Blog Roundup: January 23 - 29, 2012

Chuck Wendig is a busy man but he still found time to post 25 Things Writers Should Know About Agents this week.

Greta van der Rol posted this thoughtful and thought-provoking post about "over-engineering writing." I swear, sometimes it's like she lives in my brain. This has been on my mind a lot lately, when I've been obsessing over my own work and obsessing over structure and plot and blah blah blah to the point that I couldn't even enjoy one of my favorite TV shows. I may have to make "letting go and just doing" a February resolution...

Sierra Godfrey guest posted over at Roni Loren's blog about web space for authors. Sierra seems so smart and level-headed and she really lays out the basics of blog vs. website. Roni also posted her Fill-Me-In Friday post.

Avery Olive consolidated the information about Goodreads policy changes over in her Rescue Your Goodreads Book post.

James Killick wrote about how professionals generate story ideas.

Over at Keystrokes and Word Counts, you can read about the perks of writing partners and the usefulness of Twitter.

I am a plotter, so Paperback Writer's 10 Things to Help You Outline Your Novel was a good post for me.

Agent Kristin at Pub Rants wrote about focus and how important it is to a beginning writer.

Stella Deleuze posted about her experience with KDP Select.

Paul Dorset talked about his thoughts on KDP Select, too.

Written Words hosted Stephen Legault who talked about the importance of having a plan.

SitRep Saturday: One Good Cowboy and Other Projects

This week, I managed to write a few thousand words of the action draft of One Good Cowboy. Astounding progress? No. Not at all. But it is progress and I'm not forcing anything. That's what is most important. It's coming along well. It feels more and more like the first short interlude of a much longer story, which I like, and I'm even more certain now than I was before that it's going to give me the chance to write one good gay romance. Ty and Heather both feel like good characters and their story is sweet and funny. To me, anyway. We'll see what readers think when I finally finish it.

I also bought a new laptop. I've spent the majority of my working hours today doing things like backing up my files, downloading programs, and setting up my preferences so the system looks and feels the way I like. This is very exciting for me. I've been working on netbooks for the last three years. I know I'll still use the netbook for work sometimes, but it's just really nice to have a larger screen and a more powerful machine. Today, I downloaded GIMP and Scribus and Thunderbird. The process has inspired a blog post, so in addition to the new workstation, I got a post idea, too!

Author Interview: A. M. Belrose

Yesterday, I reviewed A. M. Belrose's Witch in Wolf's Clothing. Today, I'm sharing the interview she was gracious enough to give. Enjoy! I certainly did.

What inspired Witch in Wolf's Clothing?

Everyone got sick of me insisting that I could write a romance novel, and told me to put my money where my mouth was. Less generally, I'm sort of an obnoxious romantic at heart, but don't get the chance to write it often. The romance in the book is the sort that I enjoy indulging in, sarcastic, passionate, more settled than stormy. I not so secretly want everyone to be an old married couple.

I'm very much a fan of urban fantasy, so it was easy to decide on that direction for the story. One of my inspirations is Tanya Huff, and how she makes old tropes interesting with vivid characters. So magic and werewolves it was! Much of the foundation of the characters and plot were decided in a conversation with my partner, as much as my writing ends up being, so sometimes I honestly can't tell where 'this would be awesome' ends and 'I dare you to make this work' begins. In the end it usually all falls out fairly well.

How did you approach the research and decide on the mythology for your witches and werewolves?

Here I hide my face and admit that 'somewhat casually' is the best I can make this sound. Everything I know about wolves I learned from "White Fang" in the fourth grade and a fascination with documentaries, but being something of a raving mythology nerd at least gave me a foundation in European folklore and mythology along the lines of the Norse ulfhednar, etc. I made the conscious decision to play a bit fast and lose with the berserker, uncontrollable animal aspect that usually accompanies werewolves. For one thing, I'm not the sort who sees the appeal in a love interest who turns rabidly aggressive on a strict schedule. I also wanted the feral antagonist of the story to have more punch, instead of all werewolves running around eating all your children all the time.

As far as the witches go, I'm contrary. I wanted a main character who simultaneously was and wasn't powerful. One of the scariest things in the world is fire, but Autumn is kind of shit at it. She has to learn and adapt. I chose elemental powers over a more traditional witchcraft lore because the story is a novella; traditional lore can get tricky, and invites a lot of complications. It's also a little more thoughtful than Autumn tends to be.

Who was your favorite character to write and why?

Autumn, through and through, which is always great for a POV character. There's some enjoyment to be had in writing characters you want to chuck off a cliff, but that's generally not a great vibe for sex scenes. She's very casual, a little bit caustic, and knows where she stands in the world. In a lot of ways confident characters are easiest to write; you don't have to figure out how they're second guessing themselves. It's just a clear path from how mad you made her to how hard she's going to hit you.

Is romance a genre you intend to explore further?

The urge comes and goes. The deep dark secret of my authorhood is that I'm a lesbian, so writing straight scenes doesn't come naturally to me. I had to keep pestering people to make sure that Harper sounded sufficiently attractive, and that all bits were functioning properly. While I enjoyed writing the romance, the physical aspects of the relationship were often the hardest to write and the slowest to be finished. On the other hand, I like to think that I pulled it off with some success, thanks to a few tips here and there from the peanut gallery. I don't leave characters behind easily, so there has been some mental tugging at a sequel.

What made you decide to self-publish?

Harlequin didn't want it! It's a novella because I submitted it to their ebook department. I'd heard of Kindle Direct Publishing before, and it seemed a better fate than letting this finished story sit around my harddrive collecting dust. I write to share stories, not hoard them. I did use the time between rejection and self-publishing to seek more opinions from dedicated fantasy readers, and clean the story up a little.

How did you find your cover artist?

I had the fabulous, nepotistic luck to be friends with her.

What direction, if any, did you give her?

'Here is what the characters look like, here are a couple of pivotal scenes, go wild.' I really have no artistic sensibilities at all, so i wanted her to do what she thought was best from a design stand point. I'm incredibly happy with the result, so it was probably better that I didn't fuss.

Do you have any projects in the pipeline that we can look forward to?

Like I said, I have been batting around ideas for a sequel. Right now, I'm working on a YA urban fantasy with a large horror influence, which I consider a break from all the sex scenes. I tend to bat around projects and like to switch between two or three, so that I don't get bored or blocked. If "Witch" does get a sequel, it will be novel-length, focused on part of the extended Von Brandt family.

Witch in Wolf's Clothing is available at Amazon.com and Smashwords.

Kelsey McCarthy is available for book cover commission.

Book Review: Witch in Wolf's Clothing by A. M. Belrose

Witch in Wolf's Clothing by A. M. Belrose is an urban fantasy/romance novella with comedic and action/adventure elements.

It's really good.

Full disclosure: I am a sucker for werewolf men (I rooted for Richard during Anita Blake's wavering between Jean-Claude the Vampire and Richard the Werewolf, I was team Jacob the brief time I tried to enjoy Twilight, and Blood and Chocolate remains one of my favorite young-adult fantasy novels) and this author is a friend of a friend. The mutual friend in question is the cover artist.

Initially, I bought the book because it seemed like something I would enjoy and because I wanted to support a friend's friend. I was not disappointed.

First of all, just look at that cover. Look at the hair, at the colors, at the woman. It's beautiful, it's eye-grabbing, and--best of all--it's entirely unique. I love the way the Autumn looks other-worldly with the shadows on her face and the shape of her ears, I love the lift and twist of her hair, and I absolutely love the fire wolf. It's such a beautiful representation of the story.

Here is the book's official synopsis:

"When you live in a small town long enough you learn all the rules, meet all the boys, and participate in all the bar brawls. Autumn is content enough to work at the general store in Stoneriver, leaving all firefighting and smoke inhalation to her sister. But she has to step up, as a fire witch and a fighter, when her niece comes to her with tales of a werewolf who doesn't run with the full moon. The local pack has suddenly made Autumn Von Brandt their unhappy business.

Harper O'Malley is second-in-command of the Stoneriver pack, and sick of an alpha who doesn't know his ass from his elbow. Autumn is his chance to shake up the pecking order. As a bonus, she's beautiful, powerful, and doesn't seem to mind that wet dog smell."


The synopsis does an excellent job of telling you what you need to know and, like the cover, represents the story really well.

Autumn is the star of this book and she's the sort of funny, honest person I thoroughly enjoy in real life. If you're a reader who shies away from romances because you think heroines are too fluffy or flighty, this book is for you. Autumn is intelligent, independent, and confident. I was particularly interested in her hero persona. She's not the strongest fire witch. She's not the matriarch of their family. But she is a fighter, and she is loyal, and she does do what she has to do. Granted, she puts herself in the position to do what she has to do, but in that way she reminded me a lot of Princess Leia and Scarlett O'Hara.

Harper is Autumn's love interest. He's the beta male in the local werewolf pack and, all around, just a decent guy. I really liked that this story was about two completely normal people (well, more than two, but I'll get to that in a minute) who happen to have some supernatural in their lives. He's intelligent, very sexy, and--my favorite!--cautious. I appreciated the way he went about dealing with the pack's leadership problems.

There are some very hot sex scenes in this novella. I must confess, though, that I mostly skimmed them. They were good, but I actually wasn't interested in the sex as much as I was interested in the non-sexual interactions. Friends who know me well might be reading this review with their mouths hanging open. The mystery, the conflict, and the resolution in this story are just that fascinating.

Each of the major supporting characters--the alpha male, the rogue wolf, Autumn's sister, and Autumn's niece--are strong and well-rounded enough that I didn't feel they were props. (I would actually be quite interested in any of them as main characters.) Each of them added to the story and helped move it along.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a quick, interesting read, anyone who likes paranormal romance, anyone who likes strong heroines and decent heroes, and anyone who likes werewolves and witches. This was definitely a solid four-star debut effort from a writer I hope to see more from in the future.

Monday Miscellany: Progress Report, Coming Up

I am making slow and steady progress on One Good Cowboy. I'm filling in the action now and once that's done, I'll be able to go back and start drafting. This story is giving me so much trouble! Oh, well. I think it'll be a nice, fun, sweet, funny romance once I'm done. I hope!

My sister is out of town for the week (well, out of country--she took off to London on her own for a few days) so I have the time to catch up on a ton of work. I did yesterday's blog roundup post almost on time this week! And today's post is on time! I still have a lot of housework and of course the writing, but this should be a good blogging week. 

This week, I'll be posting my review of A. M. Belrose's Witch in Wolf's Clothing and an author interview! Expect to see those tomorrow and Wednesday.

Blog Roundup: January 16 - 22, 2012

Chuck Wendig offered up 25 Things Writers Should Start Doing last week. He also discussed the proposed American legislation SOPA and PIPA and what it means for writers. (For those interested, the EU is doing something similar to SOPA and PIPA with ACTA.)

Greta van der Rol wrote an interesting post about creativity.

Roni Loren hosted a guest post by Suzanne Johnson about her writing process. She also hosted a guest post by Stephanie Haefner who talked about why she chose to publish with a small press.

J. A. Konrath posted this thought-provoking article about the myth of the bestseller. (For what it's worth, check out his posts over the last week. He made $100,000 from his self-published titles in three weeks.)

Laura E. Bradford wrote about fear and how it affects writers. She also wrote about why she's putting her book on KDP Select.

Imran Siddiq posted about processing ritual.

Scott Morgan guest posted over at Rob on Writing about the 5 Things Writers Should Do (When They Want To Suck).

Aimee Salter's posts on self-editing are here: #2, #3.

Sierra Godfrey posted her Google Reader Roundup.

Sirra posted Writing Descriptions in Creative Writing.

There's a post about getting through the editing process over at Starving Novelist.

Stella Deleuze posted (a rant, I think) about why she hates third-person omniscient POV.

Over at Written Words, you can read about one blogger's opinion about Apple's Author and iBooks2 (the first I'd heard about it, wow).

SitRep Saturday: "Do that again. But better."

One Good Cowboy has gotten a complete rewrite. In fact, I just might end up writing a blog post on my approach to it. I was really struggling--as I'm sure any of you regular readers can tell--so I scrapped everything I'd written so far (all twelve thousand words) and started over.

With dialogue.

I have all of the dialogue for the story written and I'm going in now to fill in the action parts. Once that's done, I'll start drafting, then editing. I'm still hoping to have it finished by the end of the month, but I'm not pushing it. I will, however, finish this story. I really like these characters and I really want to share the story. It feels like the start of something much bigger, too, so I want to see where it's going to take me.

Writing is hard. Sometimes it's frustrating. But it's worth it.

On Writing: Be a Reader

"If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

- Toni Morrison 

You're a reader, right? If you're a writer, I certainly hope you are. Repeat after me: If I want to read it, I have to write it. That's how it works in fanfiction and that's how it works in the world of professional fiction. I imagine that's how it works in non-fiction, too, since Mark Coker had to write the Smashwords Style Guide. Whatever you're writing can be improved by simply making sure you write something you want to read.

After all, if you don't want to read it, why should anyone else?

Write the story you want to read.
I like quick romances, short horrors, and really involved science fiction. Sometimes I like character-driven urban fantasy. Oh, and I like zombies. I really, really like zombies. So those are the stories I try to write. Except for science fiction. I'm not very good at that. Yet.

Write the characters, situations, dialogue, and plots you want to read.
I have a soft spot for mouthy, selfish heroines like Scarlett O'Hara. I also like strong men who don't speak much. Oh, and funny guys like Wes Janson. Those are the characters I enjoy writing. I think we all can tell by now that I thoroughly enjoy writing sex scenes. I'm actually not a fan of dialogue, but I don't write anything I don't believe is as close to reality as I can get. I'll confess here to really liking dark, twisted plots and the simple ones that showcase characterization.

Write to elicit the emotions you want to feel or to make your readers feel.
My favorite way to feel when I read is to be mildly disgusted and fascinated at the same time. My second favorite is to be amused. For a long time, I didn't write anything that I didn't believe would create the first combination of emotions in my reader. I've since backed off, but I won't abandon it. Whatever it is I want to feel is what I try to make my reader feel.

Write to make the point you want to read.
For me, one of the easiest ways to stay focused on a story is to keep in mind the point I want to make. The point could be something simple, like "Get over yourself." Whatever it is, I want to tell a story and make a point. I guess by now you can tell that I use my writing as much to learn about myself as anything else. I like for the work I read to make me think and to teach me something new, even if it's supposed to be just mindless entertainment.

Write the summary that appeals to you.
I do not like summaries or synopses that feature questions. I try not to use them. I like for my summaries to provide as much information in as small a space as possible, so those are the ones I try to write.

Use yourself as your very first test audience.
If I don't like my story, I don't expect anyone else to, either. I'm my first critical reader.

Self-Publishing: What To Do With Reviews

Reviews are great no matter what kind of review they are. A review means that you connected with your reader on some level and they feel the need to tell other readers about their experience, whether good, bad, or ugly. I think any writer should be grateful for any review they receive.

But there have been too many examples of writers getting too personally involved with readers. I've pulled this example out before and I'll do it again: take a look at the comments section of Big Al's review of Jacqueline Howett's The Greek Seaman. This is a prime example of how not to behave. Anne Rice and Nora Roberts are both guilty of unprofessional behavior, and look at how long they've been involved in the publishing industry. It can happen to anyone.

Being conscious of your professional image is important, most especially to self-published authors. That consciousness extends to what we should do with reviews.

Positive Reviews
Bask in that warm glow of approval. In your marketing, point other readers in the direction of one or two of those reviews. Be grateful for your readers.

Critical Reviews (Positive or Negative)
Process the information. Determine the validity of the points. Make changes or ignore as necessary (remember, you're the writer; you have to feel good about your own work). Be grateful for your readers.

Negative Reviews
Remember that everyone has a different opinion and, unless the reviewer actually does attack you personally, a negative review isn't a personal attack. Determine if the review has any points you can use; if so, great, if not, ignore. Be grateful for your readers.

I don't think authors should engage with their readers without a direct invitation. Our work should stand for itself and we need to understand that once it's out there, it's open to criticism and that readers are entitled to their opinions and their privacy. Our readers deserve respect and they deserve their space in which to hold their discussions with other readers and leave their reviews for other readers free from author interference.

I also don't think that authors should discuss reviews publicly. Privately, have at it, say whatever you want--that's your private life. But I think a good policy is to just back off and let the work, the readers, and the reviews speak for themselves.

Monday Miscellany: Rewriting, Shopping, Coming Up

I'm almost done rewriting One Good Cowboy. Well, I'm almost done with the action draft part of the rewriting. I think the story I'm going to end up with is much better than the story I had. I'm making progress, but it's so weird to be hacking it apart and piecing it back together. I feel like Dr. Frankenstein or something.

Over the weekend, I went window shopping. I plan to buy a new laptop in a couple of weeks and the online offerings have been quite dismal since so few models are available for APO shipping. I feel like I lucked out, though, because the exchange on post has a laptop that fits all of my needs for only $9 over the low end of my budget. That is so exciting. Now I can't wait to make the purchase!

This week I really am going to get up that blog post about writing like a reader. I have a few other subjects waiting in draft mode here in Blogger and in a notebook, but I'm not sure which ones I'm going to pick. I might steal an idea from Chuck Wendig and write about creating a best practices list. Who knows? Not me. I'm living dangerously this week.