?" "Did Seyonne get it back?" (Well you have to leave some questions open...)

6. If there is to be a sequel, did you leave the right threads open? Is there a spooky undertone to the denouement? Check out the ending of The Soul Weaver (D'Arnath Book 3). At one time, it was the third of three books. When I discovered the "story arc" of Daughter of Ancients, I went back and modified the denouement. I'll bet you can pick out the pieces I slipped in.

Once you've completed those last chapters, reread your first chapter. Consider balance and symmetry. What were your hero's emotions, expectations, and opinions. How have they changed?

Consider the mood. Did you start off writing a farce and end up in a deadly, gripping battle for survival? Is your reader going to be confused that you started off a bedroom farce and ended up with a serial rapist threatening your heroine?

Or if your opening posed a mystery that turned out to be much wider and deeper than the original question, did you set the spooky music playing early on? Yeah. I think so. Cool!

Titles Redux

2009-02-23T17:01:00.007-07:00

This title search was truly difficult. I made word lists. I brainstormed combinations. I searched language dictionaries and pulled out my trusty thesaurus. The problem was, of course, that I was trying to think while madly producing words to reach the end. Until early last week, I could not have told you what the blasted stories are truly about.

First iteration - a set of Latin titles. I wanted to introduce a Renaissance feel to the names. The books are set in a world on the brink of an explosion of scientific advancement. I came up with Latin titles I loved for the second and third books, but I couldn't find one I liked for the book I was working on. A little survey on my Warrior of Two Souls Forum bore out my editor's conclusion - the only title that had come to mind-and wasn't in current use!-would not mean anything to readers who hadn't come across the term somewhere else. It could actually lead to the wrong conclusion. Bummed. (I still love Ars Maledicta, my planned title for Book 2, though!)

But as I neared the end of the book, it suddenly dawned on me that everything in this book...and the series...had to do with seeing. Both physical and metaphorical. Seeing into secrets. Seeing through deceptions. Seeing into hearts and souls. Seeing through lenses - spyglasses, prisms, spectacles. Looking through a device and seeing something wholly unpredictable. There is even a scientific demonstration of "the nature of light" in the book (based in part on a historical demonstration of Isaac Newton's). And this started me thinking about optical devices.

Second iteration - Despite what I said in the earlier post about shying away from objects in titles, I realized that "seeing devices" could represent the "scientific side" of the Sabrian world. But if I were to go in that direction, I wanted to juxtapose a word that would convey "magic" or the "spiritual" side of the world, referencing the balance and harmony of the two sides (or lack thereof! Picture evil grin here.)

After much whirling, I came up with "The Adept's Lens," adept being the reference to magic. But I didn't like the specificity. This story isn't about one person or one instrument, and certainly not about one person's instrument.

I finished the book at 1am last Wednesday. And Thursday I woke up with the titles. And they are...

The Spirit Lens

The Soul Mirror

The Daemon Prism

This story is about seeing. Each title is an object, but each is also a metaphor for seeing, so you can expect that each part of the each title has multiple references. And to impart a slight flavor of the Renaissance, instead of a series title, each will be appended with

a novel of the Collegia Magica

I am happy. My editor is happy. The marketing folks are happy. So far, so good.

Done!

2009-02-19T07:59:00.002-07:00

The new book is packaged and sent off to New York!

Is it finished? No. Lots of work still to do.

Is the story complete? Probably so. All the elements are there and set down in a reasonable ordering.

So why the vast quiet of the past two weeks?

The ending kept slipping farther away. With a multi-layered story such as I like to write, the writer ends up with LOTS of threads to tie off - or deliberately NOT tie off. I had three main pieces in mind for the ending.
1. A big BAD
2. A big GOOD, involving self-realization one of the main characters
3. A big, dark REVELATION to carry us into the next story

I accomplished them all, but it will take another post to explain why that took six chapters and twenty days!

Right now I want to celebrate and get the cobwebs out of house and head.

More soon!

Science and Magic

2009-02-01T21:42:00.003-07:00

One of the "themes" of my world in the new book is that of science overtaking magic. As I've been working on the grand finale - getting there S L O W L Y - I've had the need for some examples of the scientific revolution. The opening half of the seventeenth century is truly remarkable. Astronomy, physics, mathematics, optics...one discovery following on another...one theory proven, one debunked, ideas... I don't know that I ever appreciated it before. One guy figures out how to create a vacuum. Seems small, and yet, people hadn't really believed there COULD be such a thing as a vacuum. Another person figures out how to generate static electricity, not knowing exactly what it was. Another person realizes that balls rolling downhill accelerate at a uniform rate that can be calculated. One person starts thinking systematically and realizes the liver couldn't really produce enough blood as people had thought...and so develops the theory of the circulation of the blood...and does everything he can to find out if it's true. These things seem so simple and obvious now, but were like magic then. They required leaps of understanding.

And the most amazing thing to me...

...was the people who did this. It's easy to picture scientists who make marvelous discoveries as dedicated, focused nerdy people. But you look at the people who caused this great revolution and they are all writers, translators, clergymen, physicians, musicians, or any number of other things. Some made their own instruments. The guy who invented the barometer built telescopes and taught mathematics. And Isaac Newton...did everything from running the English Mint (and doing all sorts of things to reform the currency and punish counterfeiters) to laying the foundation of physics and calculus, to writing religious and philosophical works, corresponding and collaborating with other scientists and mathematicians, writing books, teaching, etc. etc. We really do stand on the shoulders of giants. As they did, too, of course, as much of what they started with came from Aristotle and all those others who asked questions and formulated some kind of answer.

Makes me feel like a real intellectual wimp!

Genres and Sub-genres

2009-01-30T08:51:00.004-07:00

For you aspiring writers: Here is an interesting post from agent Lucienne Diver about fantasy/sf and romance subgenres.

And, it's good info. Not just because she lists me alongside George RR Martin.

Cover Input

2009-01-25T23:27:00.001-07:00

I don't want to design my book covers. I love writing, but I just don't have the visual skills to design covers or the marketing skills to know what sells (lots of writers who do design their own covers don't know this part either, I fear!)

That being said, I DO want to have a say in my covers. I know what I don't like. And I certainly know what fits the book - even if it doesn't represent the exact image I had in my mind.

Take the Restoration cover, done by the marvelous Matt Stawicki. The characters look nothing like the images of Seyonne and Aleksander that live in my head, but when I pulled that cover out of the envelope, I went, "Wow!" It is gorgeous. It will draw a reader's eye and make readers wonder about the book - which is the entire reason for cover art, of course. The Stawicki Revelation cover was actually more beautiful than I had envisioned the ice palace in Kir'Vagonoth. I also love the Luis Royo covers for the Lighthouse books, but, sorry folks, he isn't quite Valen and the beauifully rendered masks are wrong - they should be vertical half masks. But I think the covers are gorgeous and feel very fortunate.

So the time has come (already?) and my editor, bless her, is asking for my ideas for what should be on the cover of the [as yet untitled] new book.

Probably not an action scene. They are not "stylish" for trade paperback originals. So, there's more thinking to do. I've got three investigators, a burning ship, ghosts, horribly-- Well I can't tell all, can I? I need to send them several ideas to explore - and pages for my editor to read, but they're not ready yet...yoiks.

And then there is the matter of cover copy - the ubiquitous back cover blurb that may be even more important than the cover, and is likely the second thing a prospective reader looks at. I don't get to write it, but thanks to some cooperative behavior (I think!) I get to make suggestions. Hooray. This part has to be done accurately, as far as I'm concerned. No revelation of secrets. No cliches. Vivid words. OK, I tend to get too wordy, but at least I get to contribute. I was really happy with the Lighthouse cover copy.

Something else to be working on in the next week or so.

What's in a Title?

2009-01-22T22:53:00.006-07:00

So my editor wants to talk about titles for the new series. Titles are sometimes easy - Transformation, Song of the Beast, Flesh and Spirit. They can bubble up early out of the story, sometimes before I know what they really mean - The Soul Weaver, Daughter of Ancients.

Some titles are just hard - Son of Avonar. That one took me a while because I had to step back and see that the core of the story, the prime motivator, the piece that changed EVERYthing, was the "son" in question, even though the protagonist and narrator was Seri. His fate was the driver and the Bridge was the arc that spanned the four books.

Out of my ten books, only two titles have changed since the book went under contract. They happen to be two of my favorite titles. They are...

Revelation - changed from the original because my UK publisher feared the original title evoked the "horror" genre rather than fantasy. He was right. I searched for the right -tion word for weeks.

Breath and Bone - changed because my first pass was too close to another book being released from Roc in 2008. I was so unhappy, until I happened to use the phrase breath and bone one day in the text and I knew it was perfect.

Both of the new titles were infinitely better than the originals.

So my editor didn't say exactly why marketing doesn't care for Unholy Alliance, but I suspect because there are about five hundred titles (search Amazon!) that incorporate the phrase - and most of them are history or psychology. Fortunately, I am not wedded to this particular title - I had to call the book something when I was proposing it. And because of my previous experience with the changes, I'm hoping that I can come up with something I like much better.

There are so many words out there that apply to this story - and lots of them are SO cliched in fantasy titles. Blood is significant - but I don't want people to think vampires or urban fantasy. Shades, shadows, ghosts, spectres...getting into horror territory...and triteness. If I get too far into the secret agent aspect, I'll have people thinking "thriller" and risk losing the fantasy association. Tough.

What do you think are words that are overused in fantasy titles?
I'll keep you posted.

Concert Celebration

2009-01-18T23:37:00.002-07:00

Just caught the Lincoln Memorial pre-inaugural concert on the HBO website. It was great fun. My favorite part?

I think it was Herbie Hancock, Sheryl Crow, and Will.I.Am singing Bob Marley's One Love. Some of the other combinations of singers were great, too. If you missed it (we were at a birthday party, and we don't get HBO anyway) you might be able to catch a rebroadcast on the HBO website. We routed it through our TV and stereo, so we got good sound. Enjoy! Celebrate!

Getting Published

2009-01-06T18:07:00.009-07:00

Just got an email from a reader/aspiring writer asking some fundamental questions about this writing business. As she said, there is so much information on the internet, she doesn't know where to start. So let's cover a few of Cindey's questions:

What's the best thing to do in order to get published?

Write great stories. This is not facetious. Many people can think of a great story. But to write one, you have to learn the craft of writing: how to write dialogue, how to write great openings, how to vary your sentence structure, how to avoid common pitfalls like "telling" instead of revealing character and plot through action and dialogue. There's a long list. Reading good stories, reading articles or blogs about writing, going to workshops, getting together with other aspiring writers and learning together, and writing, writing, writing - those are all good ways to learn the craft (reading and writing being the most important!)

I read somewhere that getting an agent could help better than not having one.

This is an age-old argument. A first time author can sell novel length work without an agent, but it is hard, and in today's tightening publishing market, it's probably going to get harder. Yes, "selling" your work to an agent is just as hard as selling your work to a publisher, but you will probably want an agent to negotiate a contract offer for you anyway. And if you can't interest an agent in your work, you'll have difficulty interesting a publisher. Opinions do vary on this. I actually got an editor interested first and then submitted through an agent. I was glad I had her to help me through it. You don't need an agent for short stories, just a source of markets (see ralan.com for an example) and a lot of stamps, envelopes, and cover letters. (Learn how to write a professional cover letter.)

I also read that I could send in a proposal first & not have the book written just yet. Then if there was interest in the book, the publisher would then want the book written.

This can work for non-fiction. You can structure a book proposal by writing a chapter-by-chapter outline and a query letter, explaining your qualifications for writing the book. You would also need to write the first few chapters to include in your proposal. There are many good descriptions of non-fiction book proposals out there. Look at books like Writers' Market or How to Get Happily Published, or the websites of reputable writers and agents. (See Pub Rants link in the margin.)

For fiction and a first time writer, a book proposal is not going to fly. Editors want to see not only that you can write, but that you can finish a whole book. Ideas, sad to say, really are a dime a dozen. Once you've been published you may be able to sell books on proposal, but not (OK, never say never) as a first time writer.

Where do you start?

Write the book. Revise it. Revise it again, until it is the best it can be.

Once you think your book is ready (and this means you've had serious writers and readers - not just your friends - read it and give you feedback) start looking at Preditors and Editors, and Writer Beware to learn about the pitfalls waiting for naive writers. (I've got links in the margin here.) Read the articles in Writers' Market and do research at places like Agent Query (link in the margin, too.) Find some online communities for writers - Absolute Write, Making Light, and the sff.net forums. And I highly recommend agent Kristin Nelson's well-written blog Pub Rants. Read her archives about what agents look at, what makes them stop reading, how to write queries, and so forth.

Hope this helps, Cindey, and all of you!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T19:31:00.002-07:00

Can't quite believe it's been a year since I started up this blog - until I look at my calendar and realize I've got about six weeks until this book is due to my editor. Nope, it's not done yet. But we had a lovely holiday, with the entire immediate family here at the house - and my mom, too, and visits from a niece and her kids. Safe travels for all. All good. But December evaporated and here I am trying to marshal my brains and pages for the final assault...

Task 1 - remember what the heck I'm doing here. It feels like time for a complete read of What's Happened So Far. Why? Partly because I want to make sure I'm steeped in the story before I move into the final chapters. Partly because I've got some timing changes to make. And partly because I've some clarifications to weave in and I might as well do it now as later.

Timing: On the last day I got substantial work done before Christmas, I decided I had made my timeframe too short. My heroes were running out of time - which is always a good thing for tension - but in this case the work they have to do just can't be squeezed in before their "drop dead date." [Just a euphemism. Uh-huh.] I don't have a "magical cheat" in place to speed up their traveling. If they are going to visit Michel de Vernase's home, and still return to Merona before the grand finale of this story, I've got to build in travel time. So annoying.

Changes to weave in: a little more precise magic (now that I understand it), some peculiarities of Portier's past (not all of which are alliterative!), and some cultural details like the Cult of the Reborn and the differences between spectres (the energies left behind by a dead person), ghosts (souls that cannot cross the Veil), and engasi (those actually returned from the dead).

This kind of reread and revise takes much long than I'd like. I've done only about three chapters a day, which means I'm about 2/3 of the way so far after five days. (My active writing is currently at Chapter 26.) But I am finding, as always in revision, that the later chapters are smoother and need less attention, so maybe I have a hope of finishing up the reread quickly. Meanwhile I'd really like to get Chapter 26 finished for the critique group tomorrow. Yoiks - I don't like to think how few group meetings are left before MY deadline.

More on this tomorrow!

Treasure Hunts

2008-12-03T13:43:00.006-07:00

I think I last wrote about research back when I was just beginning to work on Unholy Alliance. But I wouldn't want you to think that was the last time I went hunting the wonderful details that can make a fictional world real. Here are a few places I've visited in the past couple of weeks (not counting Chicago where I was visiting family over Thanksgiving!) I'll leave you to guess what mayhem I've conjured from them...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppice (A lot is written about the flaws of Wikipedia - not entirely correct info, amateurish, incomplete, unreliable - but it is a great jumping off point and often leads to other links.)

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/#letterI

http://www.cidpusa.org/blood_letting.htm

http://www.medicalantiques.com/medical/Scarifications_and_Bleeder_Medical_Antiques.htm

http://www.naturesongs.com/birds.html

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl

http://paulcarlisle.net/mooncalendar/

Complete Mediterranean Wildlife Photoguide (Sterry)
English Through the Ages (Brohaugh)

And, as always, my treasured Roget - not an imitation thesaurus or word finder or synonym finder, but the real Roget's Thesaurus, where you can look up words by their semantics and find that word that's on the tip of your tongue but just won't come.

Enjoy!

And here are two more I just had to add

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art7783.asp

and

http://smallfarms.typepad.com/small_farms/2006/04/freerange_pigs_.html Who can resist an article called Free Range Pigs?

Attacking a Scene

2008-11-18T09:47:00.005-07:00

This scene, the start of a new chapter, is driving me crazy. Two of my investigators are supposed to be leaving Castelle Escalon on an urgent mission. They believe they are closing in on the guilty party. But Something Will Happen before they can leave. The scary Forces of Order arrive and threaten Partner Two. This is a dangerous risk of exposure, and will introduce a Change of Direction in one of the partners that we will see play out through the end of the book.

You can likely see the trouble here - subtlety. I need the scene dramatic enough to be compelling, and yet its truest consequence must be essentially unrecognizable. Ouch. Why do I DO this to myself? Needless to say, this scene has bugged me for days now. I can't seem to get it right.

So, to begin. They are supposed to be leaving the palace, so Partner One is waiting in the stableyard. Partner Two does not show. The crochety stableman (a very minor character who will appear on occasion throughout the books) is griping at Partner One that he needs to get gone because he is upsetting the horses. Part of the stableman's irritation is that there are "guests'" horses that have been there since before dawn. (Hint, these belong to the above-mentioned Forces of Order who are causing the delayed arrival of Partner Two.) I like this crochety guy. I like the fact that the Forces of Order got here very early. Partner One suspected they were coming, but assumed it would be after he was long gone.

First time through: Partner One is annoyed at the delay and marches inside to roust Partner Two. He finds the Forces of Order already ensconced with Partner Two.

Problem: Logic and inference. The Forces of Order would never question people inside the royal residence (certainly not long enough to cause the dramatic change of direction I plan). They would retrieve offenders or witnesses and take them to their own bailiwick. This is part of the essential balance of power in Sabria. [Same reason police really want to take suspects down to the station and not question them at Mafia headquarters.]

Also I'm totally not sure of how Partner Two is going to react to this, which is a question I'm going to have to resolve sometime, but I don't have enough evidence as yet. How can I understand his motivations and make the reaction real, when I don't see him before or during the action?

Second attempt: Partner One takes repeated trips to the stableyard gate to "see if he's coming" and gets an eyeful of the Forces of Order removing three witnesses from the palace. The witnesses are cloaked and hooded to hide their identity. I really like this custom (invented on the fly!) and so I want to keep it. But the logical consequence is that Partner One can't be sure whether or not Partner Two is one of these three hooded witnesses. He rushes into the palace, finds someone to ask, and gets the story of the "removal."

Problem: all the real action is off screen. The scene comes off as passive. One of the most important people involved is never seen. And, as Partner One is not going to be able to do anything about this "questioning" I've set up a truly boring scene where everything of consequence has already happened or is hidden. Whatever reaction Partner Two has to the event is hearsay.

Much gnashing of teeth here on my part.

Third attempt: Partner One takes repeated trips to the stableyard gate to "see if he's coming" and gets a glimpse of two sentries (from the Forces of Order). Uh-oh. Anxiety - he didn't see this coming so soon - propels him into the palace. (Already I have better emotional context.) He gets into place just as the first of the witnesses has been "hooded" and the second is being rousted...and Partner Two will be next. More anxiety. Partner Two has been delayed by a cordon of Forces of Order, and is fuming. Partner One sneaks/talks his way through the cordon [already more action] and joins Partner Two - so we will see them together "before" the event...and something subtle in Two's behavior after the event will hint at the change I'm trying to enable... Oh yeah, this is much, much better...

I'm off! Third time's the charm and all that.

So why include the stableyard at all, you might say. That seemed to cause all the difficulties. Why not have Partner One see the arrival of the Forces of Order from inside?

Because he just wouldn't be there. His residence is in another part of the palace entirely. To have him in place "just right" to see these happenings from the beginning would be contrived. The two partners would never agree to meet inside the palace as they are supposed to be antagonists, one forced into subordination to the other. Their meeting for the journey would occur at the last possible moment. Character and situational logic - as I have created it - must prevail. Yes, I as the author can force circumstances to make anything happen, but especially when the stakes are high and difficult - getting this event to happen with all its subtleties - I don't want to plant a neon arrow sign outside the door, saying "Look At This! Look at This!"

Maybe I've got it now. I'll keep you posted.

Update: Option three worked out even better than I imagines. Once I got moving on it, instilling more of a sense of danger, the elements came together. I had valuable, revelatory time between the two partners that will contrast marvelously with their later encounters. I was able to examine and instill motivation of Partner 2's reaction to being "hooded," as well as drop in details about the customs surrounding the Forces of Order. And I left something important in Partner 1's hands that ties the action both to previous plot points and future ones. If only it hadn't taken me a WEEK to get this right. This is why I'm slow, folks...

Cheerio!

Fast Times at Surrey BC

2008-11-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

In 2006 I was first invited to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference (SiWC) in Surrey, British Columbia (just outside Vancouver). I enjoyed it immensely, so I was delighted to be invited back this year.

SiWC is similar to many other writers’ conferences in providing a weekend packed with information for aspiring writers of commercial fiction in multiple genres. Workshops address varying aspects of the writing craft and the publishing business. The conference also provides direct contact with representatives of the publishing industry, including opportunities to pitch completed work to editors and agents and get on-the-spot critiques. SiWC is large – something like 800 attendees – very professionally run, and attracts a terrific faculty that, I’ve got to say, intimidates me! This year it included Diana Gabaldon, Anne Perry, Phillip Margolin, Robert Sawyer, Meg Tilly, Jack Whyte, and many others.

So what did I do in my four days?

First off, a master class. Master classes are intensive three-hour workshops given on the day before the conference proper. Attendees must pre-register. Mine was called Unforgettable Characters, and combined information from a couple of shorter workshops on characterization and voice that I’ve done at other conferences. I thought three hours would give me tons of time for exercises, but darned if I didn’t find that the “text” ended up filling the time available! OK, we did get in a couple, but most of those I’d planned got sent home as homework. It was not half so exhausting as I expected – though I’ve got a much better idea now of what actually FITS in three hours.

On Friday morning the conference proper began with opening ceremonies and introductions. During the day’s program, I sat on a panel discussion on The Science of Inspiration. Six of us gave our personal “how we got started” stories, and talked about how we approached creativity. We could have delved a bit deeper with fewer panelists (something I’ve learned at sf conventions) but attendees did have time to ask some interesting questions.

Next I had the first of my two blue-pencil workshop sessions. Blue-pencils are a standard at Surrey. Visiting authors sit for 90-minute sessions, offering 15-minute consultations to attendees. The attendee can choose to talk about publishing or ask specific questions about writing or marketing, but most choose to use the time for the author to review the first few pages of their manuscripts. I think it's a terrific idea.

Before I did my first session in 2006, I was really nervous. What if I couldn’t think of anything to say? What if the writing was truly awful? Much to my relief, neither was a problem. After about ten years of critiquing, I’ve learned to read on multiple levels, from grammar to plotting to voice, which means I can always find something to say – even if it is, “Wow, I really have nothing but nits to give you about this great piece! Is it finished?” [I actually said that to one attendee this year.] And on the other side, the pieces were good, better, and excellent. No true duds.

Day Two started with another opening session at which I gave a short “keynote” speech. I talked about my experience with my first writers’ conference, where I felt like I found my home in the community of writers, and the one a short year later when I read the opening of Transformation for the editor who would buy my first seven books. It was pretty simple compared to some of the other morning and evening talks! But people did seem to appreciate it. And I got in a plug for fantasy as not only a legitimate genre, but the oldest literary genre. Always have to be the apostle of fantasy!

I also did a workshop on fictional world building and another blue-pencil session on that day.

On the last morning, I pulled out one of the first workshops I ever did, about how to write a novel without outlining. Interestingly, I think this one was the best received of all of them. I think it gives hope to those who, like me, find it impossible to conceive the progress of an entire story before actually writing it. Every author has to find his or her comfortable position on the spectrum from complete, detailed outlining to "typing Chapter 1, then saying, 'what next?' ”

In between all these activities were opportunities to network with other faculty members, and visiting agents and editors, and spend time with the attendees at meals. The SiWC staff are lovely, welcoming, and take really good care of both faculty and attendees. It was stimulating and fun. I’ll go back any time!

Democracy Lives

2008-11-05T10:21:00.004-07:00

Back from two weeks in Canada [more about marvelous Surrey Writers and World Fantasy later] to election night. I'll get back to "business" in the next posts. For today...

...please excuse exuberance.

Hooray! Hallelujah!

Will never forget seeing Jesse Jackson in the Chicago crowd weeping. As one who remembers seeing Selma and Birmingham, firehoses and church bombings on the news...this is truly awesome. Intelligence and temperance and full intent to bridge the divides: I've got to believe the country and world will be better.

And now to shake off election addiction! I've got a murder to solve...

Reader Mail

2008-11-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

I love reader mail. Mostly the people who write me are happy with the books and want to tell me what struck them especially, or they want to find out if I’m going to write more in a particular world. [Yes, all right, all right, maybe someday I’ll get around to a Song of the Beast sequel .] To hear from a happy reader helps me through discouragement and reminds me that I’ve “done this before and it turned out ok.”

But some readers go beyond and expose something of their emotional involvement with the stories, and that is most gratifying as well.

Jarod wrote:

What struck me most of all in the book [Breath and Bone] was the way you wrote Valen's addiction. I'll admit that, at first, I didn't like it at all. I found that I disliked the character, the weakness, and my own difficulty in relating to his plight, being free of such addictions myself. I was frustrated that he couldn't just get on with life and be a "normal" protagonist and, well.. make choices that I myself might have made. It took me a while to realize that my reaction was a "good" one, in that it meant that you (as an author) created a believable and very flawed character whose weaknesses were a central part of his being--and wrote those weaknesses so powerfully that I wanted to skip the scenes for the sheer discomfort they caused me (but
I didn't skip them!). I surely can learn a lesson from this, that a flawed protagonist is much more interesting, and that writers must not be afraid to show those flaws and embrace them, lest the story dull.

How beautifully this articulates the storyteller’s art! Thanks, Jarod.

Torture Whys and Wherefores

2008-10-30T11:09:00.005-06:00

Valt writes me:

I saw you did a "Torture Panel" at WorldCon. What I would have given to have been present for that. I looked up Elaine Isaak since I am not familiar with her work and though I squirmed a little with the idea of a castrated main character, I cannot imagine anyone rivaling you for Most Torturous Authoress. There have been times where I've had to set your books down (for long periods) just because they hurt too much, yet I am always inexplicably drawn back into them. Masochism might be an explanation, but it's always so expertly handled. When do you decide that anything more would just desensitize your readers and no longer be as powerful?

Good question. I DO think torture and mayhem can overwhelm a story. And I never want to use it gratuitously.

First, why do I do it at all? Because my characters invariably are involved in terrible and world changing events. One of the things an author of heroic adventure has to do is present her characters with challenges, with opportunities to alter course, with the need to do things that are repugnant or life-changing in order to accomplish the deeds that solve the story’s problem. People don’t change themselves in fundamental ways as a result of small things. The stronger the character, the tougher the challenge must be.

How do I try to ensure I don't go too far?

I make sure the violence is necessary for the story’s believability.
I try to keep the worst parts “off screen” or at least at a distance. Readers may see only the results.
I try never to sexualize it.
I try to keep the events in proportion to the result I’m trying to accomplish.

REVELATION spoiler behind the Read More tag...

Some people have asked me why Seyonne’s terrible captivity lasted so long in Revelation. This is probably the longest and most difficult of all my “torture” scenarios. But here was a man whose entire life, entire being, entire training had been devoted to removing the rai-kirah from the souls of human beings or to getting himself back in the position where he could do so. And on the scant evidence of a few mosaics, his own instinct for truth, and his determination to set his child free, I wanted him to take one of those rai-kirah into his own soul. The meant I had to strip him down to his essence--his compassion and yearning for justice--in order to get him to do it. Otherwise I could not believe he would do it.

Voted!

2008-10-25T07:56:00.005-06:00

Before I left Colorado, I mailed in my 2008 ballot. I didn't want some Canadian snowstorm to delay me getting home in time to vote. What an honor and a privilege.

Please make sure you vote. This is not an election to sit out. Lots of states have early or mail-in voting. Take advantage if you can because lines are going to be long on Nov 4. Don't let anyone take this privilege away from you.

If anyone out there doubts that this is a critical election, please read beyond a few of the headlines of the past couple of months. I’ve been through a number of elections, and never have I had one that has literally kept me awake in the night. Between our crashing economy, our two wars, upheavals in eastern Europe, genocide in Africa, our melting polar caps, we have got to turn a corner in this country, and it is going to take all of us, doing our best to change our habits and get beyond the politics of division.

After a particular obnoxious news segment the other night, I sat up and wrote a long rant about this election, about some of our society's bad habits (including my own) and about the candidates. I've actually let this post sit for a couple of days as I cooled off - though I really haven't changed my opinion at all.

But as I avidly browsed the web for election news from up here where the Canadians are exhausted by their own recently concluded (and divisive) election, I came upon a piece that expressed, in intelligent, reasoned terms, my own beliefs and feelings about this race. Some people might bristle at the source, but if you are interested enough to go behind the "more" button, maybe you might want to read the editorial. If you'd rather not mix up fantasy authors and politics, that's ok. I ust couldn't let the time go by.

Whichever you choose, please
Listen! Read! Think! Vote.

NY Times editorial

High in British Columbia

2008-10-24T15:16:00.006-06:00

Nope, I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth. For the past few days I've been traveling north to visit friends and attend two events in Canada. This week it's the Surrey International Writers Conference.

What a lovely welcoming, professional conference. Extremely well organized with some 800 attendees. The faculty always leaves me a bit intimidated: this year Diana Gabaldon, Anne Perry, Robert Sawyer, Phillip Margolin, and so forth.

The hotel is terrific. My view from the 12th floor is the BC mountains, the rivers and bridges of Vancouver/Surrey area (the Fraser River Valley, I guess.) And the gorgeous autumn colors that are about gone back home. Cool and misty in the mornings.

So far I've done a three hour master class, called "Unforgettable Characters" and an hour and a half of "blue pencil workshops" which are one-on-one meetings between author and aspiring author. Fifteen minutes to talk marketing, read and critique a few pages, or talk concept. I met with six very interesting people so far, and, despite the ever present "oh, gosh, I hope I can think of something useful to say" willies, I've managed to come up with some comments. This conference also makes breakfast and lunch times for networking among the authors, editors, and agents who have come here to be on the faculty. As such I've met a couple of editors from Tor books, a Canadian teacher/lecturer on web presence and marketing, and a couple of editors from Warner and Little Brown. Also a very cool actor/writer from UK who was going to do a workshop on "battle". Unfortunately I was scheduled during that time. Bummer. This afternoon I"m on a panel about "inspiration." Tomorrow and Sunday I do more workshops. All fun, but a bit exhausting.

More from World Fantasy next week! (And no I haven't forgotten about Portier and the rest. I actually got some good work done on the plane (always a good sign) and have had a productive discussion with my good friend Brenda about a hiccupy place in the opening chapter. All to the good!

The Turning Point

2008-10-13T09:56:00.005-06:00

Every author will recount the difficulties of the wretched middle of a book’s development. "It’s all crap," he’ll say. "It’s as boring as watching paint dry." "I’ve got the focus all wrong." "This will never come together."

All the gleeful laying out of enticing clues, and ambiguous new characters, and discovery of new magic has long given way to the difficult, often frustrating work of
- creating tension, and upping the tension with each twist and turn of the plot
- choreographing climactic action
- developing scenes that actually forward the plot and don’t just recapitulate
- getting to the nitty-gritty events that impact your characters’ growth and change.

The end still seems as distant as ever and may be less clear than when you started. The threads of logic have gotten tangled. There are too many characters and no clear villains. You can’t figure out how the heck to get from Eltevire to Vernase because you already set Vernase within a day’s travel of Merona, and at this point in the book you just don’t want your characters traveling for a week. Chapter 17 turned into two chapters when you realized you’d been so determined to get through it, you’d let your poor captive investigator escape the very torment he’d been investigating [never let him off easy just to get that chapter done], and there are still at least two entire story arcs you haven’t touched yet. Uh...yeah, this is getting personal.

Well maybe this isn’t the exact set of circumstances that drive every author up the wall when she reaches approximately 2/3 of the way through a new book. These are certainly the ones that have popped to my mind over the past couple of weeks. Plus we’ve been in and out to a family wedding in Seattle and spent one day driving mom into the mountains to see the glorious aspens, and a couple more doing handouts for the Vancouver conference that is coming up Real Soon Now. And, holy moly, this presidential election is SO distracting [more on this in another post you may or may not want to read!]

But, as it happens, my little cadre of fellow writers set up another mountain retreat for this past weekend. I hadn’t thought I’d be able to go, but I desperately needed some concentrated, relatively undistractable time, and my ES (Extraordinary Spouse) had a ton of work to do for a client, too. Two full days of writing and some twenty pages later and I’ve reached the Turning Point, where my investigators emerge from a near catastrophe and put together the chain of evidence in an entirely different way to point the spotlight (or the spyglass, as may be) on a totally unsuspected suspect. And what do I find?

I had actually laid in enough clues for them to draw this conclusion. I had actually put them through enough of a wringer to force them to look at things a different way. I’ve left myself pointed in exactly the direction I meant to go all along.

OK. I still worry about the focus and the missing spark and the wordy first chapters the fact that I’ve still got a lot of story to tell, and I’ve got one BIG motivation still to work out. But details in past chapters can now be refined and enhanced because I’ve put together this piece of the story. I can probably rip out a few extraneous pieces because they weren’t needed. I can strengthen the presentation of the main characters because now I know that at this particular point in chapter 21, the three are in harmony. I can make sure the pace of their change from their first meeting to this point is clear. And I can lay in the "festering sores" that will send it all to heck, because now I know when the descent must begin.

I woke up this morning with one idea for revising an early scene, because now I'm seeing a particular character's arc more clearly.

Last night driving home from Denver on a very misty, cold dark night, I realized that one "consequence" I had set up for the end was just really tooooo dark. And this morning upon waking, I knew what I had to do about it, because it fit perfectly with another character's arc.

I'm hoping for more such revelations this week, if I can keep my reacquired focus.

I’m still in the wretched middle, but maybe…just maybe…I’ve turned the corner.

From Sale to Shelf: Part 4

2008-09-29T07:00:00.004-06:00

Once I return the copyedited manuscript, I feel as if the book is truly complete. I go back to work on the next project. But there are a few things left to look at: cover art galley proofs, and ARCs.

Sometime in the next weeks, my editor will send me a jpg cover image or an actual cover flat. This is the first time I get to see the cover and it is always a "gulp" moment. Will it match my vision? Will it be striking enough to draw new readers? Will the back copy give away secrets? Will it reflect my own words? Would it make me want to read the book?

I have been fortunate with covers. All the artists have been excellent, even if their vision didn't match mine. Several of my covers have actually given me goose bumps! (Revelation, Restoration). Some covers have fit my image exactly (Daughter of Ancients, Son of Avonar) or even taken my vision one step farther (Revelation). Some have been beautiful or striking - which is the most important function of covers - despite not fitting my image of the person or scene depicted (Flesh and Spirit, Breath and Bone, Restoration). Only two have disappointed. Proof is left to the reader...

Once I have the cover image, I need to start thinking about marketing tasks - making bookmarks, fliers, updating the website, and so forth. Mostly I procrastinate...because I don't like the marketing stuff, but I DO like starting a new book!

But at sometime a month or six weeks after the copyedits have gone in, I'll receive another bundle of pages in the mail from my editor.

These are the galleys or proof pages, the typeset pages printed just as they'll look in the book. For a mass market paperback (the smaller format) I'll see two facing pages per 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. For a trade paperback, I'll see one page per sheet.

This is the first time I see the "book design," the typeface, the chapter headers, the beautiful drop caps they have at the beginning of the Flesh and Spirit chapters, or how they handled the narrator sections in Song of the Beast or the "Part" divisions in Breath and Bone. This pass is really for hunting typos, misspellings, or any other mistake that might have been entered in the typesetting process. These are typically very few.

The tricky thing is that the lines and paragraphs are now set tightly on the page. Removing or adding a word or even a comma requires the whole line to be re-typeset. If the word or punctuation is in the middle of a paragraph, the entire paragraph must be reset. If the length of the paragraph changes, it pushes or contracts the text that follows it. Typesetting is expensive.

But as with any time I read the manuscript start to finish, I find things I want to change. Can I do that? Yes, within reason.
1. Certainly errors must be fixed. Those aren't optional. Typesetting errors aren't "charged" to me!
2. I can certainly tweak a word, phrase, or even a sentence, if I see a critical need. The trick is to replace a removed word with something of similar length. I've even gone through and changed a made-up word or a character name - simple replacements are the easiest to deal with.
3. For slightly more complicated changes, if I can make restricts the resetting to a single paragraph, not changing the page length, I'll usually do it.
4. The toughest pieces to deal with are places where I think the prose needs to be tightened, ie. words removed and not replaced. I have actually squeezed this through on one book, in places where the actual chapter page length has not changed. My editor was merciful.

I absolutely cannot do anything that will change the page numbering. The entire rest of the book would have to be reset = Very Expensive.

Once I've made all the changes and fixes, I pull out those pages. I make sure the marks are very clear - don't want to introduce more typos or errors! And then I count the number of pages. And then I try to figure out if that number will make my editor nervous or, heaven forbid, cause the publisher to charge me the cost of retypesetting!! I don't have a set number I'm allowed, but I can get a creepy feeling if the stack of pages is more than about 25. I read each one and decide if this is critical. I keep all error fixes that I've found. But some of my own changes... Honestly, some things a reader will never notice, and I reluctantly pull them out.

I ship off the proof pages that contain corrections, and now I'm really finished. The next time I see the book it will be bound. First, I'll see the ARC (Advance Reader Copy). This bound book has no cover art, and the text is essentially the uncorrected text. It is produced at the same time as the proof pages, and is sent out to reviewers, bookstores, and the like. Sometimes they show up on ebay!

But one day a padded envelope shows up in the mail with my first real copy of the book, real cover, corrected text, and I sit and read and say, "Wow, did I really write this? It looks like a real book!"

Any questions?

My cover artists
Luis Royo: Flesh and Spirit, Breath and Bone

Matt Stawicki: Revelation, Restoration, Song of the Beast, Son of Avonar, Guardians of the Keep, The Soul Weaver, Daughter of Ancients

Kevin Murphy: Transformation

That nagging feeling

2008-09-26T10:06:00.004-06:00

Sometimes when I write a scene, I get a nagging feeling that something is not right. It most often happens when I have a plot point that I'm ready to include.

Today's example: Character A is in trouble. Character B comes to his rescue and demonstrates something. I want some additional things to happen, some curiosity and doubts about who could have done this amazing thing,building up to the revelation that it was Character B. I write the scene as I envision.

I reread it, tweaking words. I tweak more. OK, I've given Character A too much of a hint that Character B is doing the amazing thing. Why wouldn't he recognize what's going on right away?

What do I do about this?

Make Character A "foggier" from the bad guys' brutality. Reread. Tweak more words. Still feels wrong.

Remove all early hints of Character B's action. I really don't want Character A to seem stupid. Even bashed in the head he wouldn't miss what's going on, which makes my "delay" and building question seem stupid and contrived. Wrong.

So Character A must consider and dismiss the possibility that Character B is doing this. As I begin to rewrite yet again, I realize how convoluted this is getting, and the fact that I have now spent DAYS on this one scene. It Is Not Working.

Time to rethink. I must either skip the intervening build-up to the revelation OR give Character A an ironclad reason for believing it couldn't be Character B.

Oh...oh... The answer comes. The ironclad reason why he won't believe it. And the way that particular misconception plays right in to what the bad guys are trying to do to Character A already... DELICIOUS! One more rewrite and I'll be on my way forward.

Should I have made myself skip over the knot for the time being and continue forward with the story, planning to come back and fix it on another pass? Maybe. But I find I can't progress until it "feels right."

I just can't allow my preconceived ideas of a scene to stand without proper attention to character motivation and a reasonable analysis of "what would he know and when would he know it." Even if it takes three days. What if the solution changes the course of the story?

In this particular case, I don't think it changes anything farther along. But I'll see if things feel right as I get there.

From Sale to Shelf: Part 3

2008-09-24T08:00:00.002-06:00

So I've finished revisions and mailed in a new manuscript. Now I'll usually go on to writing the sequel or whatever is next on the schedule. Some authors end up in multiple revision rounds, but fortunately, I've never had to do that. The principal work on this book is done, but not everything. So what comes next?

Copyedits:
Many people are under the misapprehension that what editors do is correct grammar and spelling mistakes in a manuscript. Back in Part 2 of this post, I hope I gave a better idea of what an involved editor brings to the table. But someone still has to look at the details.

At some time a few weeks or months after I've submitted my revisions, I'll receive a fat package in the mail which is the exactly the same thick parcel I sent in with my revisions. My editor may have made a few changes as she read - I've never seen much more than a few sentence alterations, usually in regular gray pencil. But someone has gone in and made red marks all over the place. That person is a copyeditor.

Copyeditors are detail people who have three main tasks:

to read for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Thanks to some great teachers and boring homework back in my school days, I don't have much problem with these, though I'll say that figuring out whether a compound word is actually two words (half sister), hyphenated (half-hearted), or a single word (halfbreed) is my weakness. The CE will make her own dictionary of names and made-up words so that she can make sure they're always spelled and capitalized consistently, too.

to mark up the manuscript for the typesetter, using traditional typesetter's markings to denote things like chapter or section headings, italics, ellipses, em- or en-dashes, specially formatted sections like letters, poetry passage, or epigraphs. This ensures such things are handled consistently throughout the book and enforces the publishers' particular typesetting "style."

to read for continuity, eg. making sure a character doesn't have green eyes on one page and brown eyes on the next.

A good copyeditor will note other things she runs across during this very detailed read, and write a query in the margins about anything that seems problematical. I've had CEs catch errors that no one else has.

Once I receive the copyedited manuscript, my job is to answer all queries to make sure the CE hasn't uncovered a logic error or some such, and to review every change and mark the CE has made to ensure they are correct. I can undo any of them by writing stet in the margin. I'm not supposed to change "stylistic things" like how the chapter headings are to be typeset or how ellipses or em-dashes are handled.

But I occasionally have reasons to violate certain rules, and I want to make sure they remain as I wrote them. For example, you'll notice that even when Aleksander is referred to as "the Prince," Prince is always capitalized. Usually prince would only be capitalized when used in conjunction with his name, as in Prince Aleksander. I did this to reinforce the narrator Seyonne's view of Aleksander (you'll have to read the rai-kirah books to find out what that view is!) And sometimes my worldbuilding will mandate certain word usage or spelling that is not standard English. That's why I get to review.

Something else happens at copyedit time. In reviewing copyedits, I always sit down and read the whole story from start to finish one more time. And this is my last chance to make any wholesale change to the text. I've always got sentence or word changes to make, and because of my tendency toward wordiness, every pass demands I trim and tighten. So I end up removing a lot of words and phrases. Occasionally some larger issue arises. For example, when I realized that The Soul Weaver was not the end of the D'Arnath series, but the third of four books, I went back in at copyedit time and rewrote the ending.

I usually have about a week to ten days to do this review, and, in truth, it rarely takes that long. It involves one good detailed read with my green or blue pencil in hand (don't want to confuse my marks with the CEs marks). I also keep my handy-dandy Webster's Guide to Punctuation, my Oxford English dictionary (to confirm those compound words as CE's sometimes get them wrong, too), and a list of typesetter's marks close by. Any change I make has to be marked for the typesetter, too.

One always hears horror stories about copyeditors who change things they shouldn't or even rewrite pieces of the story. I did have one copyeditor who "corrected" a few long sentences by chopping them up and entirely changing their meaning, but those were easily fixed. The motivation was good, but the execution flawed! Thank goodness, all my other experiences have been great.

So are we there yet?

Not quite. Tune in for Part 4...

A Gift for the Autumnal Equinox

2008-09-22T00:18:00.008-06:00

As on the summer solstice, I can't help but dream of Navronne and Aeginea, the world I created for the Lighthouse books. Here is another snippet, a deleted scene. No spoilers, only very minor revelations about the world for those who have not read the books. For those who have, you'll remember the particular incident from Flesh and Spirit, I think...

The moon settled lower, swelling, brightening for that last moment as it touched the white cliffs and vanished. Fascinated, appalled, Kol watched the human man scrape the hole in the dark soil with a flat stone and lay his dead friend to rest. Though the gentle dignity of this completion must be considered in its turn, the more astonishing events of the night demanded his attention first. Only now did the truth of what this man had done penetrate his understanding.

Earlier on this very evening, Kol had watched the human murderers slaughter one of their own kind apurpose to defile this holy place. He had believed his friend Aniiele dead - poisoned by the victim's blood and torment - and these beauteous lands she nurtured lost forever to the memory of the long-lived. Once Kol turned his back on the meadow, even he would not be able to find it again, save by purest happenstance. Its vigor would fade, its plants and beasts weaken. Rage had threatened to undo him as he had witnessed the violation, the lively, graceful Aniiele’s fate so cruelly and deliberately sealed as she slept away her season in the sweet earth.

The Law of the Everlasting forbade the long-lived to interfere in human affairs unasked. Lacking weapon-skills to match the gross brutality of human conflict, they had been forced to endure the slaughter of their kind through this sort of violation. The Scourge, they called it.

The murderers had vanished, leaving the dying victim’s tainted blood seeping through the veins of earth. But just as Kol’s grief and anger had swelled to breaking, the Cartamandua-son had arrived and changed everything. How was it possible?

Human words bore no power over life and death. The man’s unsavory use of the fragrant nive', mixing it with blood, would disgust the most depraved of the long-lived. The death blow he’d struck upon the victim he named friend should have accrued its own violation atop that of the Scourge. But, indeed, the son of the despised Cartamandua had set the dying victim free of his tormented fate...and with him Aniiele and her meadow. How had he done it?

Kol scrambled higher in the great oak to watch. The dark-haired man laid gifts with the dead, then shoved dirt over the body, hauled stones to shield the turned earth from predators, and sat for a while beside the grave. It was tempting to speak to him, to ask what he had done and why. But Tuari had extended the Law to forbid human contact for all but sentinels. Kol cared nothing for Tuari Archon or his presumptuous attempts to amend the Law of the Everlasting, but these lands lay too near Moth’s range. He dared not overstep when she might be watching. Not yet, at least.

When the human rose and limped slowly down the slope, Kol was tempted to follow and discover if the Cartamandua-son might seek out the Scourge-wielders and challenge them for what was done to his human friend. But his relief and joy at Aniiele’s salvation could not wait to be expressed.

Brushing bits of bark and leaf from his skin, he rose from his crouch, angled his feet for proper balance on the branch, and stretched his arms skyward. Thought and worry and wonder flowed out of him, as he allowed the music of the meadow...of the pool...of the willows...of the grass and trees and wood...to surge in his blood. The gards of his power, scribed on his flesh as he had passed through the changes of childhood and youth, began to glow the cold blue of a mountain winter sky.

Summoning strength and awareness, alight with this one night’s grace in a world doomed to grief and breaking, Kol leaped from the top of the oak, and when his feet touched solidly to the grass, he whirled and spun and leaped to the meadow’s music until the coming of the dawn.

From Sale To Shelf: Part 2

2008-09-21T22:49:00.003-06:00

So I have shipped off my baby. But that doesn't mean I'm satisfied. I've been immersed in it for a year or longer, and haven't had a chance to set it aside and get some distance on the story. Awaiting my editor's reaction forces me to do that. But I always find myself making lists: fix that scene where I glossed over the magic, make the romantic angle stronger. If this is the last book in a series, I have to be giving thought to what's next, as well, ie. writing a proposal. And if it is not the end, I'm already starting to write sequel. I should have plenty of notes to go on. But there's a lot of work yet to do on the current work!

Cover ideas:
As I'm waiting to hear what my editor thinks about the book, I work diligently on a small but meaningful task. I am not a visual artist. Though I have definite opinions about cover art, I have no desire to actually design a cover. Which is a good thing, as I, like most authors, have no say in my covers. Covers are considered the province of marketing folks who study what readers actually respond to. But what I do is offer ideas of key scenes (like D'Sanya at the siege of Avonar) or key elements (like the mask for Flesh and Spirit). And after several disheartening experiences with back cover copy that revealed plot secrets, I decided to offer sample copy. Though it is always modified (seems I use too many words and sentences that are too long!) I am gratified that they've begun to pick up my suggestions. The copy on the Lighthouse books is almost my words. I usually spend a whole day fooling around with these things.

But the Big Job is still ahead. Maybe three weeks, maybe six, after my submission, Anne will send me a revision letter. So what do revisions entail?

Revisions:
Editorial revision letters - at least the ones I've gotten - are not as scary as they might sound. You've got to remember that the editor's job is to work with you, the author, to make the book the best it can be. No one writes perfect prose, and the surest mark of an immature writer is saying "I'm not going to let anyone mess with my words" or "I don't want to be forced to change anything." My editors do not rewrite my words, but they certainly read them. Carefully. Thoughtful revision brings the craft of writing to bear on your manuscript, making your art and passion accessible to your readers.

The revision letter will list the things that bothered the editor, maybe one page worth, maybe ten pages worth. Some editors are much more detailed than others. My first editor was extremely detailed, and I learned a lot from her. Anne is more general in her comments, but I've learned to interpret her "symptoms." The notations might be as small as a word choice or phrase that is unclear, or as large as a scene or subplot that doesn't seem to work or fit in the overall arc of the story. Sometimes the issue is pacing or an action scene with unclear choreography. I have never been asked to cut a scene, change the plot, or add or remove a character. Nor have I ever been forced into a change.

Usually I agree with my editor's remarks. Having a new, experienced set of eyes looking at the work will always reveal holes! Sometimes I disagree, and that's ok, too. It's my book, after all. But I will always take a careful look. Sometimes the problem the editor reports is really a symptom of a different flaw altogether. If she says a particular scene does not seem to fit in the arc of the story, and I believe it does something important, then I probably haven't done a good job of bringing out the necessary details.

I usually have my own long list of issues by the time I get the editor's list. The idea of revisions is to make the book better and stronger and clearer to the reader, to enhance tension and conflict to grip readers from the opening page and draw them through the story. Of course, if the editor sees a major problem with story or, as sometimes happens, with the overall length of the book, negotiation is in order. Sometimes publishing requirements must be taken into account. But at no time is control of the story out of my hands.

I usually have six or eight weeks to do revisions, and I love the process. Having set the book aside for a few weeks gives me a more objective view. So the first thing I do is read it again, from start to finish. I listen for pacing and word use. I watch for ordering - making sure that each sentence follows from the ones before, that I haven't stuck the cart before the horse. I look at the development of my principal characters, making sure their growth and change is logically developed, and that their motivations are clear. Sometimes it just astonishes me that some particular piece "got by me." I watch for plot holes and logic errors. Sometimes I rewrite my pivotal scenes and find that now I understand characters and plot, the words flow much better.

By the time I'm done, I feel truly finished. When the deadline comes around, I send Anne a new printed copy.

Is it really finished yet? No way! Tune in for part three.

From Sale to Shelf: Part 1

2008-09-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

One of my readers said it surprised her to learn that selling a book wasn't the "end" of the writing process. I figured a number of other people might share Valt's mystification, so I thought I'd step through the entire process over the next few posts.

To start:
My publisher is Roc Books, an imprint of New American Library, which is a division of the publishing giant Penguin Putnam. My editor, Anne Sowards, works for Penguin, editing books for Roc and also for Ace, another fantasy/sf imprint of PP. Imprints are specialized divisions that produce books of related styles/genres. My agent, my business representative, is Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency. In brief: editors work with words, while agents work with contracts.

Contract:
Transformation and Song of the Beast were written before my first sale. When my first editor read Transformation back in 1999, she, with the approval of her managers, made me an offer to publish the two books. My agent, who is my business representative, negotiated the deal. As a result of the negotiation, the deal actually included three books: Transformation, Song of the Beast, and the unwritten sequel to Transformation that was later called Revelation.

Literary contracts specify the specific book/s to be published. If the work isn't written as yet, the contract specifies the type of work it will be, the subject matter, genre, tentative title. Contracts also specify the delivery date of the manuscript (so the publisher can schedule a release date), the specific rights the publisher is buying (some subset of North American rights, translation rights, audio, electronic, book club, film, gaming, spinoffs, and others), and many other particulars. Agent Kristin Nelson has done a great series explaining all the common clauses of literary contracts on her blog Pub Rants.

For my newer deals I sell books before they are actually written - on proposal. Sometimes the proposal is a multi-page synopsis (The Sabrian Veil series). Sometimes it's only a paragraph (Flesh and Spirit). As always, my editor has to decide if she wants the book/s enough to sell the deal to her superiors. Sometimes the editor has to fight for a book, because there are many other fine proposals and they can't buy them all. Just because an author has published before doesn't ensure the proposal will be accepted. But assuming it is, hooray! - my agent negotiates the new contract. Once it's signed, I start writing. [See my first Unholy Alliance post for how I go about that.]

I've only missed a contracted date once (yes, obstreperous Valen was the reason). I negotiated a new date beforehand.

Now skip forward a year or so...

Whoa, not quite yet. There are a few other things that go on before the book is written, depending on the editor. Some editors require outlines or more detailed synopses. Thank goodness, my editor does not. If you've been following the way I write, you see that is not at all a part of my process!

If the book I'm writing is a sequel, I might need to provide an opening scene to stick in the back of the previous book as a teaser. And there are all those other things that go on all year, every year: marketing the last book, doing conferences and conventions, blogs and forums and newsletters, and updating the website, and networking...

But most of the time is writing, writing, and the due date approaches inevitably.

Done!
So I have agonized and plotted, written and rewritten, making the manuscript the best I can make it. I'm always up late the night before - just like college! - but at last I ship off a paper copy to New York. And then, I wait.

Tomorrow...the book is not nearly done yet. On to Revisions...

Colorado Gold

2008-09-17T14:00:00.003-06:00

Just a quick review of the Colorado Gold Writers' Conference. This conference is presented every September in Denver by the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I try to go if I can, as it is a group of people I enjoy hanging around. It is not the biggest conference, nor does it pull in the kind of big name presenters that the Surrey International or even Pikes Peak does. But it certainly is a place where a beginning writer can feel welcome and learn a lot. And I think it is improving in quality every year. Here were the highlights of my experience this year...

I don't do the editor/agent critique or pitch sessions, as I have quite enough on my plate at present, thank you very much. But I do enjoy meeting these guests when I can. Some are very nice about hanging around the convention spaces and visiting. Some run off to be by themselves when they're not working.

I also enjoy meeting the attendees. At the Friday night welcome buffet, the organizers took a page from some other conferences and designated genre tables where attendees could sit with the agents, editors, or guest authors to talk about fantasy or romance or historical writing. And after the buffet (maybe too short a time to talk very much) and introductions (maybe a bit too long) and Writer of the Year speech (maybe a bit too short) came the booksale. This is a great event where a book dealer comes in (this year my friends Ron and Nina Else from Who Else books in Denver) and provides each of the guest authors wiht a table and a supply of books. Attendees can talk to the authors, get books signed, and buy them that night. Very well organized and very nice both for the authors and the attendees.

Another good thing - the hospitality suite. After the evening's activities, guests and attendees can mingle with daquiris, margaritas, or other drinkables in an informal setting. Always fun to catch up with old friends and meet new.

I did two workshops, one of them my standard revision workshop, and one a new one on persona voice that I think went off very well. (Voice being "the expressive communication of fictional characters.") I can tell the attendees are comfortable with the conference format, as many seem to feel free to come up afterward and talk or comment.

I attended a couple of workshops, too, which says to me that the organizers are really trying to come up with new and interesting ideas for experienced authors as well as beginners. One workshop on promotion, given by Bella Stander, was excellent, as was another on the uses of herbs, given by Laurey Patten. There were several more I'd like to have attended, but had conflicts. Agent Kristin Nelson, of the excellent PubRants blog, gave a well-received two part workshop on queries. Fortunately I got to visit with all three of these women at other times during the weekend.

Of the various keynote speeches, I'd have to say the one from Shirley Jump was the best. Short and to the point. Well presented. Careers have ups and downs. Persist. Write.

In between all this I sat around in the nice conversation areas in the hotel, talking to all sorts of people - which is always the best.

Epic Fantasy Week

2008-09-16T14:40:00.002-06:00

Check out epic fantasy week on my agent, Lucienne Diver's blog. There have already been postings on promotion from Lynn Flewelling, and series and story arcs from David Coe. Next up...

Diana Francis on worldbuilding, me own self on developing fantasy heroes, and then Sarah Hoyt on writing fantasy in a scientific world. Enjoy!

Fits and Starts

2008-09-08T18:32:00.006-06:00

Yes, I've been a faithless blogger of late. I blame it on more interruptions - this time a family reunion for my mom's 90th birthday (a VERY happy occasion). And in between, I've been working on a lot of those "extraneous matters." Workshop handouts. Travel arrangements. An impromptu fill-in appearance on a publishing panel at the Tattered Cover bookstore. Of course, I've acquired a couple more extracurriculars - like a blog post on heroes for "fantasy week" on my agent's blog. [Beginning 9/15/08.] I've just returned from the Colorado Gold Writers Conference, and before you know it, I'll be off to Vancouver and Calgary.

Lest you feel that my three investigators have been neglected, let me assure you I have inched forward. I am in what is known (mildly) as the cursed middle. I've set up many threads. Some are going to work. Some are not. But I have reached a turning point, where a new piece of evidence shifts Portier's head (unfortunately with a bit of blood and bruises) into a new way of thinking. All the things he assumed he knew take on a new shape. Perhaps it is not the black moment, but it is a crux of the story, and a piece I never thought I'd reach.

Sorry for the long silence. I'm on now, and plan to keep up!

Retreat!

2008-08-19T10:04:00.004-06:00

One of the great pleasures of my writing career has been my discovery of the writers’ retreat. Now you may read of Writers’ Retreats in writing magazines and online. Many of these offer exotic locations, motivational speakers, gourmet food, brainstorming sessions, massages, workshops, or critiquing. Some offer uninterrupted time in fancy locales. Most of these are very expensive.

It works just as well – ok, better – to find a group of serious, motivated writers – your critique group, perhaps, or people you know reasonably well – and set up your own retreat. It can be a LOT less expensive. The idea is to get away from the everyday and focus on writing. Leave the spouse and kids (promising to make it up to them later when you are relaxed, focused, and elated from your writing progress.) Leave the laundry, the phone, (preferably) the internet, the dust on the furniture, and the soccer games behind. The keys to a successful retreat?

1. Location
Find yourself a comfortable location: cabin, lodge, condo. Look into YMCA facilities (you don't have to be Y, M, or C to rent their cabins and such.) Or maybe someone's mother has a lake cabin (as long as it has electricity!) or a timeshare.

Living near the Rocky Mountains, I am fortunate to have a choice of places. One of my groups rents a basic mountainside "housekeeping" cabin at a YMCA family camp that has about 100 cabins scattered over several mountainsides. Every cabin has mountain views and full kitchens and possible elk sightings. (These are not luxury cabins, but clean and functional with heat that works well even in January and fireplaces.) My other group congregates in a funky old hotel in Fairplay, Colorado that has a ghosts (so I hear), a great view, never emptying coffee and teapots, and a very cool sunroom that we take over with tables, surge protectors, extension cords, and laptops.

A site that provides visual inspiration makes a huge difference, plus provides good walks for times when your rear end goes to sleep from sitting too long. You really don't want to have to share the space with non-writing (ie. chatty) other guests.

2. Food
Arrange for good, non-time-intensive meals. My YMCA cabin group splits up the meals – one person cooks Friday dinner, one does Saturday, one does breakfasts. For lunch and snacks we share out whatever we bring, plus tea, coffee, wine, and cookies. We keep it simple but make it good. The others work while cooking is going on, but we all stop and talk and share as we eat.

The hotel in Fairplay provides continental breakfast, afternoon cookies/popcorn/fruit, and, for a special rate, a Saturday night dinner. Everything else is on the economy, which, in Fairplay is limited, but decent, and within walking distance.

3. (and most important) People
Pick the right people. People who want and need to spend the weekend writing. People who don't crack gum, require music (without headphones), or talk too much. People who don't get grouchy when an occasional writing conversation flows from a grammar question or "what is the word for ___ " question or "Eureka! I finished chapter 15!" People who are courteous about taking longer conversations outside, or sharing surge protector outlets or reference books.

You can adjust the activities by mutual consent. If someone gives massages or reads Tarot (and you're into that) or you decide to get together and read what you've written in front of the fire in the evening, that's great. But get these big three right, and you will be amazed at how the energy flows.

(And yes, I finished Chapter 15! Eureka!)