Life goals: writing retreat in a castle

Last year at the RWA national convention in Orlando, I overheard some writers talking -- was it in a speech? Or was I just that creepy lurker in the lobby unintentionally overhearing everyone else’s conversations?! I really don’t recall -- about a retreat they’d been on together. They pooled funds from, like, ten writers and rented a castle in Ireland for three weeks.

A castle.

In Ireland.

For three weeks.

Also? It was haunted.

So whether I heard it legit, spied it, or made it up, none of that really matters because...

A castle.

In Ireland.

For three weeks.

With a ghost.

(And also he was probably a hot, angsty, Victorian ghost. Hush, you, this is my happy place!)

This is now filed in my brain under Life Goals. Who’s in?

The Ultimate Positive Review

MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS TO VIVIEN JACKSON!!WANTED & WIRED IS A RITA FINALIST!

This book is one of 6-8 finalists out of a field of hundreds of books. The RITA, again, is the highest award honor bestowed upon romance novels by the romance industry. Finalists are the books our peers pick up and say, "OMG, this is amazing!" There are few reviews better than that. So CONGRATS, again, to Vivien. And you, yes, you! Here's where you pick up this book to see what all the fuss is about AND to leave your own impression of the story on whatever venue lights your fire. :D

PS: The actual RITA awards ceremony takes place at the Romance Writers of America National Conference in July. You have until then to read WANTED & WIRED so you can root for it to win along with the rest of us!

Review for fun! For information! For love.

When Amazon was new and I was unpublished, I used to read a lot of reviews. They were informative and well-thought-out and helped me pick my next readable. I trusted them, and they rarely steered me wrong.

Nowadays, Amazon's algorithms for visibility have made reviews into a commodity, and since I have a couple of books out with my name on the covers, I abstain from reading reviews.

Not reviews of my books because neither my ego nor my self-loathing are developed enough to take that hit directly.

Not reviews of my friends' books because I get all angry and defensive and chupacabra, and it's on someone else's behalf, which makes the fury feel righteous.

Not reviews of books that are doing really well in my genre because all my attempts to replicate the success of those books have ended in manuscripts sacrificed to the dark gods of Why Even.

Not reviews of books that are clearly not selling well because, dude, someone put effort into typing all those words and then made the (foolish?) decision to go ahead and share the resultant opus. With everyone. For money. That's... kind of precious. Definitely brave. I don't want reviews to spoil that for me.

Nope, instead of putting my eyeballs on book reviews, I have a couple of super-kind friends who screen them for me. They cut and paste the reviews of my books that I'm allowed to read, send them to me, and then I print them out and frame them and ... well, they make me happy. Intensely, tearfully, gratefully happy.

Now, this isn't a foolproof system, so if you've reviewed a book of mine favorably and I haven't sent you chocolates or gifs of people hugging, feel free to message me. You really want this gif-storm. If you've reviewed unfavorably, I don't know about it but I will tell you this:

THANK YOU.

Seriously. Regardless of whether you loved my work or hated it or meh'd it, you took the time to read, to leave your thoughts out there for someone else who just wants advice on picking his or her next readable. I've been that person and would be still. You make that person's world better. So, thank you from prepublished-me.

Motivated by the positive

When I read the topic this week – writing quotes that are inspirational or motivational – at first all I could think about was that Steven Wright quote: “I’m writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.” Which, you know, isn’t extremely motivational. (Even it is so true.)

Then I thought about Dr Seuss. If Seuss isn’t a kick in the hiney, I don’t know who is. So I read through Oh the Places You’ll Go and … it was actually a bit of a downer. Every time he builds up to a “yeah, you rock, kid,” he follows on immediately with, “except, no. Just kidding.” I think the thing we’re supposed to take from the book, overall, is that life ain’t easy, but it’s worth it? Or something like that?

I’d like to be the sort of person who stubbornly, spectacularly defies criticism, is fueled by rejection, who gets knocked down but then gets up again, just like in that song (which may now be in your head for the rest of the day; sorry). But I’m not that person. Negative sucks the motivation right out of me and leaves me a pile of donut-eating who-even-cares.

So, what does work?

I’ll be honest, I don’t have a wall-sticker over my desk that motivates me, and I’m not huge on personal goal-making and aiming for the bleachers and peppy stuff like that. What I do have is a file folder with a bunch of emails and screenshots in it. In those files are comments from contest judges, critique partners, agents and editors who rejected my work kindly and had nice things to say, agents and editors who didn’t reject and also had nice things to say, professional reviewers and all their pretty stars, readers who were entertained enough to tell me about it … basically, a bright, blooming collage of positivity.

This is my go-to treasure box when my self-confidence gets low. I can pull out these priceless words, read them, and think, hey, maybe I don’t suck. Maybe this adventure is worth it. Maybe someone, someday will want to read this steaming pile of work-in-progress. That person might even like it. Might even like it so much that they sit down and type out a note to me, letting me know the pile isn’t quite so steamy. Or at least the in-a-good-way kind of steamy.

I guess that’s it for me, then. The good. I celebrate all the good, even several times, because once is never enough. Every nice word, I tuck it safe in my file folder of happiness, and it motivates me for days, weeks, years, always.

In other words, if you’ve taken the time to send an email or to leave a review or to contact me at all, Thank You. You have no idea what your gift has meant to me.

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p.s. - This has nothing to do with the topic, but a super cool thing happened yesterday and I am celebrating -- BECAUSE WE MUST CELEBRATE ALL THE THINGS: my debut book, Wanted and Wired, was released as an audiobook. The narrator, Johanna Parker, performed the Sookie Stackhouse books and is so amazingly talented. I've grabbed a copy and can't wait to see what Ms Parker has done with the interpretation.

"You're grammar sux" and other universal writing truths

Mostly these days, I novel and social media (and make up verbs). In the past I have short-storied,

fanficc’d, blogged, edited/rewritten, developed technical manuals, produced academic books and papers, and taken the occasional stab at corporate marketingspeak. I’ve worked in APA, AP, Chicago, MLA, Microsoft, and a bunch of house styles. Across all these different kinds of written communication, here’s some stuff I’ve learned:

• There are reasons everyone except AP-style aficionados are devoted to serial commas. (Sorry, journalism students, the serial comma really does make things clearer.)
• The ability to create a compelling novel does not translate into a similar talent for composing back-cover copy, aka “blurbs.” That is a totally different kind of writing, and most of us novelists have no clue what we’re doing in marketingland.
• An English degree does not confer magical ability to use a semicolon. Probably best you don’t.
•  People who don’t know what a dangling participle is aren’t stupid. Sometimes they’re the brightest minds in their field, and they deserve respect. (And possibly a gentle suggestion for fixing the dangle.)
• Technical styles often restrict sentences to 20 to 30 words max. Even for novelists, it isn’t a bad idea to count words in a sentence that seems long. If you catch one with more than 35 words, it’s probably confusing to readers, no matter what you’re writing.
• I thought I was good at telling a story through dialogue. Then I took a screenwriting class. Whoa. Just because you can do one does not mean you can necessarily do the other. (See item on back-cover copy above.)
• Microsoft Word and other grammar/spelling checkers do not fix usage errors. Or, to quote The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” (Phenomenon also known as, Editors Are Our Friends.)
• If you write a thing and the reader understands the point you were trying to make and reacts in a way you wanted, you win. Full stop. End discussion. 

This list could go on forever, hyperbolically, but I’ll cut it off now. Any universal-to-all-media writing bits you’ve picked up and want to vent discuss?

KISSing, only with plots instead of mouths

Q: How do you keep your story from getting too complex?

A: Here, meet my critique partners. Aren’t they amazing?

See, as a writer, I’m still learning how to keep things simple, and by simple I mean being able to hold the whole story and all its moving pieces in my mind for that final quartile, so I can wrap up the whole yummy burrito. An overstuffed burrito is a ruined white shirt, and I have…well, let’s say I have a guacamole problem. However, that’s where my amazing crit partners come in.

My CPs are kind of alpha readers who also know SO much more than I do about craft. They margin-note anything that's confusing or well-that-came-outta-nowhere or interesting-but-never-mentioned-again. Those margin flags typically indicate I have a whole back story for that element and love it to bits and really, really want to use it to complicate matters, but it isn't useful to this story/character/moment, and so it needs to go. For instance, plot threads concerning Mari’s mom and Garrett’s super powers and the oblique, giggletastic Terminator fan-service references? Gone. Snipped. Fixed. Streamlined. Thank you, SuperCPs.

In sum, my advice to everyone attempting to KISS (we all know the acronym, yes?): get some alpha reader/crit partners who know their stuff and aren’t hesitant to call you on your over-complicated crud.

(Note: It's tricky but not really hard to build good CP relationships. I met one CP because we were both writing a lot of self-indulgent Tolkien fanfiction a million years ago, one through a romance-writing professional organization that gets together in person monthly, and one because we slept together at a local writing retreat, which isn't nearly as salacious as it sounds. If you gut-flinch at the thought of going face-to-face with other writers in person, Critters might be a nice place to meet SFF-minded folk online. If you're a member of the RWA FF&P chapter, they have a mudpuddle that kind of functions as a CP dating service for folks writing SFR and PNR. Make sure to trade sample chapters before you get hitched for the whole manuscript, and also try to hook up with someone who is just a little bit ahead of you in craft knowledge.)

Oh! And one addendum from the former-litcrit-student in my head: it also probably helps to focus on a tiny, tiny group of POV characters – one, if you can get away with it – and their goals, motivations, and conflicts. If a worldbuilding piece doesn’t affect your protag, ditch it. The only stakes a reader is going to care about are those that directly affect your POV character's internal journey.

A distractible mind thinks all the things and also, Hello!

I wake up very morning and read the news. So, um, there are a gazillion things on my mind this week, and I want to talk about approximately none of them. (Am fuming about some stuff, especially the stuff that also makes me sad.)

However, the one very satisfying thing about having a distractible brain is that I can switch topics with whiplash-inducing speed. Here goes:

1.  I’m here. On this excellent and admirable blog. Writing my words alongside some truly talented folks who have kindly let me come in here and play. For a gal who grew up binge-reading SFF and later decided, hey, maybe some other readers wondered about all those kissing scenes that we knew were going on but never quite made it to the page, and who then decided to squash the SFF and the kissing into one giant moshdoodle of steamy smooching cyborgs on space stations, well… this is a dream come true. I can’t wait to meet everybody.

2. Last weekend, I met aliens. Well, I went to Marfa, Texas, and saw the legendary mystery lights in the sky there. Does that count as a close encounter? I know, I know, I read about the UT Dallas undergrads who “proved” it was all atmospherics reflecting car headlights or somesuchcrud, but I Want ToBelieve. (Yes, even now, Fox Mulder. I know you got kind of old and uninteresting, but hey, I did, too. Don’t sulk. Have a sunflower seed.) At any rate, there is magic out in the mountains and in the desert. You can feel it. Also, the lights look exactly like the running lights on an alien mothership. And they change colors, so...disco aliens?

3. I’m reading more than writing at the moment. For folks who don’t know, the first two books in my Tether science fiction romance series – Wanted and Wired and Perfect Gravity – released in 2017. I love them like paper wubbies. The third one is in “what in the world do you put on the cover a book featuring a body-hopping AI who thinks she might be a girl, and yikes we have to title this beastie too” limbo. I’ve started on a new project, but it’s so new it mewls and I probably shouldn’t say more than that. However, the judging deadline for the Romance Writers of America RITA awards is coming up way too soon, so I’m spending most of my time reading books and wondering how I ever managed to write one (or three) of these things and whether that miracle is repeatable.

Okay, there’s more. I’ve also been thinking way too much about risk-taking (in the context of Girl Scouts, corporate fail-fast culture, and Adam Rippon); girl-power rock ‘n’ roll, esp. The Runaways and The Dollyrots; what a Regency duke actually did all day, other than hanging out in his club with his mates and drinking boozy things and sometimes going to balls; and Elon Musk’s hot little interplanetary car.

I’m happy to talk about any of the above. And thanks for the warm welcome, y'all.