McPhail Center for Music

As I've posted here before, Mason is very into classic music right now. He got interested in it kind of by accident. He also went through a TV phase (sadly, he seems completely out of that one -- and, okay, it's only sad because we can't easily distract him by suggesting he watch TV anymore.)

Anyway, during his TV phase, I introduced him to Fantasia (the original) which we had a VCR tape of. He's been fascinated ever since. My "teaching" style as a parent tends to be very opportunistic. Mason is into music right now, so I find music related things for us to do. MomCulture had a day at the opera program that we went to, and Mason loved that. They had jazz duo performance at the McPhail center, and we went to that. I signed us up to be on the mailing list and got a notice in the mail earlier this week about the Bakken Trio (a violinist, cellist and pianist) who will be doing an informal show at the McPhail today over lunch. We're going. It's Mason's first "grown up" concert.

Seven Deadly Sins and Writing: Sloth

There are several things that a nascent writer hears over and over: write what you know; show don’t tell; and write every day. I think we can argue about the validity of the first two, but I’ve found that the last one actually stuck with me… even now, several published books later.

Stephen King in his book On Writing talks about how if you sit down at the same time every day, your Muse knows where to look for you. I think he’s right. The habit of writing, though often hard to establish, is worth the effort.

When I wrote my first novel (still unpublished) I set myself a goal, very arbitrarily, of 425 words a day. Some days, with a full time job, a family, and whatnot – it was hard to make that paragraph. Still, if I did it, I was that much closer to THE END. And, more often than not, if I started 425, I’d end up with 600 or 1,000.

Unlike some, I didn’t tell myself WHEN I needed to write those words each day, just that I needed to write them. For me, I found that if I could be flexible, I would find the time to write. I would write during lunch, during downtime on the job, after dinner, late at night, early in the morning, or scribble notes on a napkin while out somewhere. As long as I wrote 425 words at some point during the day, I considered myself meeting my goal.

I have always found – and continue to find – that the more I wrote, the easier it was to write the next day. If something interrupted me, say, like life, the next time I picked up the proverbial pen, it was a lot harder to start.

Even so, I have always taken the weekends off. This is a strange personal quirk of mine, but for me, treating writing like a job was what I needed to commit to the career. So, I take weekends off (except during crunch time.) But, what that means for me is that Monday writing is always the hardest.

If I take time off after having finished a big project (say, like a novel,) which I often do… starting up again is a pain. It’s like I’ve forgotten basic sentence structure. Or my writing muscles have atrophied. So, even after all this time, I try to write at least something on my fiction projects every day.

Do you?

First Night of Freedom… Squandered!

Having just finished the latest Garnet book (#3), I had my first official night off from writing last night. What did I do? I did everything a newly “freed” writer should do: I watched some network TV (can I confess something? I’m a total “House” junkie,) and then read another chapter or two in a good book (currently: John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War.)

I also wrote.

I know. I'm so ashamed. It's like an addiction. It was the strangest thing. I totally didn’t intend to, but, you see, there’s been this very oddball paranormal romance short story (novel?) bubbling up inside me wanting to come out. The problem is, of course, it’s not a Garnet story. Not only is it not a Garnet story, it’s probably completely un-sellable. Why, you ask? Well, because it’s the story of a chick-litty type heroine who is told by a very hunky angel of God that she is the next messiah. It’s so _wrong_ on so many levels. Of course, I’m enjoying it. Nothing may ever come from it, but that’s okay. I think sometimes it’s good for the soul to have a writing project that’s completely doomed – something you do for the love of it, rather than thinking too hard about whether or not it will ever sell.

Certainly, that’s how alternate me sold her first novel. I wrote something just for myself. Something that turned ME on, and, though I wrote it with a professional eye, I was fairly convinced it was far too controversial and at the same time too frivolous, (see my description of current project for example) to every catch the interest of an editor or an agent. As it turned out, it did both. Who’d’a thunk it?

Tonight, however, I’m determined NOT to write. I really want to read and sleep – both things I desperately need to catch up on.

I’m sure I can go one night without writing.

Yeah, watch me not write.

Dead Sexy Debut

So, today is the big day for Dead Sexy... it hits the streets today. I just happened to be at the Mall of America today and noticed that they had my latest on the shelves. Whoot! The best part of being a writer, IMHO, is moments like these... when you walk into a bookstore and there is YOUR very own name on the spine of a book. The thrill, for me at least, never deminishes.

Even though I'm sick as a dog. I woke up yesterday morning with a sticky throat. Mason caught a cold a couple of days ago, and usually these things pass on to Shawn. But, I think because I'd been staying up well past midnight for the last several days putting polishing touches on Garnet Lacey Book 3 (which was due today at the publisher, and I'm happy to say I got it in one WHOLE day early. A new record for me, I think), I was more susceptible. Last night I hardly slept for draining. And today Mason and I had to take Shawn to the airport. She's off on a work conference in Arizona for four days... so I get to experience life as a "single" parent for nearly a week (while sick). Bleah.

Oh, and Mason wants to report that he saw another new license plate: BRITISH COLUMBIA. Still no West Virginia, though.

Quickie: Five Questions

Check out this five question/answer interview with me over at http://nenscl.blogspot.com/.

Astrology Bloggin'

I'm staying up way past my bedtime tonight working on putting the finishing touches to Drop-Dead Gorgeous (Garnet Lacey, Book Three) which is due on my editor's desk in three days, and I had to do a quick bit of research on the internet about the astrological interpretations of new plantoid Eris (nee Xena). Anyway, by accident, I came across this gem: Astrology Blog. If you're so inclined, check it out.

MAJOR Magic, Sir!

Okay, so Mason has had some astounding luck when it comes to license plates. We've still never spotted West Virginia, and so yesterday he asked me to look up license plates from around the world. He especially wanted to see a Russian plate. I thought, "ha, ha, good luck with that, kid," but you know, it's a harmless pastime. Except....

Today we saw a foreign plate. I think it was probably British (given that there was also one of those GB stickers on the car), but the point is, Mason pulled in a plate from ANOTHER FRICKIN' COUNTRY.

We also checked out all the Canadian provences yesterday, and *in our neighborhood* was parked a Quebec plate. Keep in mind that I live in Saint Paul, that's Minnesota, people. Most of these plates have been spotted in the ten minute drive from our house to the Minnesota Historical Society.

As I told Shawn, now we just have to have him start wishing to find piles of money.

Blah, Blah, Bloggin'

First, I came across this site which has a fairly comprehensive list of SF/F authors that blog. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/002815.html.

Second, next Monday (April 30), I will be answering five questions about myself an my newest release Dead Sexy (Book 2 of the Garnet Lacey series) on DCL.

And lastly, just a reminder, I'll be guest blogging at Riding With The Top Down on Wednesday, May 9.

A Victory!

Wiccans allowed to display the pentacle on military graves! Check out this New York Times article.

Hawaii

Mason and I were driving down Summit Avenue to our usual coffee shop, Cafe Amore, and I was turning on to Milton when I spotted a rainbow on a license plate in front of me. "No way!" I shouted, "Mason, I think I just saw Hawaii!" Mason, who was, as usual strapped into his booster seat, became frantic. "I can't see it, ima! I can't see it!" Traffic was piling up behind me and I had to make my turn. I noticed the Hawaii car was turning in the other direction on the same street. "We'll chase him!" I told Mason. Of course, we were completely stymied by traffic. The parking lot I turned into is one way, and a very busy day care is right in the middle of it. A gigantic Honda SUV blocked us for several minutes. Mason burst into tears. I kept trying to tell him that we'd see the license plate again, after all, a Hawaii plate was in Minnesota (St. Paul, no less!) Even if we couldn't catch it today, we'd see it again soon.

We drove down Milton for several blocks, but we missed it. Mason cried and cried. We decided to go get our usual coffee and then resume "the hunt." Everyone at Amore sympathized with our dilemma, but most of them remarked, "Wow, Hawaii? Here?" When we got our drink and got buckled back in, I had an idea. No one turns on Milton, I said, except if they're going to William Mitchell College of Law. I decided we should check and see if there was a parking lot we missed. We drove into a very narrow parking lot at the back of the main building... and there it was. I stopped our car, got Mason out of his seat, and we walked right up to the license plate and TOUCHED IT.

Amazing.

Now Mason just needs to conjure West Virginia.

Techno-Peasant Offerings

I'm taking a break from my sin posts to point any readers trolling for "free" fiction to a short story of Other Me's that is a vampire story. If you're interested, check out Irish Blood, which appears here it its entirity.

Have a happy Pixel-Stained Techno-Peasant's Day.

Seven Deadly Sins and Writing: PRIDE

Writers, like Milton's Satan, thrive on an excess of confidence… of pride. I don’t think you can survive the revision/rejection process without it.

When I finish a piece of writing I look at it and think, “Genius! My God Am I Brilliant!” (yes, all capital -- ask my partner if these aren’t the exact words I utter.) Then, while the feeling is still all shiny and new, I send my brilliance out into the world – to critique group, market, or my editor – and then when the verdict comes back, I say, with the exact same conviction, “Jesus, I suck. Arrgh, I’m an idiot!” I might even sink into a blue funk for a minute or two, then, I revise and the next thing you know I’m a genius again.

Am I bi-polar? Maybe, but I also believe that this strange emotional flip/flop is part of what has kept me in the game for as long as I have been.

Successful writers are wired wrong, like inventors (or was it geniuses?) Anyway, I read somewhere that the difference between an inventor like Thomas Edison and your Crazy Uncle Floyd (you know the one who tried to build a flying bus) is that Edison failed more often and more constantly. Edison just never gave up. Not even after his head bled from banging it against the wall so many times. Not even after normal people would have quit.

People like to talk a lot about how writers need to have a thick skin. I believe that part of gaining that tough hide has to do with self-confidence. I spoke at the Wis-RWA Chippewa Falls chapter meeting on Saturday, and one of the members there asked me how I dealt with people who told me I couldn’t write. My response was immediate: “I didn’t listen to them.” I told her she shouldn’t either. Listening to anyone who tells you that you can’t do something is hazardous to your mental health. Just say, “no.”

I think it’s silly how much time some people invest in discouraging others. Despite what I said about winning in my earlier “deadly sins” post, I do actually believe that there’s room in our field for everyone. Yeah, sure, there are only so many slots for books being published each year, but if trends continue the number of those slots will only continue to grow. Publishers are publishing more books now than ever before.

Yet many writers are, more than any other profession I know of, actively discouraged from pursuing their craft by others in their field. I’ve heard hundreds of horror stories about the (typically) college composition or English professor that denigrated a student for writing something that contained a fantastical or science fictional element in it. I’ve also heard plenty of SF workshop veterans tell about scathing critiques that caused them to seriously consider abandoning writing all together.

That would be a crime.

The problem here, of course, is that the answer can’t be: just don’t listen to anyone but your own inner Muse. Why? Because that *would* be the writerly version of the sin of pride. You have to be willing to listen to critiques of your work, because there are things that readers see that the author simply can’t. A willingness to learn from one’s mistakes is, in my opinion, paramount to developing the craft of writing.

Someone else at the RWA meeting asked me how I dealt with that aspect of critique, and I said that I long ago divorced myself from my words. I’m married to my idea (or characters, theme, whichever, or all), not the text on the page. If a fellow writer can give me insight into how better to express my idea, I embrace it. I write to be understood. Honest critique helps me make my point better.

There are times, of course, when critique is motivated by other things, and is less than honest, so you still need to develop an ear for “what is rot, and what is not.” You need to have enough pride to believe in your vision, listen and learn, but never listen to idiots.

Seven Deadly Sins and Writing: Envy

Cross-posted from Wyrdsmiths.

There was a period when I couldn’t read science fiction novels.

I’d finished my second novel (actually, what became my first in print, Archangel Protocol) and it was being shopped around by my agent. I was still actively writing – I’d started a third novel and was trying to perfect the art of short story writing. I was in four writers’ critique groups, attending SF conventions, a member of the National Writers’ Union, and generally doing a whole lot of science fiction and writing-related work.

My partner is an avid reader, so we’d often end up at bookstores, and I found I was actually kind of mildly irritated just walking past the aisles labeled science fiction/fantasy. After the fourth or fifth time it happened, I started to examine my reaction.

I realized I was jealous.

Because of the way most bookstores shelves their novels, the publisher’s logos were prominently displayed in row after row after row that I passed. Just seeing those familiar icons made me inwardly seethe; I wanted one of those next to my name, damn it.

Beyond that initial gut reaction, I also had trouble reading science fiction because my life had become consumed by critiquing it. If I actually got through the green haze of my jealousy and picked up one of those books on the shelf, I couldn’t read it without starting the critiquing process.

And believe you me, no one – not even the genre masters/mistresses – passed my muster in those days. Everyone sucked. I was always at LEAST a good a writer as Ms.-Tor-Published-Her-And-Not-Me.

I couldn’t enjoy reading science fiction.

I can’t not read (just as I can’t not write), so I turned to other genres. I read a lot of romances and mysteries. I also discovered that SF short fiction bothered me less than long form (probably because though I was writing short stories and sending them out to market, I knew I wasn’t very good at the shorter forms.) Although I still had plenty of times when I threw Asimov’s across the room and shouted, “WTF? How did that crap get published when I didn’t?” When my first book published, I relaxed. I could read SF/F again, and I did, copiously. But jealousy and envy continue to haunt me. There are some writers in my field that I’ve refused to read out of spite because in my mind, “they’re famous enough.” (Keep in mind that I’m generally deranged this way. If a movie becomes really popular, I won’t go see it….just because. I’m probably the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen Titanic.)

I don’t think that writers can successfully avoid being jealous and envious of one another. It’s a competitive business, after all, and most of us entered it to win.

Jealousy can be a motivating force, if you let it. I find it fuels my ambition, for instance, and I try to embrace that side of it when I can. I determinedly rose from the ashes of my career partly out of spite and a keen desire not to let the bastards get me down.

I don’t always deal with it very well, though, hence my years of avoiding my own, beloved genre. What about you? Who/what are you jealous of? Have you found good ways of dealing with it?

Saturn Turns Direct

Astro-ALERT from astrology.com.

Saturn in Leo turned retrograde on December 5, 2006, so the beginning of 2007 was all about making sure that what we were aiming for was still what we really wanted. Retrogrades are always about going over territory you've already been through. Saturn represents our responsibilities, our rules for living, how we construct our lives, and where we need to place our boundaries. Leo is the sign of leadership and creativity, and it is very much concerned with self-expression.

During this important retrograde period, it's been important to determine how you can support yourself more effectively and express yourself more fully. Facing limitations -- those of the world in general, as well as your own capacity to limit yourself -- has been a part of this time, along with ending old ways of living.

As Saturn turns direct, you are finally going to get some forward movement. Don't drink that pot of espresso just yet, though! Things are moving forward, but speedy they’re not. Saturn is the planet that represents the builder, who wants everything done right. No shortcuts are allowed, so don’t rush anything. Instead, take your time to build slowly and thoroughly -- you will reap plenty of rewards if you keep this in mind. And with Saturn still in dramatic Leo, make sure you are always sitting in the director’s chair.

Determine in what arena you want to make your mark on the world. Decide what you want to be responsible for and what you need to leave behind; otherwise, someone else could make those choices for you. We are now in the last stage of Saturn’s transit through Leo (Saturn will enter Virgo on September 2).

Basement Bargain Prices

If you ever wanted to purchase a copy of Tall, Dark & Dead but found the trade paperback prices too steep for your pocketbook, fret not! Currently, Amazon.com is selling the book at deep, deep discounted rates (60% off!).

In other news, no new license plates.

But, at least one of my beta readers has gotten back to me so my mini-vacation from writing is over... *sigh.* Tonight, no more BSG, but nose back to the grindstone (or however that saying goes.) Wish me luck.

I talked to my agent via email the other day and our current plan is to continue to propose more Garnet Lacey books. I have to start thinking about what trouble Garnet should get into next....

Down to Two

First of all, if you've thought about buying my book, but decided that paying trade paperback prices was too steep, Amazon.com is having a deep, deep discount on Tall, Dark & Dead. We're talking 60% off. So, seriously, go now and buy yourself several while the getting is good.

Secondly, my family and I ended up at the Mall of America today, and Mason insisted on driving around to see if we could spot any new plate. Keep in mind that of all the states in the union, we're only missing Alabama, West Virgina, and Hawaii. Guess what? Mason spotted Alabama.

We're down to two.

Come on Hawaii, I know you're out there....

Yes, even more plates

Okay, just when you thought that there was NO WAY Mason and I could see any more new license plates we spotted two new ones today: Saskatchewan (Canada) and Mississippi (USA). (Mississippi, btw, was parked on OUR block. How weird is that???)

Now we are only missing West Virginia, Alabama and Hawaii. I am still astounded that within a matter of weeks, Mason has conjured nearly all 50 states and some Canadian provences (like Manitoba!) -- not to meantion several tribal plates.

The END and finally, Maine!

Two pieces of news. Frist, I finished my novel (Book III of the Garnet Lacey series) last night. Before you send in congratulations, I should note that this book is still seriously flawed and needs several more weeks of revision before I can truly claim to be finished with it. However, I have the important bits committed to paper and all the plot is officially (if not yet neatly) wrapped up. The even better news is that I'm right on schedule. My writers' group volunteers will now have plenty of time to read through the rough draft, comment, and get back to me before the May 1 deadline. HOORAY!

Second.... Mason's magic prevails. Yesterday, we saw MAINE.

Even More Plates!

Of course, given our astounding success so far, you'd think we'd stop seeing NEW license plates. However, while driving back from taking Mama in to work, Mason and I spotted three new ones: Connecticut, Tennessee, and Red Lake Band of Ojibwe (Tribal.) [Cool wikipedia note: according to them Red Lake Indian reservation was the first in the nation to issue its own license plates.]

What could be next? Hawaii????!!

More Plates!

While out at Como Zoo, Mason and I spotted a few more new plates!

There we saw Kentucky and Nevada. But, the biggest score of all came on our usual drive back from Minnesota Historical Society where Shawn works. RHODE ISLAND. I couldn't even believe it. I mean, for crying out loud. It's the smallest state in the union -- how did a license plate from there end up on Summit Avenue? (Well, obviously, Tate, it drove.) Still, this is getting almost spooky, especially given the we may have had a spotting of the elusive Maine today as well. (It zipped past in on-coming traffic so I couldn't be sure, and I promised Mason I wouldn't put it on our "list" until he had a chance to see it as well.)