Cautionary Tales and Cloud Whales

My Great Cautionary Tale: Summed up it goes like this - don't take your success (if you should be so fortunate) for granted.

We all know someone who wants to be a star, right? Maybe we all want that - if only for a little while. In the writing world, these are the people who's very first novel goes to auction. Sizeable checks follow. Accolades. Maybe awards. Praise. It's amazing stuff. And addictive as hell. After a time of hearing that you're brilliant (not the writing - you) it's easy to start absorbing that. Internalizing it. Investing your self worth in it. But success and such praise is as ephemeral as that cloud that looks like a whale in the photo above. (Yeah, yeah. Water vapor and sunlight. Humor me.)

What happens when the editor who went to bat for your amazing advance leaves? Or maybe, the books don't earn out that sizeable check? Or you break your wrist? Or . . .

Everything ends. Good and bad. If you define yourself by the stories that are told when you're riding high, how are you going to handle the inevitable disappointments that are a part of the business? How will you pick yourself up and start over when a critic pans one of your stories? Yes. I can name any number of people who've had their faces rubbed in this lesson - a couple crit partners deal with it. They had early success and their books did very well. They believed they'd done it. They had it made. And then imprints folded. A house went under. And a decade later, neither has published anything further. The joy of the writing process had been pressed right out of them. They still write, but there are a lot of excuses for NOT writing. So time slips away from them like it does from all of us.

Hell, I fall into that trap sometimes myself. On Monday, my father had a heart attack. (He's getting to okay, thanks. Also? Sleeping on hospital floors sucks.) Do you think I've written a word of my NaNo commitment? Well, I did. I'm way behind, but that's not the point. Even sitting listening to my father's telemetry, tracking the steady beep, beep, beep of his heart still beating, I wrote a few words. Writing is my refuge, NOT my definition of myself. It is a hard won lesson that I had to learn myself and from watching others. Enjoy what success comes, revel in it even, but make certain you appreciate it while you have it. Things change. And if you are unlucky enough to get knocked down for any reason, you won't have your vision of yourself shattered when you fall.

Perils of the Writer: Serving As A Warning

Happy November!  Some of you out there are doing NaNoWriMo things, and while I don't advocate it as a great way to write a novel, I do think it's an excellent way to learn about how you write a novel.  You learn your methods, and you make your mistakes.  

Here's the simple truth when it comes to a writing career: you're going to mess up.  You're going to point to the fences, swing with everything you've got, and knock yourself in the face.  And that's excellent.

 Make your mistakes.  Love them and learn from them.  And watch other people, because they will make mistakes you can learn from as well.

And that's a great thing.  It really is.  Mistakes are how we get better.  Mistakes come from taking chances.  

This includes the, "This might get me in trouble" or "This might upset some people" kind of mistakes.  Those are sometimes the best ones to make-- as long as when you look back you ask yourself, honestly, "Now, how can I do it better?"  Every book I've written is full of things I can do better, things my readers ping me with, and things I learn from.

This business WILL knock you down.  Get up, dust yourself off, and get back in it.  Hopefully smarter.

See you down in the word mines.

Linda's World Fantasy Convention Post-Con Report

First- Congrats to Marshall and Jeffe who have releases this week!!! (See KAK's post from yesterday.)

I have no idea what to write this week. My favorite cautionary tale for authors? Blank.

But I had a great time at World Fantasy Convention this past weekend. It was not heavily attended, and there seemed to be reports of panel kerfluffles pre-con, but the panel I was on was a-FRICKIN-mazing. Fantasy and Music was the title and each panelist brought something interesting and fun to the discussion, of course with Misty Lackey on the panel, it has to be good, yes? (She sat beside me! Fangirl moment!)

Outside the one panel I was on, and aside from Bartender Tony who tolerated my bad jokes like a trooper, the convention proper was a HUGE success for me. Maybe it had some to do with the fact that I am disproportionately familiar with that venue (Columbus Convention Center) as I've been to a dozen+ conventions there, but whereas I normally need some down-time from all the people, I was 100% on this year.

I didn't want to be in the room. I didn't want to crack open the computer and do a bit of work. Good god, no.

There were people over there--people I hadn't met yet who were there for WFC like me and I can't just meet and chat with like-minded folks anytime. I can write anytime at home. So I met people. People who introduced me to other people there, like writers, editors, convention chairs, etc. I put my handshake on 'em, traded business cards and did the whole networking thing.

I had such a good time.

So if I'm going to find a cautionary tale in that, it's this: get off your ass and meet your peers, your betters, and the newbies hoping to be as good as you someday. Find the editors, the agents, the publishers, the voice talent, cover artists, freelancers and the convention organizers. Meet these people and make a good impression. Find opportunities. That is what the convention is for.

Double Release Day: An Import of Intrigue & The Tides of Bara

There's a lot of celebrating happening here at SFF Seven this week. TWO of our crew have released new books! ~breaks out the champagne~ First up, our Thursday helmsman Marshall sends us back to the Maradaine Constabulary in...

AN IMPORT OF INTRIGUE

This second novel in the Maradaine Constabulary series blends high fantasy, murder mystery, and gritty urban magic...

The neighborhood of the Little East is a collision of cultures, languages, and traditions, hidden away in the city of Maradaine. A set of streets to be avoided or ignored. When a foreign dignitary is murdered, solving the crime falls to the most unpopular inspectors in the Maradaine Constabulary: exposed fraud Satrine Rainey, and Uncircled mage Minox Welling.

With a murder scene deliberately constructed to point blame toward the rival groups resident in this exotic section of Maradaine, Rainey is forced to confront her former life, while Welling’s ignorance of his own power threatens to consume him. And the conflicts erupting in the Little East will spark a citywide war unless the Constabulary solves the case quickly.

BUY IT NOW:  Amazon  |   B&N   |   BAM!   |   IndieBound

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Then our Sunday captain Jeffe drops the third book in her Fantasy Romance Sorcerous Moons series:

THE TIDES OF BARA

A Narrow Escape
With her secrets uncovered and her power-mad brother bent on her execution, Princess Oria has no sanctuary left. Her bid to make herself and her new barbarian husband rulers of walled Bára has failed. She and Lonen have no choice but to flee through the leagues of brutal desert between her home and his—certain death for a sorceress, and only a bit slower than the blade.

A Race Against Time
At the mercy of a husband barely more than a stranger, Oria must war with her fears and her desires. Wild desert magic buffets her; her husband’s touch allures and burns. Lonen is pushed to the brink, sure he’s doomed his proud bride and all too aware of the restless, ruthless pursuit that follows…

A Danger Beyond Death…
Can Oria trust a savage warrior, now that her strength has vanished? Can Lonen choose her against the future of his people? Alone together in the wastes, Lonen and Oria must forge a bond based on more than lust and power, or neither will survive the test…

BUY IT NOW:     Amazon   |   Google Play   |   Kobo   |   Smashwords   |   iBooks

Happy Halloween!

Here's a fairly simple fact about the wonderful world of writing. It's a juggling act. You work on Project Four. That's in the first draft stage. You edit Project Two: That's in the First Round Edit stage.  Not quite ready to send out, but you do what needs to be done so it can be submitted. You have to take care of Project Three: The editor and House X wants a new proposal and the first five chapters to peruse.Then there's the SUDDEN DEATH ROUND: Your publisher would like the line edits corrected on the final draft (you were late on that, no more excuses and it's time to earn some brownie points) of the manuscript that's coming out as a book much sooner than you thought it was. They'd like the entire 140,000 word MS with massive red lines and a few hundred editorial notes back in ten days. There can be no mistaking the note of Don't-Screw-This-Up-Again in your editor's email.

It can be overwhelming.

Add in a little daily family drama. Mom and her sister Lorraine are at it AGAIN. It's almost inevitable. they holidays are coming up and the debate about where the multiple family feast will take place who will cook what and whether or not to invite Uncle Wilber (He-Who-Drinks-Too-Much) is still a bone of contention. You aren't SUPPOSED to be the mediator, but they always come to you.

Bob still isn't speaking to Cousin Emily. No one really knows why, but that's going to come up soon.

That job you got to pay for this year's holidays? Yeah, that's rapidly becoming real work. Supposed to be ten or fifteen hours behind the counter and now they're asking if you could just cover for everyone who decided they couldn't actually spend the time. That's only an additional 30 hours a week (no overtime, please!) and you don't mind, do you?

Here's that thing you need to do: focus.

Set aside the time you need for your writing CAREER. A lot of times people don't want to remember that the thing you do where you're sitting at the computer every day in your fuzzy slippers with your oversized cup of coffee or tea, where you forgot to brush your hair and MAYBE even to change out of your pajamas is actually a career.

The books and short stories, those write and edit themselves, right? You were just playing around on Facebook again. It can wait until AFTER the crisis of the week, can't it?

Perception be damned it's still YOUR career and life.

Side note: Yes, I know kids make everything different, They are children and need attention and love and care. They also need down time. Or a good school to attend. And if you're the breadwinner in the family, they also need the roof over your head that your writing helps provide. Naps. Naps are good. And babysitters cane be very useful.

My point is, focus. No excuses (Understand that I consider an excuse MOST of the scenarios above. A day job is not an excuse. but if your writing is your career and the other is a job, focus first and foremost on your career. Children ARE an excuse, but if you have kids and barring unforseens and emergencies, they are a factor you can control. Focus. Find the schedule that works to make your day work for YOU, not the world around you. Set your priorities. yes, family IS important. but no rule says you always have to be the one stuck in the middle of the local family squabble.

Focus. It's hard to do sometimes, but it lets you keep all those plates spinning in the air with a minimum of broken ceramic.

The Ones Who Gave Up: Great Cautionary Tales

At last, the much-anticipated next installment in the Sorcerous Moons series, THE TIDES OF BÁRA is out! About and Buy Links at the bottom of the page.

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "My favorite great cautionary tale in the writing world."

This might even have been my suggestion, because I think it's really important to pay attention to the cautionary tales. Sure, there's an aspect of rubbernecking to these, or schadenfreude (or Franzenfreude, for a specifically literary metaphor). The key, however, is not to exult in the failures of others - because there but for the grace of the blessings of the universe go we - but to learn from them.

That's why they're Great Cautionary Tales. Don't cry wolf, don't be unnecessarily unkind, don't lose your soul to material possessions. Our core stories tend to be cautionary tales. It's up to us to take those cautions to heart and live by them.

There are many Great Cautionary Tales in the literary world, even more so with the internet ruthlessly detailing each to the miserable deaths of the final squirming pieces. I write a lot of them down and have been since I was a very newbie writer. In fact, lately I've been doing this enormous cleaning of my writing office, including files, and I found a set of notes I made back in 2000, when a writing teacher of mine won a prestigious statewide fellowship. We'd all applied, with shining puppy eyes, as we did every year. She won (deservedly), but showed up only for the awards ceremony rather than the associated conference, wearing scruffy jeans and called the honor "neat." My note says "Always remember to honor the honors you're given. Even if they seem small to you, they might be lofty goals for someone else."

When I finally received that same fellowship in 2006, I made sure to honor it.

But let's take a look at that. Six years between the disappointment of not winning -  yet again - and when I finally did. Ten years since I first applied for it.

I could cite a lot of Great Cautionary Tales, but with NaNoWriMo (National Novel-Writing Month) on the horizon, I'm going to pick this one: Don't Give Up.

Or, put positively, Keep Going!

I'm thinking back to those days of my crit group, the starry eyed aspiring writers who all applied for that fellowship. There were twelve of us, more than half who went on to publish in some fashion (from literary magazines to novels), a third of whom won that selfsame fellowship and a quarter of whom are now dead. None of them were old women, either.

But one of them, who I'll call Diana, lingers on in my mind. She was older than me then, but I'm thinking she must have been about the age I am now. A professor's wife who'd spent most of her life raising a family, she wrote these incredible stories about the passive/aggressive rage in women who gave up their ambitions. Her stories were deftly told, lyrical, and explosive. When I read Meg Wolitzer's The Wife, I thought immediately of Diana. Of all of us, I thought she was the most talented writer.

I still do.

And she never published anything, that I know of. No, she's not one who died, that I know of.

She moved away when her husband retired and we fell out of touch. She has a common enough name that Googling her would be very nearly futile. Oddly resonant, that.

The reason she never published was not because of the gatekeepers, because she was rejected too many times, because she didn't want to learn to self-publish (which back then was highly suspect anyway). She didn't publish because she never submitted anything to anyone. We were the only people who read her work. When we encouraged her to send in a story, she'd demur and say it wasn't ready. Once she confided in me that she couldn't bear for it to be scrutinized and rejected, that it was enough for her to write it.

I tried to respect that, but I think of her from time to time with a sense of great regret. When last I heard from her, she said that, with her husband retired, she'd given up spending time and energy on writing.

She gave up.

I know a lot of writers who have. It's a difficult business, fraught with challenges and opportunities to throw in the towel. It's frighteningly easy to let a small break become a hiatus that becomes a sabbatical that - years later - turns out to be quitting. It doesn't get easier, either. Many writers give up after having multiple books published by Big 5 publishers.

I'm asking you not to be one of them. Because the writers I know who are successful are the ones who kept going no matter what. Not the most talented. Not even the most prolific. Just who kept going.

This is the great lesson of NaNoWriMo, as far as I'm concerned. Writing 50K in the 30 days of November teaches you to build a writing habit, yes - but it also teaches you to keep going. To "win" - to reach the goal - requires that you don't let anything get in the way of completing those words.

It's the most necessary skill for being a writer.

So I'm urging you all: KEEP GOING. If you want to write, WRITE. Let nothing get in the way. Never surrender.

KEEP GOING.

******************

A Narrow Escape 

With her secrets uncovered and her power-mad brother bent on her execution, Princess Oria has no sanctuary left. Her bid to make herself and her new barbarian husband rulers of walled Bára has failed. She and Lonen have no choice but to flee through the leagues of brutal desert between her home and his—certain death for a sorceress, and only a bit slower than the blade.

A Race Against Time 

At the mercy of a husband barely more than a stranger, Oria must war with her fears and her desires. Wild desert magic buffets her; her husband’s touch allures and burns. Lonen is pushed to the brink, sure he’s doomed his proud bride and all too aware of the restless, ruthless pursuit that follows…

A Danger Beyond Death… 

Can Oria trust a savage warrior, now that her strength has vanished? Can Lonen choose her against the future of his people? Alone together in the wastes, Lonen and Oria must forge a bond based on more than lust and power, or neither will survive the test…

Buy the Book

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What Happens Before the Writing Starts?

Short answer: nothing visible to the human eye.

Right now I'm working on the sequel to 'Star Cruise: Stowaway', which is my novella in the Pets In Space anthology. (Oh yes, you'll see those buy links for PETS at the bottom but hey, we are supporting a charity which provides service dogs for veterans.)

When I was writing Stowaway, I had an idea for a sequel, so I built in a hook - the heroine has a sister who's in big trouble. If you've read the novella, you know what I'm alluding to! No spoilers here. After I finished my next novel, the long awaited sequel to Wreck of the Nebula Dream (hopefully out in November), and sent it to my editor, I took a few days off to clear my head for commencing a new project. I wrote a lot of blog posts, read a few books by other people and played around on social media.

Slowly but surely I start to feel myself becoming grumpy that I'm not writing my own next story.By whatever process my subconscious (AKA my Muse) delivers my books to me, I know the heroine, the hero, the overall situation, the opening, the ending and a few key scenes.

I sit myself down at my great-grandmother's desk, pet the cat while my laptop boots up, open WORD to a fresh new document and start typing.

TA DA! The process revealed. I don't plot, I don't outline, I don't do anything else before I start writing. In the old days when I had a long commute to the day job, I used to think about my plots while driving and listening to music, mostly to pass the time. And while keeping an eye out for the other drivers on the crazy SoCal freeways.

Now as the writing progresses, there may be times I sit and noodle on a lavender legal pad, and think about some plot options, choices the characters might make and how they'd play out in terms of the story. I've adapted a root cause analysis technique I learned at NASA/JPL, kind of reverse engineered it and it works every time to show me where I really want to go when I've hit a thorny spot in my story.

When I'm writing a novel set in ancient Egypt (my other genre), I stop and do research on various things.

But before the writing starts? Nada.

Total pantster here, but it works for me. and since I'm independently published, I don't have to write an outline or a synopsis ahead of time to 'sell'. I don't have to live up to an agreement to write three books set in the quaint village on the nice planet where X, Y and Z will happen. I suspect I'd be TERRIBLE at any or all of that! I like being a free spirit and am grateful the current publishing environment lets me get away with it. As long as my readers are happy, which they seem to be, I'm good.

So about Pets In Space.... (we do have over 50 four and five star reviews):

Even an alien needs a pet…

Join the adventure as nine pet loving sci-fi romance authors take you out of this world and pull you into their action-packed stories filled with suspense, laughter, and romance. The alien pets have an agenda that will capture the hearts of those they touch. Follow along as they work side by side to help stop a genetically-engineered creature from destroying the Earth to finding a lost dragon; life is never the same after their pets decide to get involved. Can the animals win the day or will the stars shine just a little less brightly?
New York Times, USA TODAY, Award Winning, and Best selling authors have eight original, never-released stories and one expanded story giving readers nine amazing adventures that will capture your imagination and help a worthy charity. Come join us as we take you on nine amazing adventures that will change the way you look at your pet!

10% of profits from the first month go to Hero-Dogs.org. Hero Dogs raises and trains service dogs and places them free of charge with US Veterans to improve quality of life and restore independence.

About Star Cruise: Stowaway:
Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come – nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly.

Buy Links:

iBooks    Amazon    ARe     Nook      GooglePlay     Kobo

The Four Steps to Starting

There are four stages of starting anything. I'd tack "for me" onto the end of that, but since I'm writing this, I'm gonna go ahead and assume you've worked that part out already.

Step 1. Boredom

This is how the whole story telling thing began for me - long stretches of silence with nothing to do while tucked into the backseat of a car while the family drove from one military posting to another. Long stretches of highway, watching the scenery go by, imaging what went on in the forests or in the towns behind the facades of houses and businesses. Eventually, I liked the stories playing in my head enough to write them down. Once that happened, I could be bored anywhere and come up with a story idea. Usually as snippets of dialog. Angsty, drama-ridden dialog, but you have to start somewhere, right?

Step 2. Names and Situation

This is my proof of concept step. From angst and drama, I have to come up with a compelling situation - the background, the world, the people, and a general sense of how the story might begin and how it might end. Ish. I need only a general notion. This, for me, is no time for detail. Lots of note taking and journaling happens at this step. I play a lot of 'what if' games. But one thing is certain, without character names, I'm dead in the water. The protagonists must step forward and identify themselves. This is where I need characters to develop the beginnings of voice - this is the illusion that these people actually live and breathe and have wills of their own outside of my imagination. This is the point that the monster has to rise from my laboratory table and either go forth to wreak havoc or collapse in a mass of stitched together body parts that are all going to have to be burned before they start stinking up the place.

Step 3. Character, Character, Character

Once I have a general notion of a story and some character names, it's time to dive deep, and for me, everything comes from character. Everything. The plot, the conflict, black moment, and the climax. I spend about a week working my way through Mary Buckham's Break Into Fiction templates for all of my major characters. Protagonist(s) and antagonist at the very least. If it's a romance, I'll work through hero and heroine. This step also serves as my initial immersion point for the story - meaning that at this stage, I'm spending several hours a day buried in questions about who my characters are, why they are who they are and what they believe they know about themselves but have totally wrong. This is where conflict is born for my stories. It's also where scene lists begin building. If you're writing genre fiction, you have to build scenes that challenge your protagonists' assumptions about themselves and motivate them into change (there's your character arc). If you're writing literary fiction, your scenes will rub a character's nose in his or her faulty assumptions, but not force the character to change, though he or she may come to comprehend his or her faults.

Step 4. Word Count

This is the point at which there are no more excuses. Armed with a few markers (I usually know how a story opens and I have a soft grip on how it might end - everything else is a blur) and with a pretty good understanding of my characters and what drives them, I can start making tracks. The form of my story is still vague. I'm usually flying blind once I get past the first few opening scenes, but with my character's templates filled out, I have guideposts to keep me pursuing their goals and challenging their weaknesses even if I don't know exactly what happens in the middle of the book.

That's my summary of 'how to begin'. Do you follow any kind of pattern for starting something? What I'm curious about is how plot-driven writers approach starting a book. (As opposed to a character-driven writer.)