The S-Apostrophe Conundrum

First, a million (maybe more) thank-yous to my publisher and editor for changing all my cringey titles. I do think up some terrible ones, and we needn't speak of those any further. As far as character names go, I don't think I've ever had to change one in a book I shared with anybody. (I do have a terrible manuscript with a slinky fallen angel named Asahel, which friends have said is a terrible name, but it doesn't really matter because no one will ever read this book. I will Office Space my computer with a hatchet before I share that pile.)  

However, I got a funny story about a character whose name-change has forever altered the way I write and critique.

My high school senior English teacher was kind of a badass. Not only was she stern and no-shits-given and made everybody read the Mahabharata in the days before non-Western canon was cool ("If you can read Dante and Milton, you can read this, too, because the entire world is not Christian," bless her), she was also the most feared teacher on campus: she would fail your ass and made all her AP students work for that extra grade point. She was also a published mystery author on the sly. 

Now, this was in the days when manuscripts were typed out on typewriters (those things with keys that predated the keyboard) and submitted on paper (that stuff you continue to get in the mail and dutifully recycle). If you think of an average manuscript comprising 300-odd pieces of paper, that's a crapton of typing. It makes my fingers hurt just thinking of it. And yet, writers back then did the thing. 

Some time before I had her for English, my teacher completed a manuscript, revised it, retyped it, and submitted it to her editor. Now, having done that a few times myself, I can imagine how that went down, passing along a little slice of your soul and hoping the person likes it even a little. Her editor took a while to get back to her, but when she did, the news was both elating and horrifying. The book was good, said the editor. She liked it overall, had a lot of nice things to say about the plot, and only had one minor, teeny little change. 

See, the main character in this mystery was named Rhys. Which ends in an S. (Those of you who've tried to name a character anything that ends in an S, you know what's coming and are cringing already.)

My teacher had punctuated her book correctly. She taught the stuff, ffs, so she knew how to make the possessive of a singular noun ending in S. You add apostrophe+S. Yes, yes, you do. (Fight me.) You only add the lone apostrophe if the noun is plural. That is, technically, the correct way to do it. 

However, so many people are convinced that the wrong way is correct (much like you folks who insist on putting two spaces between sentences because a typing teacher--it always comes back to the typing teacher--once told you to do it that way), the editor of this book feared that roughly half of all readers would be convinced that Rhys's was an error. Worse, if she changed it to Rhys' throughout, the other half of (better informed) readers would be convinced of same. 

There was no win here. She had to change his name. The main character's name. Which appeared roughly every page. 

My teacher, god bless her poor fingers, had to retype that entire bleepin' manuscript.

She also made sure her students knew of this torment so we would never have to endure a similar circle of hell. 

And that, dear critique-group friends, is why I continue to gently suggest you change your Marcus, Iris, Nikos, James, Chris, Alexis, and Frances character names to something that does not end in S. Do it for your readers. Do it for your own sanity. Do it in memory of my poor teacher's fingers. 

The Names Have Changed (Because The Editor Said So)

 A rose by any other name...is still Rose, because that's what her name was throughout the draft that took me eight years to write, damn it. Do you know how often I had to type that name, rework scenes with that name, have people call that name, eh? EH?

clears throat

What names have changed in my books during final edits that will forever be known to me as their original names? I changed a bunch of names in my high fantasy LARCOUT because my editor pointed out that half the names I had used invoked stereotypes and biases that clashed with the culture I had created. Fair. With some I agreed, others...not the editorial sword on which I was going to fall. Here are three changed-name examples from a book I published five years ago that still stick with me: 

1. Draft Name: Bishop; Pub Name: Rashan
2. Draft Name: Maynard; Pub Name: Dhaval
3. Draft Name: Phoebian; Pub Name: Sana

The Best Title That Never Was

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week concerns the reality of having to change names. We're asking the crew if they've ever had to change the name(s) of a character or place in a book after we'd drafted it? Who is the character who will forever go by their "unpublished" name in our minds?

For me, it wasn't a character. As far as I can recall, I've never had to change the name of a character or place in a book. If I did, it never mattered enough to me that it stuck in my head. I *have* had to change titles, however, and the one that has never left my head is for the book that became ROGUE'S PAWN, book one in my Covenant of Thorns trilogy.

This was my first published novel - released in 2012 - and was the story that invaded my dreams and wrenched me from a nonfiction career and into fiction. It was, in fact, fantasy romance, but I didn't know what to call it then. I started writing it in 2005, querying it in 2007 and it took me YEARS to sell. 

All that time, I called it by another title in my head: OBSIDIAN.

The title has a lot of shades of meaning and symbolic layers in the story. That book is forever OBSIDIAN in my head.

Unfortunately, by the time Carina Press bit on the book and published it in August of 2012, Jennifer L. Armentrout's book of the same title had come out in May. My editors at Carina said that wasn't the reason for the title change. Instead I sunk my own ship by first publishing the Facets of Passion books with them. Those were erotic BDSM contemporaries, also with one-word jewel titles: SAPPHIRE, PLATINUM, and RUBY. (Ironically, book 4, FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, was supposed to be called ORO, the Spanish word for gold, but Carina thought readers wouldn't get it. I'm still sorry about that retitling, too.)

It was a newbie author mistake. Had I realized that one-word jewel titles wouldn't work for two different series, in two different genres, from the same author at the same publisher, I would have cheerfully changed the Facets of Passion titles instead. Alas!

I'd love to get this trilogy back from Carina someday - largely because I've never liked these covers, either. Would I change the title back? I don't know... I wouldn't want readers to think I'm trying to trick them into reading something new that's actually old. 

What would you say?

    

Writing Through the Rough Patches

Getting past stuck or numb or despondent or any other major block is as individual as the writer, I suspect. I carry a bag of tools around (virtually, y'know) to help when I sit staring at a blinking cursor for too long. Try a few of them on for fit.

1. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. This is a 25 year old book about breaking through creative

blocks. It's still popular because for a lot of people, it works. I'm working through it myself, right now. If you try this, don't just read it. USE it. Even if it seems hokey.
2. Expeditions. No one creates in a vacuum. And sometimes all that's needed to shake the brain loose is a trip to a museum or art gallery or botanical garden. Maybe a hike in the woods or a trip to the beach. All safely masked and socially distanced, of course.
3. A break. I'm on writing hiatus this week - in part because another class of medication failed to prevent migraines and came with a host of really awful side effects. The weight of not getting the productivity I thought I ought to be achieving each day (while suffering chronic daily migraines) got to be more than sanity could support. Hence a little break. It's all good. I have a new med that seems to be helping and a little lightening of the load for a few days seems to really be shifting things. Don't overlook the power of a break to refresh you and your outlook.
4. Repetitive physical tasks. Bonus if they're outside. Many times, a block is little more than over thinking. Something I would know nothing about. 🙄 So I go out into the garden and pull weeds or plant flowers. Getting into the dirt is mostly a mindless task, but it takes just enough brain power to absorb the critical brain and leaves the subconscious/story brain free to do a little roving.
5. Create something else. Cook. Sew. Draw. Color. Paint. Build models. Whatever. Just make it something you don't make money from. No professional pressure. This is about wasting time on profitless (or so we imagine) play. You recover a little sense of joy in doing the things that aren't quite as fraught as writing.
6. Ask for an immersion weekend. Ask the fam to support and protect your weekend from all interlopers (including them). You need supportive and cooperative family for this one - because someone else has to take ALL responsibility for keeping life and limb together for a weekend while you do nothing but type as fast as you can on a story even if you don't know what happens next. The point here is to have people bring you things - tea, goodies. You're asking to be taken care of for two days while you let slip all responsibility for anything and everything. I won't pretend that guilt doesn't creep in. It does. Then you remind yourself that for two days nothing is your circus and those are not your monkeys. Someone else can handle them. Your circus is the story. Make it ridiculous just to see what happens.

It really helps to have an entire arsenal against stuckness. Not only do different people need different tools, what works for you one time may not the next, so having options tips this whole creating thing in your favor.

You can't write through your Achilles' heel when it's depression.

 I don’t want to write this blog post. I mean, I do, but I honestly really don’t. But I feel that I need to, even if this only reaches one person that needs to hear it. So, if you’re facing writer’s block, that Achilles' heel that you can’t seem to write through, and you’re empty and have lost all joy, this post is for you.

Writing Through Self-Doubt

Lots of books and workshops exist to help writers get "unstuck" (writerly term meaning, essentially, "what iz plots and words I cannot huh?"), and if  you are feeling the stick, I can recommend a few of those. (If you haven't already taken her courses or read her productivity books, I would 100% recommend Becca Syme. She's the best.) But what if your brand of stuckness isn't about time management or self-discipline and maybe goes deeper...to lack of self-confidence or even hopelessness?

That's often where I find myself, but when I try to describe the deep pit of cannotness, the person I'm talking to tends to get that blank look on their face and start backing away. Sometimes they'll recommend therapy or psychotropics. *shrug* I'm used to it, to the point that I don't even try to talk about it anymore. It's my own secret horror show.

But maybe I'm not the only writer out there who gets to this point (a lot)? Dunno. Just in case, here are a two things that work sometimes.

Critique Partners Who Actually Like What I Write

Okay, yes, I can rev myself up and get crit from strangers or professionals, and yes, all of that is helpful for craft and whatnot, but dude, when I'm sitting in my closet with my laptop, in tears because everything I write is a flaming turd, your critique sandwich with cute terms like "huh?" and "too stupid to live" is not going to help. It's going to anti-help. 

So I counter that kind of crit with a couple of crit partners who aren't about ripping stuff to shreds. Instead, they are about helping me grow as a writer. I know crazy, right? So they tell me not only what isn't maybe working but also what absolutely is. They help me build on the good stuff and snip out the bad. They lol in the margins and leave comments for my characters. They tell me when the ending needs more punch but don't tell me how they'd do it. 

It's like they trust me to make those story decisions myself. And, folks, when I'm in the Pit of Despair, that kind of trust is like soul medicine. If these amazing people think -- however misguidedly,  bless them -- that I am capable of moving on and making this story good, maybe there's hope for me yet. Self-confidence ticks up, I got this, poof=unstuck.

Caveat: It's hard finding crit partners who work for your particular brain. I've found the best ones are people who are my friends, who know when I absolutely can't handle a "you're making no sense here" comment and just need a "flagged things to revisit later, but for now: hooray for complete chapter and keep going!" encouragement. I've collected my little group over many years, but the basis in each relationship is respect. You can't have a crit partner you don't respect or who doesn't respect you. Some awe helps as well. Don't partner up with someone you think is not on your level, and def not with someone who thinks they're light years ahead of you. A mentor is not a crit partner. A mentor is a mentor.

Solitude

I hear all about writers who go to coffee shops or libraries or write-ins (none of which is happening a lot in covidlandia lately), and that fuels them. It settles differently over my head. When I'm around a lot of other writers and they are all doing their awesome thing, I feel smaller and smaller and less and less capable. But by myself, locked in a room with my laptop, I can write anything. I can think anything. I am free. (...to write the derpiest stuff in the history of written things but hey, it's made of words! And that matters!) When I'm at my lowest and stuckest, giving myself permission to write just anything --and have it completely suck--is a private thing. And sometimes also is the thing that makes it all start working again.  

If you're thinking, "Solitude, right, it's easier to find Clorox wipes than solitude in quarantine!" I hear you. Like, I really hear you. We're doing a lot of needs-must things right now, and many of them suck. The lack of alonetime is just part of that. We will get through this, but it'll take time, and I've given my writing career permission to stumble around for a bit. It's okay if I miss a trend. It's okay if there are long stretches between my releases. It's okay. Permission to fail, permission to pause, permission to just sit there and play Animal Crossing and let my brain bake itself in the struggling AC of a hotter'n-hell Texas summer. We will get through this. 

And, eventually, the self-confidence--and the writing--will get unstuck and work again. I have to believe this. 

Didn't Write Today? That's Okay

 How do I keep writing when All The Things or Any of The Things strike?

blink, blink

grabs soapbox, slides in it the back of the closet, buries it under the letter jacket

I, uh, absolutely suck at that. I have my butt-in-seat at the appointed hour. I have all the tech working as designed. I have the cursor blinking where I left off yesterday. Yet, four dog-walks, a carafe of coffee, and a heap of crumbs down my chest later I have written a whopping big...nothing. I can't tell you where the day went. I can't tell you what the major distraction was. I can't even tell you what I accomplished instead of writing. Yep, I am a champion. Whooeee. Lookie me. Champion of what? Who knows, but something that's for sure.

flashes toothy grin

Here's what I don't do: I don't beat myself up about it. Yes, I would really, reaaaaallly like to be able to write consistently daily. I've been doing this for 15 years and still can't come close to it. I've got a thousand and one excuses, motivational mantras, and yeah-buts. None of that changes the only way to "fix" a lack of progress is to get back to work. So, I can either make myself feel like shit for not hitting the goal and then get back to work, OR, I can skip the emotional distress part and just get back to work. I opt to skip the baggage and just get back to work.

It's 2020, nobody needs more anxiety. 

My Secret Weapon: a Writing Habit

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Writing through your Achilles heel - How do you keep writing through [whatever it is that prevents/stops your writing]?"

I think I was supposed to fill in my particular [whatever it is that prevents/stops your writing], but I don't think I have a specific Achilles heel that way. Not that I don't encounter obstacles to getting my words in every day! There are multitudes of those things, from Stupidly Trivial to Truly Important. When I was a newbie writer, even the Stupidly Trivial stuff won all the time. These days, only the Truly Important stuff gets in the way of writing, and even then I bounce back quickly, all because of my secret weapon.

My secret weapon is: my writing habit.

I'm a huge fan of building a writing habit. Because I've spent the last twenty years developing a writing habit, it's so refined now, so solidly at the center of my daily life, that writing almost happens of its own accord.

Sometimes, sure, I have to fight the megrims, the tooth-pulling days, the sheer don'-wannas - but the writing habit has me at my desk, writing anyway. Even if I take a deliberate sick or vacation day, I feel weird not writing, because the habit is tugging at me. I feel like something is missing until I get back to it.

Human beings are creatures of habit - both good and bad. Habit takes over when we're not deliberately working against it. We all have bad habits we'd like to kick - and know from experience how freaking hard that is to do! Why not take advantage of this force of nature and our deepest selves, and build a good habit that's hard to break?

Building a solid writing habit is the best thing I ever did, which is why I emphasize it in my Author Coaching Services. 

But you can do it on your own! Find a time when you can write at the same time, every day, even if for only five minutes. Or one. I know it's super hard to carve out that time. When I started doing this, the only time I could find was at 5am - and I am NOT a morning person. But I wanted to build a writing habit more than I hated getting up so early. If you absolutely CANNOT find a consistent time slot, then hinge it off something else that is consistent: like lunch hour at the day job, or when you get home from work, or right after you put the kids to bed. The most important aspect is that consistency, because that's what builds the habit. 

Do this for 30 days - because that's how long it takes to build a habit - and keep doing it. After that, you can move it around without breaking it. It can adapt and change over the years - and it will take on a life of its own. It will feed you instead of you feeding it. 

Seriously, the best thing for my writing I ever did. 

Three Hot Science Fiction Romance Tropes

DepositPhoto

Our topic this week is to name our favorite SF&F tropes.

Well okay, I neither read nor write in terms of tropes. By which I mean I don’t search out books in specific niches like the bully’s best friend’s sister expelled from her academy solving a cozy mystery on Mars, to make up a wild example. I read a book if the plot sounds interesting to me and I write a book if there’s a story I want to tell.

Now most of my science fiction novels do fall into the classic SF trope of military man (or ex-military man) and strong woman heroine plunged into a dire situation, which they have to work together to survive or to solve and along the way respect and romance happens. For my Badari Warriors series, I deliberately picked the trope of genetically engineered beings, because I do love series with that as a central theme and I wanted to write one. So I guess technically you could say that’s a trope I enjoy and I write, but I don’t do searches in Amazon form my next new read based on books in that category. If I see one that sounds interesting, I might one click it. Or I might not.

And with my Badari, I put many other elements into the plot and the world building so there are various aspects to the plot.

They do have fated mates, however, which again isn’t a trope I necessarily search out to read. I just happened to think it made a nice twist in this particular series.

But rather than be totally meh here today, let me share three top tropes in science fiction romance that I am seeing strong reader interest and appetite for.

ALIEN ABDUCTION remains huge. I can’t tell you how many books I see each week that start out with some variation on the phrase “I’ve been kidnapped by aliens.” Usually the woman is destined for a dire fate until she meets a strong male – a gladiator, an alien commander, another prisoner (usually of an alien race), a soldier or mercenary with a conscience (or her fated mate maybe) who bonds with her and fights for her. There’s infinite variety in these stories as SFR authors have vivid imaginations and storytelling skills and the books span a wide range from extremely steamy to more tame. Alana Khan, Athena Storm, Ruby Dixon, Regine Abel, Kate Rudolph, Tiffany Roberts and many other authors have written this type of story.

ALIEN PROTAGONISTS WHO LOOK LIKE ALIENS. There are entire groups on Facebook dedicated to this trope and much discussion of this. A truly alien hero offers all kinds of possibilities for…ahem…interesting bedroom scenes with tails, tentacles and other physical gifts coming into play. I have to say this isn’t a variation I personally read much but I have enjoyed a few. S. J. Sanders, Tiffany Roberts (again), Ann Aguirre (her recent novel  Strange Love was so well done I had to enjoy it!), Honey Phillips, Amanda Milo, Auryn Hadley and others write using this trope.

CYBORGS are still and always hugely popular. The idea of heroes who are part human and part machine, whether it be actual metal parts, or nanocytes or some other method of enhancement, falling in love with a human woman just really works for readers.  Cynthia Sax is my go-to author for this because I do enjoy a good cyborg romance and she writes them so well, but Anna Hackett wrote my all-time favorite entitled Cyborg: Galactic Gladiators Book 10. Laurann Dohner is another author who has a top selling cyborg series. Naomi Lucas, Mina Carter, Grace Goodwin, Cara Bristol and others write excellent cyborg novels.

It should also be noted that, like me, SFR authors may bring many different tropes into play in one book - an alien looking alien who's a cyborg and kidnapped a human woman, for example.

I’m sure in each of these three categories I’m missing a chance to highlight many other authors but I’m just taking the ones on the top of my mind for today. That’s enough SFR tropes for one quick post – next time we tackle this topic on SFF7, I’ll be sure to give you some others for your reading pleasure.

Here was my most recent release in the award winning Badari Warriors series:

IVOKK: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 12) by Veronica Scott

Proud enforcer of the Badari South Seas pack, Ivokk undertakes a secret mission back to their former home, in search of a cure for a mysterious illness affecting his soldiers, now in exile in the north. He’s ready to make any sacrifice to find the answer and help his pack brothers stay strong. He’s even willing to accept responsibility for the human woman assigned to the mission, although she’s a headstrong civilian, difficult and rumored to dislike his kind.

Sandara DiFerria was once a three star chef in the Sectors, but that was before the alien enemy kidnapped the entire adult population of her colony to use for experimentation. Rescued from the labs by the Badari, she does her part to support the rebellion now by running the vast commissary operation in Sanctuary Valley. All she asks is to be left alone until she can get back to the Sectors and pick up her old life again. Her one previous romantic brush with a Badari soldier turned out badly, ending in public humiliation. Add to that post-traumatic stress from her life before moving to the colony and she’s the last person to pick for a top secret mission. Or so she believes.

The Alpha running the pack disagrees and sends her to do the job under Ivokk’s watchful eye. Thrown together by the nature of the task they must undertake, the undeniable attraction they both feel grows. Will the dark secrets of Sandara’s hidden past create an insurmountable barrier between them? Can Ivokk and the tempestuous human chef find the answer to the Badari illness in time? Or will the elements and the enemy bring disaster?

Amazon      Apple Books      Kobo      Nook      Google Play

Troping the Story

Cats on the internet. Is that a trope? Heaven knows I Can Has Cheezeburger has gone to town on storytelling with cat photos and a few captions. Bleps, like the one Cuillean has going on here, are definitely a trope in the cat photo world.

As for me, I have never met a trope I didn't like. Except, y'know, fridging girl friends or other sexist/violent/misogynistic. Also? If your trope kills an innocent critter just to show up how bad your baddie is, I will toss your book against the wall. And then in the donate pile. Unless it's really egregious. Then I might destroy it rather than inflict it upon another reader. But really. After that, I'm good! Just don't rest too comfortably on your trope. Give me a light touch and have a little fun with it and I'm yours. Like Jeffe, I like myself some enemy to lovers. I love long odds and heroines and heroes who don't yet know what they're capable of.

Honestly, for me, tropes are never the problem. It's how they're handled that determines whether I'm going to go for the story ride or spend my reading time rolling my eyes until I can look at my brain. If you want to give me a secret baby story, but don't give me a woman keeping her kid a secret. It'd be a cool twist for the dad with the secret baby. Don't hold me to that, though, cause I'm working on a book right now with a secret kid and she's with her mom -- so I guess, don't trope as I trope.

Tropes and Rhubarb!

 

Rhubarb isn’t for everyone. Neither is every trope out there. I could argue that there are so many ways to cook or bake rhubarb that eventually you’d find a version you love, just like book tropes. There’s rhubarb crumble, strawberry-rhubarb jam, cherry-rhubarb pie, rhubarb sauce both sweet and savory! You could have rhubarb for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then I suppose some would say they’re full, too much of a good thing! 

I don’t have a problem with well-worn tropes because it’s all about the characters. But we’re not talking about the used-up stories or the not-for-me kinds this week, this week we’re talking about our favorite SFF tropes! 

One of the reasons I love reading science fiction and fantasy is that the best ones do something magical…they combine tropes.

Not sure what I’m talking about? Well, when you read a mystery you get to solve something. When you read a thriller you get ever heightening tension that grows between the hero and villain, the impending doom, until you reach the big climatic clash. An adventure will, well, take you on an adventure like a historical will take you back in time. 

Now sci-fi fantasy have their own tropes. One of my faves is The Quest. I believe in life we all strive towards a purpose and those of us who don’t feel lost. Throughout our lives we all go through quests, big and small, which is why this is such a well used theme in entertainment because on some level we can all relate.

Another classic SFF trope is the hero’s journey. Yes, I hear you—not another chosen one, because really, the hero’s journey is basically the chosen one making a choice to leave the known behind, venturing into the unknown to experience trials and challenges before returning a changed champion. But I can’t be 100% anti chosen-one because there are so many ways to do this trope differently than what we had been given over the past fifty-odd years.

This is where the magic comes in. 

You can have a chosen one AND a mystery! A young woman thrust into a hero’s journey as the result of a murder and unbalanced magic system! Ahhh!! So fun! Or, a sci-fi thriller where a killer’s on the loose and they end up on an alien spaceship face to face with the one who can stop their reign of terror! *shudder*

It would be fun to go on and on about the mash-ups that are sci-fi and fantasy, but since there’s hardly any Thursday left I’d better sign off. Till next week, I hope you have a great weekend with an even better read!

Tropes! Tropes! Tropes!

Favorite SFF Trope, eh?  I'm a fan of most of them as long as they're not thinly veiled masturbatory fantasies centering around violent oppression (yes, that includes rape) to satisfy the lizard brain of the hero (or author, really). 

I'm hungry for new spins on standard tropes. I will go giddy over trope mash-ups with modern social awareness and contemporary struggles. Give me a Chosen One, but not a pasty white boy who is never held accountable for his failures or his neglected responsibilities. Make her a middle-aged washerwoman with three adopted kids and the ghost of a nagging mother-in-law. Put her on a space ship or an airship. I'm game for whichever lane of SpecFic. Give me the Gang of Outcasts' Quest, but not motivated by the pain inflicted upon a woman. The gang is a bunch of snarky aliens or a passel of retro shapeshifters? Love it. Give me the Steampunk partial cyborg family mixed with the case of mistaken identity out to battle an Eldritch terror on the high seas of a Secondary World. Give me all the portal fantasies...that aren't set in medieval Europe. I want to Time Travel to locations and play in Alternate Histories that real-world society wishes we forgot. 

In truth, I will ride any trope train as long as I give a damn about the characters. 

Bonus: If there's no head-hopping*, I'm buying the series.

*Head-hopping is poorly-executed multiple POVs that bleed together. Well-defined multiple POVs are good...within reason.

SFF Tropes: Name Your Fave!

If you love some Romance with or alongside your SFF, my publisher is doing this fab giveaway of new releases to celebrate Romance Awareness Month! Note that my book, THE FIERY CROWN, is included :D 

Our topic at the SFF Seven this month is our favorite SFF Tropes.

For those who might not know, a trope is simply a story element. I've noticed that some in SFF circles tend to be resistant to discussing tropes - as if they're a negative or unoriginal aspect of storytelling - where Romance readers are very open about embracing and searching out their favorite tropes. In truth, tropes are inevitable and wonderful parts of recognizing what kinds of stories we love. If you want a broad overview of tropes - and you're not afraid of a rabbit hole, because this site WILL take you down one - check out TVtropes. Despite the somewhat misleading title, this site is super useful for researching story tropes from all creative media. 

If you want to peruse just SFF tropes - maybe look for your personal fave! - I did the search for you.

A lot of the time, what people identify as tropes are those story elements that have become cliche. The Chosen One is a somewhat cliche trope in Fantasy that can make us roll our eyes if it's not handled well. Usually handled badly with this trope means that the Chosen One is a white boy prodigy (Orson Scott Card anyone?) with no indication whatsoever what makes them so freaking special except that they are Special. And no, making your Chosen One a brown girl instead doesn't automagically solve the problem.

But, what are MY FAVORITE SFF TROPES?

You all know me: enemies to allies/lovers and marriage of state/convenience are right up there for me. They also happen to be grand crossovers to Romance, so they work well for me. 

I also love me an underestimated heroine with hidden talents, magical or otherwise. I love an embattled ruler, almost always a queen for me. The Hero's Journey is a favorite, though I almost always give it to a female character. That goes well with the magic worker struggling to control growing powers. The alpha male with a cinnamon roll heart always works for me. 

Amusingly enough, all of those tropes are in THE FIERY CROWN. Go figure.

What about you - fave SFF tropes???

 

Audiobook Recommendation

The only thing I have to offer you in the way of audiobook wisdom is dinosaurs. A Grown Up Guide to Dinosaurs Mostly, I find I can't handle someone talking at me while I'm doing other things I need to pay attention to like driving. Unless you're talking to me about the state of science. A friend recommended the book and insisted I'd love it. She was right. My only complaint was that it wasn't long enough. But then, I was listening to this audiobook while I was painting a room (no, once the cutting in is done, painting is pretty brainless. No cats were painted in the painting of my deep blue wall) and I ended up needing a few more hours than I had. Oh well.

Because of the expense of producing audiobooks, not a single one of my stories is yet in audio. I say yet because there may be efforts afoot to change that. Just. Don't hold your breath. I'm not. There are still logistics to be worked out and options to be explored.

Rise of the Audiobook

This week I’m listening to The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, a beautifully written historical fiction that takes place in 1950’s India. I love learning new things in such a vibrant way…and I’m listening to it! 

Good timing too because our topic this week is audiobook popularity. Do you listen to audiobooks? If you’re an author, do you make them? Any thoughts on if they’ll overtake ebooks? 

Honestly, I was slow to join the audiobook bandwagon. I’m not talking books on tape, but the electronic versions you can download in an app—so EASY! Yet, when they became a thing and my fellow book bloggers were devouring them, I stuck to my paperbacks and hardcovers. 

Crazy enough, at the time I was still working in the corporate world and driving at least two hours a day, sometimes more depending on which laboratories I needed to visit. 

Fast forward to today and…man oh man, why didn’t I give audiobooks a try back then! If I could hop a time machine that might be my destination, go back and tell my commuting past-self to download gobs of ‘em I could’ve soared my 90 book-a-year average into the triple digits! 

Even though I no longer commute, I’m so blessed to be able to work from home, there are plenty of days my eyes can’t take any more screen time. That means ixnay the ebooks and even reading on a page is difficult—thank you very much chronic disease—but, I’m thankful for audiobooks! 

Popularity then: I’d say they’re gaining. I talk books with most people I come across and within the last couple of years I’ve noticed that more are listening instead of reading. Interesting…possible factors could be: chronic disease is on the rise, resulting in conditions that increase the necessity of an audible option, and in our current semi-isolated climate hearing a voice is a comfort, even if it’s recorded.

Another interesting thing, I recently learned that for traditionally published books it’s not always the publishing house that puts out the recorded version. 

Come on, gasp with me! I can’t be the only reader out there who didn’t have a clue about how audiobooks came to be. 

Yes, I was aware of companies you could hire to produce your self-published or indie-published book if you wanted to. But maybe because I haven’t been listening to audiobooks that long or maybe because I don’t really pay attention to the intro and miss who actually made it I’d always assumed they came from the publisher!

There you have it, my take on audiobooks and how I think they’ll continue to grow. Yes, I enjoy them, though never as much as a paper version. And yes, I believe I’ll make one someday. 

*By the way, have you listened to Martha Well’s Murderbot series in audio?! The narrator, Kevin R. Free’s interpretation perfectly encompasses Murderbot’s flatline emotions and ponderings. So, so good. If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and dig sci-fi, hands-down start with this one!

Audiobooks on a budget

This week we're talking about audiobooks here on the SFF Seven. I'll say right off that I'm a huge fan, especially nonfiction. I subscribe to Audible and have a Chirp account too, so I'm pretty stocked on stuff to fill my ears with. Back in the days before covid, audiobooks made waiting in the car for kids a less stultifying lifestyle choice. Bonus that I was not tempted to sing along to must, therefore avoiding the "Mom, please stop singing" refrain, which as you can imagine was always so uplifting and encouraging. 

In the new normal of quarantine life, I haven't been in the car much, so my listening time is way down. (I know, I should use the treadmill more, which is a great time to listen to audiobooks, too.) Regardless, I'd still consider myself a fan. I'd recommend any and all of the last three three books I listened to on audio: The Last Emperox by John Scalzi (on Audible), What If? by Randall Munro (on Chirp), and Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik (also on Audible; I read the ebook, too, but the audio was super fun). 

One drawback of audiobooks in general is that they do tend to be pricey, but there's always the library. Also, you can have BookBub send you daily emails of deals for Chirp books, much like they do for ebook sales. For more info, check out the write-up on BookBub regarding the service. LibriVox also offers audio recordings of books in the public domain, for free, and this is literally the only way I can handle Herman Melville.

But all the above is from the point of view of someone who listens because it's fun and eats up a long car incarceration. So I brought up the topic--asking both why audio is a thing to do and tips for doing it on the cheap--with my friend and fellow science fiction romance writer, Cailin Briste. Here's her response:

I have a unique take on audiobooks. I’ve had eye problems for over a decade that made reading difficult. I have the Kindle Oasis specifically because it can do text to voice. At the rate I read books, having my Kindle read to me was the best financial option for me. I’ve even grown attached to the computer simulated voice that reads the books. Since I’ve had surgery on one eye, I find myself reading more rather than listening. Actual audiobooks have always been for long drives with my husband. A shared experience. He even listens to romance novels.

So, in addition to scoping out deals on places like Chirp and LibriVox, seeing whether your ereader or computer has a text-to-speech capability may also help you access audio without having to pay out the wazoo.

Oh. I guess I should mention that the first two of my Tether cyberpunk romances are available in audio through Audible. The third is not because I self-published it, and if you think buying an audiobook is pricey, whoo-boy, you should see what it costs to produce one. (Hint: a lot.) But I am pondering reading More Than Stardust aloud, like on YouTube or something, chapter by chapter, if anybody would ever be interested in such a thing. 

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p.s., Much more excitingly, Cailin Briste, who was kind enough to talk with me about audiobooks, also has a new erotic science fiction romance out this week, the last in her Sons of Tallav series. If spicy SFR is your jam, check out Trey: Son of Tallav. 

She’s the opposite he can’t resist.

Trey Johannsen’s preference is to stick to managing a private club on Beta Tau. It’s dark. It’s sexy. The cries of pleasure, the thud of a flogger, and the mingled scents of arousal and fear are evidence he’s damn good at it.

So when his boss insists Trey’s perfect for assisting a new hire to develop a cabaret, Trey is nonplussed. How the hell do you make burlesque accurately represent the lifestyle? Then he meets her, and instant attraction has him imagining peeling her clothes off, tying her to a bed, and sinking into her until she can take no more.

He’s determined to make her his own despite differences that could thrust them into bitter conflict.

A lust-inducing man isn’t on Patsy O’Shaughnessy’s shopping list. Her commitment to refuse his overtures, they’ll be coworkers after all, slides into oblivion. She’s got a lot on her plate, but dessert never hurt a girl. Especially when the dessert is built like a Celtic warrior of old, lacking only the kilt and sword.

This is the 4th and final book in the Sons of Tallav series.

Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Apple Books | Kobo | Nook

Audiobooks: Have We Heard This Before?

Audiobooks, I've had a few would-be readers ask if I'd ever release my Immortal Spy series as audiobooks. If the Universe could guarantee that I'd make back my investment in having them done (and done to my satisfaction) sure. I'm a big, big fan of delivering products in formats consumers want. However, the costs of having seven ~90k books recorded are quite prohibitive, especially now that the consumer bar of expectation is rising due to a glut of products. I'm watching consumers clamor for recordings done with a full cast and sound effects; it's audio entertainment circling back to the Golden Age of Radio when radio shows like The Shadow, Flash Gordon, and George & Gracie held listeners transfixed. Indeed, readers who are visually impaired also want to enjoy the escapist journey, and audiobooks give them that opportunity. I want to give them that opportunity, but as a Self-Pub author, I just can't afford it.

As a reader, I don't listen to audiobooks, not because I'm a snob, but because my attention can't stay fixed on someone talking without visual cues. It's my quirk, by no means a ding on those who enjoy audiobooks. 

Do I think audiobooks will overtake eBooks and print? No. Not at all. I think the heyday has passed. Now, we're moving into the high glamour, which will eventually price itself out of viability before scaling way back and settling into the niche market that's been around for a hundred years...since the dawn of commercial radio.

Audiobooks - the Future or...?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is all about audiobooks! Do you listen to them, do you make them, do you think they’ll overtake ebooks?

I like audiobooks okay, but personally I don't LOVE them. I listen to them occasionally - like if I have a solo long-distance drive, or if I get an audiobook for free or cheaper in that format. Then I'll listen while doing housework or some such. Mostly, however, I find that I'd much rather have the quiet of my thoughts and/or listen to music. I mull my own stories when I'm not actually writing, so that's valuable thinking time for me. I'm so much in the habit of this that I find when I'm listening to an audiobook, my mind wanders. Soon I find that I've been daydreaming my own book and have totally lost track of the one I'm listening to. 

Oops.

This doesn't happen so much with reading. Sometimes I get story ideas when I read, but it's easy to make a note and move on. I immerse much more with reading, either on paper or ebook. Audiobooks will never take over ebooks in my world.

That said, I *do* listen to my own audiobooks. They're an excellent way to catch myself up on previous events in the series, immerse myself in that world again, and gather up the various plot threads. I've been listening to the audiobook of THE FIERY CROWN - second book in The Forgotten Empires - narrated by the immensely talented Gabrielle Baker, as I complete a revision of book three, THE PROMISED QUEEN. I also listened to book one, THE ORCHID THRONE. I can say that getting the story in a different format - read by someone else - helps me "hear" the details better than if I read. Also it lets me multitask.

All of my audiobooks thus far have been produced by my traditional publishers. I haven't had any of my self-published books put into audio simply because the initial investment is so high. I've thought about it. I've also thought about recording them myself. I'm still not convinced it's worth the time and effort.

For those of you who DO love audio, other books of mine available in audio format are (so far as I can recall - let me know if I missed any!):

Covenant of Thorns: ROGUE'S PAWN, ROGUE'S POSSESSION

The Twelve Kingdoms: THE MARK OF THE TALA

Falling Under: GOING UNDER

Facets of Passion: RUBY, FIVE GOLDEN RINGS

 

Not Painting Myself into a Corner Plotwise

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Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "World Rules and Painting Yourself into a Corner: What's a rule of your world established in a previous book that complicated things for you in a later book?"

Re-upping a post I wrote for this blog in early 2018, here’s what I said the last time as an opener:

The best example of this I’ve ever seen is the opening sequence of “Jewel of the Nile”, where romance author Joan Wilder is writing the most fantastic pirate scene and it keeps building and building upon itself, more complications and worse problems for the plucky heroine and then…she’s trapped alone with a ship full of evil pirates and NO escape.

“I don’t know what the pirates do any more,” she says basically, in despair.

I have never, to the best of my recollection, painted myself into a corner in a book.

I sit down, I write the book over the course of a few weeks (now that I’m fulltime), I don’t have Michael Douglas in his prime to distract me, as ‘Joan Wilder’ did…I start out knowing the beginning, the ending, and a few key scenes along the way. I don’t end up in box canyons like the bad guys in old movie Westerns and I don’t have to rely on suspension of disbelief, as people had to do sometimes with the old movie serials, like Flash Gordon, as embodied by Buster Crabbe. One week the serial would end with him facing certain death or Dale Arden facing certain death and there’s no way Flash can reach her in time…and the next week’s episode starts off with her safe in his arms and no explanation given because of course, he’s FLASH. What? Eat your popcorn and don’t ask questions.

Yup, doesn’t happen to me when I write.  Somehow my faithful Muse and I avoid those issues. We might have other issues perhaps but not that one.

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Moving on from my 2018 thoughts to the present day, I did get a little too conservative with my Badari Warriors series when I began writing it. This was my first ever actual series and I wasn’t sure how it would go, or how readers would like it, so in my head, I was doing three books. Okay, fifteen or so books later and with wonderfully enthusiastic fans (yay!), I’m still spinning out the overarching plot. I’ve sat down more than once and done a really rough sketch of what else could happen before we get to that last book. I do have the final book plot in my mind, as much as I ever do any plotting in detail ahead of time.

So where is the problem, you may ask? Well, I made the original packs pretty small. I believe I said about ten men each at one point.

So as it became clear to me I was going to want to write tons of books about my Badari Warriors, I had to find ways to open up the possibilities. I like wide ranging stories. I’d had in my head from the beginning that …..SPOILER…..

…despite everyone being so adamant there were no Badari women, I knew that yes, there were, and I planned to write a book for them at the right time. The book was GABE. I did plant some hints about this in an earlier book, where one of the human characters overhears two of the alien scientists laughingly discussing an old rumor that perhaps a few Badari women might have been created, early in the 800 year old experiment’s history.

So that was one way of expanding my boundaries. Then in KIERCE, I created a Badari from another lab entirely, in the south seas area of the planet, and gave this set of Badari a few new rules, while keeping the basic parameters. Now I’ve written about this southern pack in DAEGAN and the most recently released book, IVOKK.

If I’ve established a rule or a condition as an absolute, I won’t annoy my readers by breaking the rule in a later book. That can really set my teeth on edge as a reader when I’m reading someone else’s series so no way am I going to do that. But I’m pretty creative about working within my existing universes and trying to tell a good story. It’s not my nature to sit down pre-writing and draw up some gigantic, rigid structure of commandments and rules my characters and

I Must Live By.

So no, won’t be painting myself into any corners!

Here’s the newest book I mentioned above:

IVOKK: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 12)

The blurb:  Proud enforcer of the Badari South Seas pack, Ivokk undertakes a secret mission back to their former home, in search of a cure for a mysterious illness affecting his soldiers, now in exile in the north. He’s ready to make any sacrifice to find the answer and help his pack brothers stay strong. He’s even willing to accept responsibility for the human woman assigned to the mission, although she’s a headstrong civilian, difficult and rumored to dislike his kind.

Sandara DiFerria was once a three star chef in the Sectors, but that was before the alien enemy kidnapped the entire adult population of her colony to use for experimentation. Rescued from the labs by the Badari, she does her part to support the rebellion now by running the vast commissary operation in Sanctuary Valley. All she asks is to be left alone until she can get back to the Sectors and pick up her old life again. Her one previous romantic brush with a Badari soldier turned out badly, ending in public humiliation. Add to that post-traumatic stress from her life before moving to the colony and she’s the last person to pick for a top secret mission. Or so she believes.

The Alpha running the pack disagrees and sends her to do the job under Ivokk’s watchful eye. Thrown together by the nature of the task they must undertake, the undeniable attraction they both feel grows. Will the dark secrets of Sandara’s hidden past create an insurmountable barrier between them? Can Ivokk and the tempestuous human chef find the answer to the Badari illness in time? Or will the elements and the enemy bring disaster?

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Those Who Have, Those Who Will

This made me laugh and I needed that. I figured I'd share the wealth.

On to the stuff I'm supposed to be blogging about. You know, there's a saying in boating. There are boaters who have run aground and those who will. I feel like that's the same way with writers writing themselves into trouble. Have I run aground in a boat? Oh yes. More than once. Have I written myself into a corner? Shockingly, not yet. I have no doubt that at some point it's likely that I will - it just hasn't happened yet. I put it down to one of the oddities of my brain. Sure. Migraines all the damn time. But in exchange, continuity issues seem to be a little bit of a weird and mostly useless (unless I'm writing) super power. No one else appreciates being reminded of what they said four years ago. I assure you.

I do have a situation right now in a WIP where I wish I could adjust a timeline. But I can't. So I have to cope. An acting teacher, talking about how to put up a Shakespearean play, commented that it's easier to create within the confines of a set of rules than it is to create in a void. Some days, I agree. Some days, I rebel. But one thing remains. If I write a series, there's a spreadsheet with all of the details I assume I'll need going forward. I'm frequently wrong and I have to go digging through earlier books to find some detail I half remember so I can get it right in the next installment. It goes in the spreadsheet at that point. But that's about the limit of my patience for guaranteeing that I don't write myself into something I can't write myself out of. So far. But. Like I said. There are those who have and those who will. 

Writing rules for your sci-fi/fantasy worlds

Rules…rules…rules were meant to be broken? 

Close, but our topic of the week is: What’s a rule of your world established in a precious book that complicated things for you later on?

And I consider myself lucky in this because so far I’ve only written books numbered one! But I’m aware of the danger of writing yourself into a tight corner because of world building/magic system, yes that came from Jeffe and her oh-so-handy posts over the years..and again this Sunday.

So I’ve used that advice…but mostly for my fantasy books because my sci-fi books I write as stand alones. Anyone out there write in different genres and treat the world building differently? 

For my fantasy books, one is Regency fantasy and the other is high fantasy.

High Fantasy: stories that take place in a completely fictional world with its own rules.

Regency fantasy is basically a historical with some magic thrown in. That meant I had to trade world building with historical research. Rabbit hole alert! Then the magic came into play and it was fantastic! Difficult physical challenges, magic! Weapons that met their mark as long as you’re close, magic! Clandestine meetings cracked by eavesdropping wind, magic! 

But all the while I already knew what would happen in book two and mostly in book three. Since I knew the future (ha! if only) I could work in hints and abilities/restrictions that I needed for book two. 

I used the same guidelines when world building my high fantasy. The magic system for this series took a year to formulate and over that year it morphed, like it was alive. Which it is, in the books. And like the Regency fantasy I already knew what would happen for my heroes and villains in book two so some of the secondary character’s magical abilities are the basis for the various main characters to come. 

After thinking about all of this I’m wondering what would happen if I wrote a book one without knowing anything about book two! I listened to Jeffe’s June 5th First Cup of Coffee where she interviewed author Grace Draven. During their coffee date Grace mentioned she wrote Phoenix Unbound without knowing what book two, Dragon Unleashed, would be. 

That blew my mind. I don’t—I don’t know if my brain could handle writing like that. Thank goodness for the beauty of this craft, that each of our paths are different and how we go about writing is different. And who knows, I could find myself in that predicament someday…and then I might have to borrow Jeffe’s tactic and lie my way out.

Too bad I’m not a proficient lier.

Where'd all that paint come from and why am I in this corner?

As Jeffe mentioned on Sunday, painting oneself into a corner is a plague on pantsers, those of us who write without outlines and sometimes even with no plan at all, just yee-haw it all out there. Writing's an adventure, right? No risk, no reward.

Until you're too far in to go back but look down and realize you can't go forward either. Because you've messed this thing up so bad. 

Painted yourself into a corner. 

I'm not saying that I do this all the time, but I do this all the time. Worse, I don't have any good advice for preventing it. For me, most times, it'll present as a note from a beta reader -- or worse, an editor -- something like, "This doesn't make sense. Did you even read the first book in this series?"

Of course I didn't read it. I wrote it.

But upon being informed of whatever plot sin I'd engaged in, my job as a storyteller is to go back and make it work. If making changes in an unpublished book can tidy everything up, that's best, but if the violation is in a book that's already out on the market, I have to change what I can. 

Sometimes, sad to say, this means I've had to give up some plot twists and reveals that I really, really loved. But I did it, and it's done, and no regrets, right?

Maybe the best advice is this: complete an entire series before you publish the first one. 

No really. And stop laughing.

New #PNR #Vampire Release: BLOOD KNIFE by Marcella Burnard

See, dear readers, Marcella tried to be sneaky on Friday and slip the announcement of her latest short story at the end of her post. I, as the gleeful herald of our merry SFF 7 troupe, do not do sneaky. I shout book news from the headlines and the socials, so.... ~clears throat~

FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY:

THE BLOOD KNIFE 

by Marcella Burnard

Someone is sacrificing innocent people in the Seattle Underground. The murderer is trying, and succeeding, to raise a rogue vampire assassin. Rose Buchanan has the magic and the will to stand toe to toe with Vampire Magic. Including that possessed by the gorgeous blue-eyed vampire assassin who kidnaps her in a bid to pull a suspect list from her mind. When he can't overcome her will, he releases her and sets out to woo it from her instead.

When she's freed, Rose is more than ready to stake herself a vampire, but he's a witness to the three murders. She can't destroy him. Yet. Worse still to have to try to work with him when he keeps dialing the charm to 13.

Gethin is a vampire assassin forged long ago to police the Vampire Nation under the control of the Vampire Council. Now, the council believes the time of the assassins has passed. One by one, Gethin's fellow assassins and their Blood Knives have been destroyed. Only he remains, his Blood Knife in the hands of a murderous, unhinged human.

Rose has a choice to make. Destroy Gethin or find a way to free him and make the entire Vampire Nation her enemy.

BUY IT NOW as part of the BONUS content in the Beyond Twilight StoryBundle™

*A portion of the proceeds go to the Southern Ohio Wolf Sanctuary*