Summer hours. It’s something lots of companies do.
Cut back on work time in the summer.
I’ve noticed the blog traffic is trickling in.
Ah, summertime.
It’s good to disconnect more and get out in the world.
So for June, July and August, I will post once a week. It will give my readers and me a bit of a break.
Today being Memorial Day, I thought it was the right day to share this moment with Grandma H.
A couple weeks ago, I asked Grandma H, “If you could go back to any time in your life and relive it, when would you go back to?”
She thought for a bit and replied, “I’d go back to when I was a little girl living on the farm with all my brothers and sisters and Mama and Papa.”
“Really?” I asked. She’d had to trek to the outhouse when she was a little girl. She shared a bed with her sisters.
“We didn’t have much, but we had each other. We were very happy.”
What went unsaid was that her brother Joseph was still alive. He died in World War II. And she still misses him.
Sometimes when we visit her parents’ graves, she talks about him. What a good man he was. How everyone loved him. What a loss it was to the entire family.
Today, it seems important to take a moment and think about those who have died for our freedoms. Those who have fought so that we might be safe. Those who gave everything and are no longer with us.
Happy Memorial Day.
The Six Train to Wisconsin won the National Indie Excellence Awards cross genre fiction category!!!
Finaling in a a contest is a great achievement, but it’s really really cool to win one too.
******
On May 8th, I got my editorial letter on Reckonings. It took me 2 days to process it. No matter how right feedback is, it’s never ever easy to hear. At least for me.
So there’s ranting and raving and fear that I cannot ever accomplish any of this.
I verbalize every emotion as it pops up. Emails get fired off to my closest friends. But this is normal for me. It’s how I deal with feedback. Privately and with a rainbow of emotion.
My crit partner gets a copy of the letter and helps me process it. She actually reads it and talks or texts me through it. Thank you so much Kat Bender!
After years of feedback, I know how I’ll react and I know eventually it will all be okay. But those first two days are rough.
No one wants to hear everything that is wrong with their book. Even if they absolutely need to in order to make it better.
By day two, I’d fired off follow up questions and started brainstorming ways to address the editor’s concerns. She’s awesome. Make no mistake, the feedback is great. It’s just painful to recognize that and dig in.
Within a few days (it was Mother’s Day weekend), she answered all my questions. I had made peace with all the warts in the manuscript and was itching to extract them. I was in a good place to begin.
So it’s been about 10 days of hard core revisions. The entire beginning was torn apart (think first 100 pages).
It’s a rough draft now. I promised her the first 100 pages in 3 weeks in a decent draft though, so I’m pushing through the manuscript in 1 pass now so that all the changes at the end ripple through the beginning and vice versa. Then I’m circling back to those 100 pages for a week.
I have about 6 weeks left to get this all done. I’m writing 8-10 hours a day 6.5 days a week.
So if I am not commenting as much on your blog or not on Twitter or FB as much as I usually am, this is why.
I will still be checking in here and responding to all blog comments.
But the writing has to come first. Especially when I am on deadline. And not a self-imposed deadline, but a contractual deadline. 🙂
Fellow Blogger Kate Johnston invited me to participate in a blog hop about my writing process. Above is a lovely photo of her and below is her awesome bio. I wasn’t able to find a blog bud to hop along to, so if anyone is interested in participating, let me know and I’ll link to your blog. 🙂
Kate’s Bio
Kate Johnston was born on Cape Cod, and raised in New Hampshire where nature and wildlife stirred her imagination. She knew she wanted to be a writer when she wrote a story about a good wolf. She thinks words are magical, enticing, and more-ish. Brew them together, and she creates stories. Family dramas with heart and a touch of magical realism.
Married with two children, she works as a freelance writer and teaches creative writing to kids. She works on her novels at 4 in the morning, the best time of day for writing without interruptions.
Her short story, “Treasures,” was published in The Greensilk Journal, spring 2011. She blogs about her writing quest at 4amWriter. When she’s not writing, she loves to take nature hikes, bake ooey-gooey desserts, and let her kids beat her at sports.
My Writing Process Q&A
1) What am I working on?
You’ve caught me at an exciting time. I’m in the midst of editorial revisions for Reckonings. I got my editorial letter May 8th and I spent several days mulling everything over and shooting follow up questions to my editor. I dove into revising last week.
Reckonings is a YA time travel murder mystery. It’s funny how much of the book remained in my head and never made it onto the page. Thank goodness for my editor, Jessica Jernigan.
2)How does my work differ from others in its genre?
I don’t write female protagonists whose goal is to find a man. They are always on a personal journey. A search for themselves or their family or some greater goal.
I can’t seem to write straight genre fiction either. Everything to date has been cross genre. This is a gothic, time travel murder mystery.
3) Why do I write what I do?
Because there are so many emotional experiences I long to capture and this is the best way I can do it.
I think there is something so intriguing about a world of unbelievables. I can’t help returning to them in each novel.
4) How does my writing process work?
a) Have an idea and add it to the idea folder. When I have an opening in my schedule, I visit my idea folder to decide what idea gets worked on next.
b) Storystorm for several months–building my characters and world in my head
c) Write a synopsis or outline –a story map
d) Draft 1000 words a day 5 week–at about 30k, I tend to burn out
e) Pause in drafting and revise first half of story for a few weeks. Sometimes wandering back through my story gives me a clearer idea of how to move closer to the end
f) Finish drafting
g) Take a break from that project for 4-6 months. Switch to another project
h) Do a round of revisions. 8-10 weeks to get to second draft
i) Send to beta readers for their feedback. 3-6 months to get back their feedback
j) Do a comprehensive round of revisions based on beta feedback–8-10 weeks of revision
k) Create a series bible to keep track of characters, locations, and concepts
l) Final tweaks to manuscript
k) Start pitching/querying
I’m taking a little breather from events in May to practice all my upcoming workshops and talks for this summer. And get some writing done.
Then I will be back out on the road in June and July and August. Hope to see you at one of my events!
On June 7th, I will be at the 4th Annual Writers’ Conference and Intensives at Hunter College in Manhattan (68th and Lexington). I’m going to be on the children’s panel from 9-10 a.m. I’ll have a few books with me to sell and sign as well.
On June 27th, I will be at a private book club talk in Manchester, CT.
On July 10th, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m, I will be at the Provincetown Public Library in Provincetown, MA talking about my hybrid author life–sharing my perspective on what an indie and traditionally published author’s day to day world encompasses. There will be a door prize and a book signing to follow the talk.
July 25-27th, I will be participating in several Pioneer Days events in Butternut, WI.
July 28th from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Wauwatosa Public Library in Wauwatosa, WI, I will be giving a free author talk and Q&A with a door prize and book signing.
July 29th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. at DeKalb Public Library in DeKalb, IL, I will be presenting a free workshop “Turning Up the Heat: How to Write Good Love Scenes” with a door prize and book signing.
July 31th from 6:30 p.m to 7:30 p.m. at the Marathon County Public Library in Wasau, WI, I will be giving a free workshop on “Being a Productive Part-time Writer” with a door prize and book signing.
August 1-3rd, I will be in Park Falls, WI for an author talk and signing and to participate in Flambeau Rama.
It is rare that a book feels like a soul. A being that I’ve connected with. But great books are imbued with a soul. A tiny piece of their creator lives inside them.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone tore through my heart and reminded me of every pain and pleasure of love.
It’s a heart-rending tale of two enemies who fell in love and dared to hope…
And what came next.
Laini Taylor writes emotions in a way that makes it impossible not to feel every excruciating and exhilarating moment of it.
This was one of those books that broke me. Called to something that I hid in myself and made me remember things I’ve carefully forgotten.
This book moved me, stirred me, and made me realize things I’ve shied away from.
An impossibly beautiful story, I am a fan for life of Laini Taylor.
I met Sara at the 2012 SCBWI Summer Conference and got my copy of Harbinger signed. At conferences, there are hundreds of books for sale–what grabbed me was her gorgeous cover and her equally cool title. But it was the inside jacket that sold me on the story.
The writing is brilliant. Descriptions that conjured so much imagery in my head. Sentences I swooned over. Each one flows so perfectly into the next, she cast a spell over me each time I opened the book. The pacing made my pulse race and my eyes fly over the pages. I did not want to put this book down.
I loved the romantic subplot between Faye and Kel.
The author used first person point of view expertly. I usually don’t like unreliable narrators, but Ms. Etienne handled it so perfectly I couldn’t wait to find out what was really happening.
The ending was quite a surprise but she laid intricate clues that made the ending very satisfying.
It’s a gripping literary thriller with paranormal elements set in a dystopian world. Truly a masterpiece in cross genre fiction!
Other books I read and reviewed:
I love reading series, so it makes sense that I have only written series books. Unfortunately, that means building series bibles.
For the past 8 days, I’ve been building the series bible for my newest series. It’s my third series and my most ambitious in terms of world building.
My two other series, Six Train and Reckonings, are paranormal but set in our world.
DM, however, is my first foray into a more fantasy book. It’s set in our world, but there are beings from another realm. A realm with it’s own language, civilization and rules.
It’s the biggest world building I’ve ever undertaken.
So it’s critical that I get the series bible built to capture all the rules and exceptions of the other realm.
I finished my revisions of DM and sent it off to an agent two Saturdays ago. Knowing it can be a while, I decided to build the series bible while it’s still fresh in my head.
I use Scrivener to build the bible.
I create a worksheet for every single character (primary to tertiary) that appear or are mentioned in the book, a worksheet for each place mentioned or where a scene takes place, and a worksheet for each concept that needs to be understood.
There are 80+ worksheets for DM.
I populate them by going through the manuscript line by line and deciding where that information belongs in the worksheet universe.
Often, I’m showing so I have to read into the dialogue and exposition and identify the intent of it. Was I showing that my protagonist is volatile? Was I hinting at her internal conflict? What did I reveal about the world building?
This is an excruciating process.
I do my best to note the chapters where it appears or is mentioned as well.
For some reason, reviewing the manuscript in this format helped me find two minor world building glitches that I missed on the past two dozen read throughs. I corrected them.
When I get through the entire manuscript, I go back and format each worksheet to make the font clearer, add bullets, and organize it more cohesively.
I also check all the chapter annotations to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Right now, I’m in the formatting and checking mode. I’ll be here for the next 3-5 days.
Let’s just say I have a whole new level of respect for fantasy writers. They do something that is tremendously difficult and make it appear easy.
Do you plan to write series? Are you constructing a series bible?
1) Work As A Team
Person #1 needs to get in line for the panel/workshop. Person #2 needs to leave the workshop early to get in line for the signing. If you’ve got more people–great more division of work.
2) Divide and Conquer
If there are multiple panels/workshops at the same time, split up and swap notes. That way you get the most out of the day.
3) Arrive Earlier Than Early
Some panels have limited seating and are super popular. If there is a panel you are dying to see, plan to line up at least an hour early. And the first morning of the event, get there at least an hour early to get the lay of the land.
4) Pace Yourself
The days are jam-packed with more events than anyone could get to. You are going to want to do so much, but make sure you find a break for lunch and to walk around and see all the tents and activities.
5) Plan Ahead
Download the schedule and figure out what your top picks are for the event. Sometimes you want to hear an author talk more than you want a signed book and vice versa. And check out the bookstore tents–sometimes they have signed copies available too.
6) Change Your Mind
Sometimes a panel isn’t what you were expecting. Maybe the moderator refuses to stay on topic. Or the panelists get into a verbal sparing match. Or the discussion isn’t touching on what you are interested in.
Whatever it might be, feel free to leave if you don’t feel you are getting something out of the discussion.
If you planned ahead you probably have a second option for that time slot, go check it out. And if not, take a break and stroll around.
Last Wednesday, I was part of Barnes and Noble’s Local Authors’ Night in Waterbury. I got to hang out with Elizabeth Barone, who I met last year at the NVCC writing conference. It was great seeing her again!
We had 7 authors there. Three fiction and 4 non-fiction. A really unique group of books–something for everyone!
My friend Dayna stopped by with her daughters–it was awesome to see a friendly face!
I sold 4 books that night! Woohoo! That meant 3 were left to grace the local author shelf in B&N!
Saturday afternoon, I popped in and found my book–there was only 1 left!
This Tuesday, I was at the Prospect Public Library for it’s first Open Mic Night for Writers. The library had two local published authors join in to share some of their experience. I gave a brief talk on my journey from Wall Street to Wolcott Author.
The library has a very active memoir writing group and teen writing group. It was awesome to see so many writers courageously stepping in front of the mic. And not one had a shaky voice! They amazed me.
Here’s my fellow published author, Renee Londner, talking about breaking into the industry and sharing a short story of hers.
Many thanks to Louise for setting up, organizing the readings and being a joy to work with!
A ginormous thank you to the library’s Assistant Director, Lisa Murno, who made the entire evening possible! No only did she organize this awesome event and run it so smoothly, she also photographed the entire evening and even got down on bended knee to make sure an elderly woman was able to share her words with the group!
Last weekend, Mom and I took Grandma H to the cemetery to clear the leaves from her parents’ and sisters’ graves. Grandma H steps out of the car, looks around and says, “Everything is so dead here.”
Mom and I look at each other and erupt in laughter.
Mom gently reminds her, “This is a cemetery.”
Grandma H chuckles. “No, not the people. I meant the grass and the trees.”
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Grandma H and I are driving and we go by the spot where someone committed suicide. She says, “He got the neighbor’s wife pregnant while her husband was away and couldn’t handle it.”
I ask, “Didn’t they know about oral sex back then? I mean there were ways to have fun without risking pregnancy.”
She gets quiet.
I ask, “Can I ask you a question?”
She goes, “Not about sex.”
“But you have all those years of experience,” I tease.
She chuckles.
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My Aunt Cindi asked my mom to pick up a palm cross for my grandfather’s grave.
We take Grandma H all over town with us in search of one.
Grandma H says, “I don’t know why Cindi doesn’t save them each year. Just take the palm off and keep all those yellow ribbons.”
Mom says, “What yellow ribbons?”
Grandma H says, “The ones it’s made out of.”
Mom says, “Those are all from the palm. If we kept the ribbon it’s just the one tiny purple ribbon.”
Grandma H erupts in laughter.
*****
I’m a bit behind on sales reporting. March was a slow month, I only sold 12 books. But April is kicking March’s butt in sales. So yay!
Click here to buy Highway Thirteen to Manhattan
Click here to buy The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts
Click to buy The Six Train to Wisconsin
