Here to Breathe the Vacuum

One of my girls was diagnosed with cancer on her ear and had a bit of surgery to handle it. Here's Cuillean, post surgery with her radical ear tip. Fortunately, this was a mast cell tumor and surgery is pretty much a cure in cats. Yay.

She wants you to know the other guy (the vet) looks much worse. ;)

Writing habits.
Solitary or company for writing? Yes. Usually both at the same time. Couple of ways that goes down.

1. 5AM while everyone else is asleep. But they ARE still present. So I'm not sure what this is, really. Vacuum or company. My only interaction is with the cats who wander through for the occasional pet.
2. Coffee shop/tea shop where no one knows me. I'm in a public, but I create private space by holing up with my drink, my earbuds, and a screen to hid behind. And I do not make eye contact. No interaction, except with a barista for my drink. Maybe that doesn't count.
3. The bench on the screened in porch. This is my current favorite. Everyone else has gone off to day jobs. My alarm goes off and I sit down to work in silence. Except, I'm online with a partner and we're doing an hour of writing sprints. Communication is limited to "Go", "Time", and a report on how many words we each managed during the time. It's a little like having a work out routine. You may pay money to belong to a gym, but it doesn't mean you go. If you know you have a friend or a coach waiting for you, though, you'll haul your butt out of the warm bedclothes. In this case, it's a way to be accountable to someone else about hitting your word count goals for the day. This one is the true hybrid experience. I'm alone, but still interacting with other writers. And if one of us gets really, really stuck, we schedule a Skype session to talk out the stuck bits. Works really well. 

Granted, my ultimate goal is to be able to write anywhere. Haven't achieved that, yet. All I care is that the words happen and I exercise the focus muscles. Stretch them, maybe. Writer yoga. The more focus stretches, the better and longer and stronger the focus.

The Work Space for my Head Space

I do not have the luxury of being especially twee about my writing space.  For various logistical reasons, I do not have a permanent desk or workspace.  So I've got to be a writing nomad, moving to whatever flat surface I can find.  That's what I've gotten used to, and I've managed to make it work for me, even though it can be rather frustrating at times.

So, for me to get into the creative headspace, it takes a certain degree of focus.  Distractions or interruptions tend to knock me out, and I need to start over again.  So I do my best to minimize them.  Oddly, working in public can be a good thing for me, as long as it's a public space where I'm not expected to interact much.  Coffee shops are good.

BUT, I need the focus, and that means a good set of headphones.

Nothing is more critical in terms of centering me, regardless of where I'm working.  If I can drown out the world and give myself a good dramatic score or thumping baseline, then everything comes together.

That's it.  As long as I have the comfortable place to sit and the outside world can be shut out with a good beat?  I can work miracles.  Everything else?  That's extra.

(Not that I don't want an office of my own.  I so do.  I will also happily accept any offers for writing retreats, if anyone wants to make them.  The advantage of being a Writing Nomad is I can easily go anywhere, including a remote lakeside cabin in the mountains.  If, you know, you've got one of those.)

And speaking of, new works won't write themselves.  Time to get to work.

I'll Stay Home, Thanks

When it comes to writing, I can be very much like an old hobbit on party day.

In fact, I would rather write in my car than in a coffee shop.

I can work better cramped in the car, in the cold, and in the dark than I can if venture inside a warm and toasty establishment of any kind. Because PEOPLE are in there.

I've tried. But there is no avoiding those people. They talk... about their lives, their daily trials, their dirty laundry - or other people's. They bring their children, who sit far enough away from mom and dad to think they have some kind of freedom, but they either sit there doing the same noisy things or they poke each other and giggle.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Even with earbuds, the music wanes every few minutes and I cannot avoid hearing them. Or they move about drawing my notice. Or they encroach on my bubble.

Or someone among the crowd seems...off...and I suddenly don't feel safe letting my guard down enough to focus on the work. 

To that end, many hours have passed with me in the driver's seat, laptop wedged between me and the steering wheel as I await my son to come out of either his parkour class, his acting class, the dentist, the barber, or any of the other places I have to take him. But given my druthers, I'll work in my office, thanks. Where the coffee is just how I like it. The music is just as I like it. The heater or fan is on just as I like it. And the creativity is unencumbered.

Get Away From Me: Writing in the Oubliette

I laughed when this topic came up. I am definitely one of those writers who can't deal with distractions. Writing in public places is not going to yield much of a word count. I might get a whole fifteen words written. I'm too on edge, too alert to the happenings around me to sink into the brain space of creativity.

I much prefer to write in a cave, usually a dark cave where the blackout curtains are drawn, a lone lamp lends the barest hint of light, and no people are anywhere near. None. Nope. I'm a curmudgeonly vampire in that respect...okay, in many respects. Yes, the dog will force me into the light just long enough so he can pee, but then it's back to the oubliette where I am most productive.

That's right folks; when I have a hot date with my imaginary friends, it takes a lot of alone time to get them fit for public.  Don't worry, it's not you.  It's us.

The Bell Jar

The question is which do we prefer, writing in a vacuum or writing where we can have interaction.

That is painfully easy for me. I prefer to write in silence, or with the radio playing softly I need to be alone with my thoughts as much as possible if I am going to accomplish anything, In point of fact, I have started turning off the internet to avoid the distractions.  y all means, when I'm thinking about a project, chat away. Interact. be friendly. When I am actually writing, I nee the quiet.


So Tuesday sees THE LAST SACRIFICE released as a mass market trade paperback. I'm good with that. A month later FALLEN GODS comes out I'm good with that, too!

In other news, I'm editing an anthology of horror stories with Christopher Golden, It is an open market anthology. There are no spaces reserved for marquee names. The anthology will actually have completely blind submissions. We don't know who wrote it until we accept it.

We are doing a kickstarter to work up the cash flow, because, you know what? Publishers don't buy anthologies without big names. If you are interested in submitting I'll put up the proper address when the time comes. In the meantime,, if you write horror the only guideline is 3,000 words or more and make it your best. Paying professional rates. If you are interested in contributing, the address is right here: https://www.gofundme.com/the-twisted-book-of-shadows

Keep smiling,

Jim  

Listening for the Quiet Voice of Creativity

AMID THE WINTER SNOW, an anthology of fantasy romance holiday novellas is now available for pre-order! It releases December 12, 2017 and contains four all-new, meaty novellas in each of our fantasy worlds. Early reviews have called it "gorgeous," which I just love.

As the snows fall and hearths burn, four stories of Midwinter beginnings prove that love can fight its way through the chillest night…

THE DARKEST MIDNIGHT, by Grace Draven
The mark Jahna Ulfrida was born with has made her a target of the cruel and idle all her life. During the long, crowded festivities of Deyalda, there’s nowhere to escape. Until a handsome stranger promises to teach her to save herself…

THE CHOSEN, by Thea Harrison
In her visions, Lily sees two men fighting for her tiny country’s allegiance: the wolf and the tiger, each deadly, each cunning. One will bring Ys chaos and death, one a gentler path—but she’s destined to love whichever she chooses. The midwinter Masque is upon them, and the wolf is at her door…

THE STORM, by Elizabeth Hunter
When her soul mate died in a massacre of the half-angelic Irin people, Renata thought she’d never feel happiness again. She’s retreated to the snowy Dolomites to remember her hurts—until determined, irrepressible Maxim arrives to insist on joy, too. And before she can throw him out, they discover a secret the Irin have to know…

THE SNOWS OF WINDROVEN, by Jeffe Kennedy
As a blizzard threatens their mountain keep, the new Queen Amelia of the Twelve Kingdoms and her unofficial consort Ash face their own storm. Ash knows a scarred, jumpy ex-convict isn’t the companion his queen needs. But when a surprise attack confines them together in their isolated sanctuary, the feast of midwinter might tempt even Ash into childlike hope…

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Google Play

iBooks

Kobo

We've been getting an amazing response, so thanks to everyone who's already pre-ordered!

Our topic this week is writing in a vacuum—which is better for you, writing in a closed space or writing where people can interact with you?

This is a short and easy answer for me, because I'm a vacuum kind of gal. I like total silence and minimal distractions. I keep my desk pretty well cleared off. I have a long and peaceful view down the Galisteo Basin to the mountains. My very favorite is if no one else is in the house.

If I can get a lot of quiet psychic space, that's ideal.

I can write on airplanes, or in Starbucks, if that's the only way I'm going to get the wordcount in, but I'm happiness with utter quiet. I believe that's the best way to let the subconscious speak. Sometimes the voice of creativity whispers. In total silence, I hear it best.

Book Nostalgia

So this happened. 

It's a cover for a short story that I'd written some time ago for an anthology edited by former blog member James Ray Tuck Jr. I've had rights back for a bit and the story just sat there because I couldn't, for the life of me think what to do with it. 

Until I got tired of having dreams about pissed off lions. So I commissioned this lovely cover and published the story to Kindle Unlimited. Mostly because I'd never published anything there before. Look at me swimming in unfamiliar water. Really, I just adore the cover. So I had to show it off. Made by the fabulous Danielle Fine at By Definition.

As for book nostalgia, let's see if I can keep from repeating myself. I doubt I can. 

1. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - I got on a kick at one point of reading all of the Newberry award

winners as a kid. It paid off. This one stuck with me. And hey. Late grade school, when I picked the book up, alienation and learning to adapt were big themes. I got Kit. Still do.

2. The Island of the Blue Dolphins - Tough story, but gorgeous writing and that was enough for me. It's one of those books that haunts you and it made me start making up stories about how I'd have gone out there to get Karana off the island. There may have been pirate ships and bargains with the devil in some of those stories. So I guess my adult brain didn't fall far from the little kid apple tree.

This last one is a cheat because it's three books in a box set.

3. The Wizard of Earthsea - though, frankly, it looks like the little blue-gray box set I have doesn't exist any more. So no secret that I love Ursula K. Le Guin's work. I cop to reading this trilogy when I was far too young, probably, to appreciate it for anything more than the series of events and adventures that happened. Yet, as often happens with content that's packed far fuller than a reader is consciously aware, the stories and characters stuck in my head and kept unpacking bits of the subtext and layers I'd been too young to comprehend. That meant I could go back and reread the trilogy and have a new experience each time. So yeah. I read Le Guin to have my cranial capacity expanded as much as for the love of great story.

And now, back to the word mines. I have a thing to finish. And by all the gods, it will end before the end of this year or I'll die trying to wrap it. So let's do this thing.

Green Sky: Three Books from my Youth

So, often I'm asked "who are your influences", and a name I immediately go to is Zlipha Keatly Snyder.  And that's largely because of the three books of her Green-Sky trilogy: Below the Root, And All Between, and Until the Celebration.  

This trilogy was significant to me for so many reasons.  For one, it was very much the fantasy series that I consider my entry into the genre.  Nothing had previously captured my attention as a fantasy world like Green Sky did.  It was a glorious, ardent world of a city in the treetops, where the people could fly and glide from branch to branch.  And it was a world with a dark secret.

The first book focuses on Raamo, a young man who begins his training as part of the elite priest caste, the Ol-zhaan.  He's been sought out to join because he's especially gifted in the Spirit powers, which the Ol-zhaan are supposed to be masters of, but it turns out most of them have little-to-no ability in them.  With two of his plucky youthful companions, he starts looking deeper into the dark secrets of the forbidden ground, which is supposedly populated by monsters.  But when Raamo and his friends discover a girl on the ground, they learn it's not monsters at all, but people, trapped underground.

The second book shifts perspectives to Teera, the young girl, starting with her inadvertent escape from the underground prison her people live in.  They're held in by the magically powerful Roots that are impossible to burn or cut.  The Root was created by the Spirit powers, because those people had been banished by the Ol-zhaan to protect the true secret of Green Sky.  You see, the people of Green Sky came from Earth, which had been destroyed in horrible wars.  (See, it's sci-fi embedded in a fantasy.)  Two factions formed, one who wanted to tell the people the truth of their origins, and the other who wanted to keep it a secret forever, hoping that ignorance of their violent past would help them stay peaceful forever. The tell-the-truth faction lost, and they were banished.  But now the truth is out and public, and there's no hiding it... especially since the reuniting of these two peoples has reawakened the Spirit powers.

The third book does something unexpected. It's all about the messy fall-out of trying to unite these people, and how it does bring about the very violence that had been unknown all this time.  It then goes on to, well, kind of a downer ending, mostly about how saviors and messiahs aren't always going to be able to patch everything up and lead the people into a golden age.

But this series taught be about how fantasy can be anything.  Which is such an important lesson.  If you can find them (which is apparently challenging to do), go check them out.