Stay Warm This Winter: Bring Home A Fire Warrior

 Setting the🎶 mooooood 🎶 for delving into one of my books, eh? Since it's winter, and Mother Nature just dumped a bunch of hail, sleet, and snow on my turf, I'm going to recommend the following for my High Fantasy Larcout:

1. Pick a stormy day, one where the pitter-patter of the elements against your roof provides nature's white noise. (Bonus if you have a metal roof. Those acoustics...~chef's kiss~)
2. Light a fire in the fireplace (No, don't light one in that room. Finish the book, then you'll be suitably armed to address whatever growls and writhes within that festering space.)
3. Collect your favorite rocks, crystals, and geodes into a serving bowl. Place it near your snuggle seat.
4. Grab your favorite snowglobe. Yep. Snowglobe. Give it a good shake at the end of each chapter. Once you start reading, you'll understand why. 
5. Pour your libation. Absolutely no water, though. Keep reading. Reasons will be revealed.
6. Settle into your coziest chair/couch/bed. Burrow under your animal print, beaded, bedazzled, or straight-up sparkly blanket(s).
7. ENJOY!

Read the Excerpt

Witch Collector Vibes

This week's blog topic was more of a task, but a fun one! We are to suggest how a reader can set the mood to settle in while reading one of our books.

I'm so into this. I'm all about the Hygge lifestyle, a Danish/Scandinavian concept, though in all honesty, I had no idea it was a thing until The Little Book of Hygge came out. As I read that book, I kept thinking to myself...this is all very normal in my home and life, but I realize that it might not be for everyone. 

So how can you set the mood if you decide to read The Witch Collector?

Step 1

Choose a comfy reading spot. If it's cold where you are, and hopefully it is for the best vibe, find a cozy place in your home, maybe one with a view of the outdoors. Then grab your book and settle in. A warm sweater will help, as well as a soft blanket and fuzzy socks, and maybe even a fire if you have a fireplace, because this book will give you chilly, winter vibes!

 

Step 2

Light a candle! My recommendation is a wood wick candle with either scents of winter, the forest, or a sexy man ;) Sandalwood is my fave. The crackling flame will set the mood during all the scenes that have a little (or a lot) of fire.

Step 3

Be sure you have a warm drink and snacks on hand. My go-to is coffee, loaded with foam. But hot cocoa, warm apple cider, or hot tea will work just fine too! I don't always snack when reading, but when I do, it's usually a Biscoff cookie to dip in my coffee. I also love apples, which pairs well with this book. If you're a wine person, grab a glass of Oaked Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.

Step 4

Find a cuddling partner who won't interrupt your reading.

Step 5

Enjoy!! 

Wishes for Younger Writer Me

 If I remember rightly, this topic might have been my suggestion, and I think I suggested it because at the time I imagined it would be easy to drop a top ten list and waltz away.

You'll notice there's no top ten list.

I've spent the week contemplating what I'd tell younger writer me if I had the chance. It was stuff like 'being published doesn't equal success'. 'Being published does not mean you have it made.' 'Polish up your armor, you're going to need it.' It's all super depressing stuff and the key piece that finally made me pull up short on a "Hey. Wait a minute." was the fact that not a single thing I could think of to say to younger writer me is actionable. 

Maybe I've grown jaded, but cryptic advice without concrete, actionable goals/outcomes aren't worth the breath to utter them. Or the heartbeats spent listening to them. 

So I've had a rethink. What actionable things do I wish I'd known before I'd been published. Okay. I suppose the first piece is that I wish I'd known that agents could do as much harm as good - but the kicker is that there's no way (assuming you've done due diligence around knowing who you're hiring) to know until you're in the situation. The actionable piece to that is to enter into that business relationship with eyes wide open and with the full knowledge that a day may come when one or the other of you may have to sever the relationship.  I wish I'd known to have a plan for both best case AND worst case scenarios regarding options clauses. That means I wish I'd come up with a plan for what I'd do with book three whether my publisher wanted the book or not. I didn't. So I flailed. In hindsight, I perceive how devastating flailing is for me. A writer needs a plan and this writer in particular needs a plan, even if that plan is nothing more than drafting a novel just for the fun of seeing how the characters spark and ignite.

I notice that most of what I wish I could communicate isn't actually about writing, it's about the business thereof. I believed I had a reasonable grounding in the business of publishing because of RWA - and maybe I did, but in no way was I adequately prepared to face some of the challenges that came with being published. It is true that driven by those challenges I took a couple of crash business courses aimed at entrepreneurs. They helped - it was there that I learned to plan for both the best and worst case scenarios. I think if I could only give younger writer me a single piece of actionable advice, it would be to take those business classes before getting published. The ride might still have been bumpy, but it might have involved slightly less flailing. Or maybe different flailing.

That's the thing about changing the past. You never know what kind of snowball effect it'll have on the future. 

Huh.

You know what? I take it all back. If I could tell younger writer me anything, it simply be "Write. Never give up on it. Never give up on you."

What I'm Glad I Didn't Know When I Decided to Become a Writer

This week at the SFF Seven we're discussing what we wish we'd known when we decided we wanted to write.

It's an interesting question, and a fraught one. I first decided that being a writer would be the perfect career for me back in 1993. That's almost 30 years ago, so it isn't easy to think back to that younger self. At the time, I was completing a Ph.D. in neurophysiology and confronting the bald truth that I didn't really want to be a research scientist. I sat myself down, meditated, and asked the question: if I took away all the if's and's and but's, what would be the ideal life.

No one was more surprised than I was to hear that the answer was to be a writer. But I also knew it was a true answer and that, if I wanted to be happy, I had to do whatever it took to make that come true.

So, I cut bait on my Ph.D., got a Masters and a job as an editor/writer to start building my chops. I took night classes from visiting writers. I began writing, something, anything.

What do I wish I'd known then? It's tempting to say I wish I'd known how long it would take before I truly began earning a living as an author. My conception then of how long it would take was absolutely the largest lacunae of ignorance in my hopeful moonscape. I thought it would be a couple of years, not a couple of decades. I totally thought I'd hit it big. I thought my steady progression of successes, for which I am grateful, make no mistake, would have a steeper upward trendline. 

And yet... I'm actually glad the younger me didn't know how protracted that effort would be, how studded with setbacks and pitfalls. Had I known, would I still have done it?

I don't know.

Sometimes I think our ignorance at the outset of an ambitious enterprise works in our favor. Ignorance truly can be bliss, especially when it allows hope to flourish, hope that carries us through the difficult times. 

Maybe what I really wish I'd known back when I made that decision is that it was the right one. But then, I knew that anyway. 

Wish I'd Always Known: I'm a Plotter

 What, oh what, do I wish I'd known back when I'd started writing?

Plot. First.
Every. Time.
Damnitall.

I wish I'd known myself well enough to know that I *have* to craft the skeletal plot before jumping into writing. So, so, so many drafts of stories that could've been great if I'd known where the story was headed before settling in and writing now languish in the "never to be shown to the public" folder. Hell, even my first two published books would've been leaps and bounds better if I'd plotted them out first. Going back and fixing the broken tales is soul-crushing and...infuriating. By the time edits come due, I'm wedded to scenes that really ought to be cut and end up doing a full rewrite just to salvage the kernel of the concept and the shells of the characters. 

At this point, I know better. Alas, that doesn't mean I didn't just waste four months pantsing a story then trunking it because it fell apart. That lil' winter tragedy is confirmation that I gotta do the logical work upfront so the whimsy and wtfery can blossom while writing the actual story. True way back when I was a baby writer, true to this day.

If Onoy I'd known when i started...

 The subject for this week is what I wish Id known when I started writing. 

The list is too long. There were and are so many different phases to writing, and  literally mountains f books have been written on the subject, So i'll just go with this one thing: I wish I'd better understood the concept of an information dump. 

When I look back at a lot of my earlier works I first lament my lack of fully understanding grammar (I had some great teachers along those lines and ii a forever in their debt) and I regret how often I went down the path of giving too much inforation in large ies. Details and details, mixed with history and background, It's like peanut butter: put it all to the front of the sandwich and you get a sloppy mess. Better to spread it out a bit more evenly. 

The devil is in the details, they are necessary, but they can be spread far and wide if you handle it the right way. 

I'm off for a four-hour drive into Boston to see a doctor about a cancer that is, hopefully, still not hanging around anymore. Wish me luck and have a wonderful day!

James A. Moore

What the Future May Bring

 I usually have massive superstition around speaking my plans out into the open air. It seems like whenever I do, the universe laughs in maniacal glee and I land on my ass at the end of the year wondering what happened. But I'll tell you. After the past two years, who the hell hasn't? So here we go. 

Plans for 2022:

FINISH THE DAMNED BOOK. Yes. This would be book 4 of the SFR series. Shortly after I hand that book off to my editor (if she hasn't died of boredom or old age whilst waiting for it), I want to fast draft the final book in the series. Fast draft. FAST. I'm yelling at my brain. Not you. The goal is to have both books done in at least first draft form by the end of the year. Then, you see, I could move on to other projects that are knocking around in my brain. 

There are some assassins who want their stories finished. There's a story that isn't science fiction, fantasy, or paranormal. I'm not sure where it came from or who I am that the story even crept up on me. But I'll give it a shot. It feels important for some reason. There are myriad other stories that want to see light of day.

I have low daily word count goals at the moment. I'm doing the distance runner thing - logging a bunch of slow miles in order to get faster over time. (This will take you to a Tik Tok video about this very subject.) This is all a part of having to learn how to be alone while being constantly in other people's company. While pandemic and lock downs have been fine for many introverts, those of us living in houses full of people are not all right. Finding alone is harder than it sounds like it ought to be. And yes. It matters because I'm one of those people whose thoughts show on their face -- and there are just some scenes in books that get dark and terrible. Everyone in the household is happier if no one sees those thoughts as I think them. It turns out my family doesn't like it when I frighten them. 

Now. If you'll pardon me, I'm going to go make some word count on a book that needs finishing.

Out of Focus Crystal Ball

Let me peek into my crystal ball and tell you what my writing future for the coming year looks like...Hmm. Kinda outta focus. I guess my crystal ball is broken! 

This year my writing goals are to finish my next sci-fi thriller WIP and complete book 2—which actually takes place before book 1, soooo perhaps I should technically call it book 1? Anyway, complete book 2 in my epic fantasy series. 

I’d love to go on a writing retreat. To truly disconnect and not have the day-to-day responsibilities would be fantastic. It would also be awesome to attend SFWA’s Nebula conference, but I’m not sure if that’ll work out. 

In absolute certainty I can tell you that I will celebrate every high. And I will try to reach out in the lows. 

Since my crystal ball didn’t have much to say, what’s your future look like?