Pacing Class On-Line

OKAY TO FORWARD

Online class: March 1-31, 2009
"Pacing: How To Create A Page-Turning Manuscript"
by Mary Buckham
Registration $30 at www.WriterUniv.com/

What keeps a book intriguing enough to have fans turn the pages and not set it down? How can one author's books have you riveted and another's leave you feeling ho-hum? Ever wondered if there are key craft tips and techniques to balance fast-paced conflict, tension, suspense or mystery, action and emotion? In PACING: HOW TO CREATE A PAGE TURNING MANUSCRIPT you'll learn:

* The ingredients of a page-turner
* What hooks are and how to maximize them
* The power of effective scenes: common pacing pitfalls to avoid
* The ten elements of strong pacing
* How to use subplots and secondary characters
* How to avoid a sagging middle
* What a beat is and how to use it
* Great beginnings & endings that have your readers wanting more!

Mary Buckham’s debut Romantic Suspense novel, THE MAKEOVER MISSION, was a Silhouette Intimate Moments release. Her second novel, INVISIBLE RECRUIT, was a May 2006 Silhouette Bombshell. A former magazine editor, she has written hundreds of free-lance articles and a non-fiction book. Currently she is a national writing-workshop presenter, both online and at conferences. Visit www.MaryBuckham.com or www.BreakIntoFiction.com for more information about the release of her Break Into Fiction book coming June 2009.

OKAY TO FORWARD

Chat Tonight

Wednesday, February 11, 2009, I will be taking part in the Valentine Soiree at the Writerspace chatroom from 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm EST. Sign up for the contest and win copies of my newest release! There will be a ton of other writers participating as well. To see a fill list check out: http://www.writerspace.com/valentine

Zero Words

I slept much of yesterday, instead, trying to fight off the inevitability of a cold / strep.

But the funny part was my mind must have felt guilty about it because I had at least two thoughts about the novel hit me while in a fevered state. So I'm hoping -- fingers crossed -- that I'll get some good writing in tonight. I have to say, though, I still don't have a clear vision of my final showdown. Hopefully it'll come to me during the day today.

House of Plague

On Saturday in the middle of our poetry/Imbolc party, Mason started acting sick. In very uncustomary style, he hid upstairs and read quietly to himself while everyone else enjoyed each other's poems, etc. He was very feverish by Sunday, and yesterday we went to the doctors just to rule out anything more serious than a virus.

Turns out that on top of a cold, he has strep throat.

My partner, who will catch anything anyone who even passes her on the street has, instantly also caught the cold. I seem to be the only one in the house left standing...

...so far.

But under the heading "silver lining," because my usually high-energy, high maintenance kid is in the mood for watching TV and reading quietly to himself, I've managed to keep up with the word count (so far!)

Middle Ages Course for Writers (on-line)

***PERMISSION TO FORWARD***

Yellow Rose Romance Writers is proud to launch online workshops for the first time! All workshops are $15 for Yellow Rose members and $25 for non-Yellow Rose members.

In March, Eliza Knight will present A Noble's Life In Medieval Times. This is a 4 week course. To register, go http://yellowroserwa.com/workshops.php and fill in the form. We accept PayPal and check/money order. Registration deadline is February 28, 2009.

Course Description:

Life in medieval times was so much different than the way we live today. When readers sit down with their favorite medieval historical romance, they are taken away to another time and place. For most readers, this is where they learn about medieval times, and it is the duty of the author to be as authentic as possible. That being said, you don't want your book to be a history lecture either, but to just flavor it enough.

This workshop will teach you how people, particularly nobles, lived in medieval times, in order for you to be truer to the era you write about. This is an open discussion workshop, questions and comments are welcome and encouraged. The lessons will be presented as follows:

Lesson One: The Medieval Castle
Lesson Two: Medieval Entertainments
Lesson Three: Day in the Life of a Medieval Lord and Lady
Lesson Four: Medieval Medicine
Lesson Five: Medieval Clothes

Eliza Knight is the author of multiple steamy Regency and erotic Highlander time travel romance novellas published by The Wild Rose Press. She is a freelance copy editor, Newsletter Editor for Hearts Through History Romance Writers, and President of the Celtic Hearts Romance Writers signature chapter of the RWA. She also volunteers her time as moderator of a critique group and contest coordinator. Eliza is the author of the award-winning blog, History Undressed and has published numerous articles in various newsletters. She presents workshops on history, researching techniques and writing craft, to writing groups online. While not writing, reading or researching, she is chasing after her two--soon to be three--children and living with her own knight in shining armor. For more information on Eliza, please visit her website at, www.elizaknight.com, and www.historyundressed.blogspot.com.

On the Radio!

This is subject to change, but yesterday I agreed to be on Radio Cafe with Cathy Hauser on Saturday, February 14, 2009 (yes, Valentine's Day) from 3:00 - 4:00 pm CST on KTNF / AM 950 (that's "Voice of Minnesota," Air America.) If you're out of town and still want to listen in, please go to www.am950ktnf.com. Also, if you wish to harass... er, support me, feel free to call into the studio line at (952) 946-6205. I'm sure Cathy will also announce a 1-800 number if they have one.

Professor X as Heirophant

Here's Professor X as the Heirophant in my continuing Marvel (tm) Tarot pictures. I didn't write anything in my tarot journal after drawing it because it turned into a busy day, but here are my thoughts now.

I picked Professor X to be the Heirophant after reading the section in my WitchSchool.com Tarot 101 course. The instructor talked about the Heirophant as a guardian of arcane knowledge, and in many ways Prof. X is a kind of hero's school for mutants. You really can't be a good guy mutant without getting past the door marked "School of Gifted Students." He is the headmaster of the School, and, in the very beginning when it was just the five X-Men, the sole instructor of everything from math to "Superhero 101."

The two figures in the front take the place of the kneeling monks. I didn't intend them to be any particular characters, though I considered Jean (Phoenix) and Scott (Cyclops), though they will be making an appearance in the LOVERS card. I decided that the figures should remain sketchy and naked to represent the "anyone" aspect, though I did make them white/Caucasian, which given the diversity of the school kind of limits the characters. I suppose I could have colored them purple and green, also given the nature of the characters that are often admitted to the School of Gifted Students. :-)

The Point of No Return... Or Something Like That

I FINALLY past the half-way mark for me, 40,000 words yesterday. Although this has been a very messy process give how quickly I've been writing. I've been doing a lot of "ah-ha!"s and realizing what I SHOULD have written, and going back and layering in a lot of that. For instance, yesterday, though I ended up writing nearly 2,000 words (which is my daily goal,) most of those where a paragraph here or a couple of lines there. And I realized last night that there's a scene I've worked on maybe three times since I wrote it that STILL needs some massaging to get right.

Happy Imbolc!

Yesterday, my family and I did our usual Imbolc ritual where we added beads to our charm/magical necklaces. Mason really enjoys this one, and he always ends up doing an extra project. This time it was making a necklace to ward off the monsters under the bed.

I also have a new Tarot card I need to post. Maybe tomorrow.

Hope you all are keeping warm as February returns to Minnesota with a vengeance.

X-Posted Cat Blog

Normally, on Fridays over at Wyrdsmiths' blog, Kelly McCullough posts pictures of his cats along with silly captions. He's out of town today, so I decided to step in. I think this one kind of makes for a nice "story arc" (that's Mason, obviously, MUCH younger...)

Mz. Peep sez: "What the frak?"

Mz. Ball sez: "What the frak?"

Kittez sez: "OMG, there's a baby in teh condo!"

How I Spend My Free Time

Here's what me and my family does on the weekends:

Many Bloody Returns... in Polish!

Here's the Polish version of MANY BLOODY RETURNS, the anthology my story "Fire and Ice and Linguini for Two" appeared in -- somehow I neglected to post this here when I first found out about it. Cool, huh?

Realms Closing!

I heard about this through a list I'm on: http://sfscope.com/2009/01/realms-of-fantasy-closing.html. This is bad news for fantasy writers everywhere.

Hopefully, I'm the Tortoise

As I've reported here before, my friend and fellow writer Kelly McCullough and I are racing to each finish our novels by the end of February, as we have other irons in the fire. I've been keeping a tally of my progress in the sidebar of the Wyrdsmith's website: http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com. Kelly is currently handing me my a$$ on a plate.

The worse part is that I've been writing and working non-stop on this novel. I just don't have anything to show for it because I realized that I needed to do some massaging of the first 2/3rds in order to write the last bit. Yesterday alone, I probably cut 3,000 words. Yet miraculously, today my word count is still in the positive, which means I must have seriously kicked butt.

Not that you can tell just by looking at the word count.

I comfort myself by telling myself that winning is good, but having a good novel at the end is my actual goal.

The News!

I'm happy to announce that my agent brokered a three-book deal with Penguin for a new series! I'll be writing an YA (young adult) about a fifteen year-old girl living in Saint Paul, Minnesota who has a vampire prince for a father and a mother who's a real Witch.

The only draw back is that I agreed to write this book by October of '09, and, as you know, Bob, I already have two books with deadlines this year. So... if I come and go on the blogisphere, that's the dealio.

Anyway, whoot! Many whoots!

Argh! I'm Sitting on a Great, Big Secret

And I'm just about ready to explode. All I can say (as a great, big TEASE) is that it involves more books, my agent, and my editor.

And I'm really, really happy!!!!!!

Mason and Obama

I wish I'd had my camera last night as we were all watching the inauguration speech I'd taped. In the middle of it, while Shawn and I had tears streaming down our faces, Mason hopped up and gave the TV (which showed a close-up of President Obama's face) and gave him a big hug and a kiss. It was SUPER cute.

I managed to get some writing done yesterday, even though I was very distracted by an overwhelming feeling of joy. The biggest problem with having written this novel so fast is that I find I've gotten sooner to the point in the novel where I wonder if a huge revision is in order. A lot has happened in this novel, but there's no clear villain or tah-dah to head for and I'm feeling a tad lost. I may have to take part of today to do a little thinking and re-reading.

It's okay. It's part of my process and part of what seems to happen to me during these waning moon periods, you know?

As a friend texted me yesterday, "Happy Obama Day!"

Life Interruptus

I've been doing PRETTY well with this writing competition that I have going with fellow Wyrdsmith, Kelly McCullough. But, yesterday, life happened.

I had way too many errands to do. I panicked about it for a while, but then I called my partner Shawn. She said, "You know what? Sometimes you have to do other things. It's OKAY."

And it was.

So I only got 461 words written. It's still 461 closer to "THE END." Some days, that's the best you can hope for.

Uh....Thanks?

Google Alerts found this gem for me: Review: Tall, Dark & Dead and Dead Sexy.

The last line made me laugh out loud. Though written by an Australian, it could have been written by a Minnesotan: "you could certainly do worse [than read these books]."

Uh... wow. I feel extra warm and fuzzy now. Although to be fair, the review, up to that point, is really quite nice. And, in context, the whole bit about doing worse is really quite positive. Still...I feel like calling my publicist and yelling, "Stop the presses! I need that tag line on the cover my next book: 'Could do worse!'"

Medusa as Empress

According to my tarot journal, I drew this card on January 3, 2009. It's the first image in my new tarot journal for 2009, which I got from Shawn for Solstice. Anyway, here's my "mystical rambling" about why I drew it the way I did:

Here's Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans as the Empress. It's not totally rocking awesome, but there are still things about it that I like. One of the things I was fascinated by in the Rider-Waite version of this card was how the Empress seemed to be sitting at the boundary between civilization and wilderness. I really wanted that idea reflected in my own version, thus Medusa sits on a cushioned chaise lounge in front of a window that looks out on the moonscape (because, as you know, Bob, the Inhumans are currently based on the moon.)

I gave her the Venus shield and an orb with the equal armed cross because otherwise this card is devoid of the usual symbolism. You'd have to know me to know that I've always been fond of the Inhumans, particularly of Black Bolt, Medusa's consort/husband/king. He might have made a good Emperor card because responsibility is certainly his watch word given that he only has to utter a single whisper to destroy worlds. But, the relationship between Medusa and Black Bolt has also always fascinated me because, thanks to his awesome sonic power, she speaks for him. (She may be telepathic or, I don't know, they've maybe just been married that long.)Either way, there's got to be a lot of trust there, don't you think? Plus, if you like the Grail interpretation of the Empress and Emperor cards this makes her the "kingmaker," without her Black Bolt could not rule (as he could never make his wishes known.)

She's always seemed sexy to me, too, and -- though I can't point to any particular issue that makes me believe this -- I've always thought that she and Black Bolt had good sex and had a very sensual, loving relationship.

I feel like she's someone's mother, too, though I was corrected on LJ that she's Crystal's sister, not mother. Anyway, she seemed a good fit: mother, lover, ruler.