Sigh, yes, I am at home. Sometimes being a parent sucks. I started the day telling kiddo we would be going to cafe tonight and he was soooo excited. Pizza! Friends! Pizza! Yeah! I reminded him he had to do his chores first. Sure, mom.
We got home from camp before one. I agreed to lunch and a token’s worth of TV (30 minutes). Yep. It’s 6 PM and he still hasn’t finished. Still whining that it’s too hard. There’s too much mess. Um, and who’s legos made this mess?
sigh. I miss you all…
I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday for a little prod of accountability.
– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.
√ Oh god, another month down the drain. Can I use the excuse that it just doesn’t seem like there are as many challenges right now? Every one seems to be on hiatus for summer. No? Fine. I failed. Again. >raspberry<
– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.
√ Rolling along. I’m not so sure about everyone publishing this year. But I think they will publish quality. A lot of participants are busy with rewrites and poking at the title, first page, and back cover copy.
– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)
√ First draft done. Out for Beta. So far feedback has been hated it. I’ve had two others finish it recently and tell me they liked it a lot but they have notes. I’m waiting to see those notes. LOL. And two others haven’t gotten back to me. But I had someone ask me today if I wanted to really hear what she thought my novel needed. To which my response was: If I didn’t think it needed work, I would have just published already. It’s a good place to be in.
Non writing goals
– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.
√ groan. I am so screwed. I haven’t even started on my geography class. And I just got another class added to my schedule, but it’s comp. I can teach comp in my sleep.
– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either.
√ The only thing I am doing compulsively these days, is working on straightening out the financials for the pool board. And sadly, that is all I am doing full stop.
Our friend Dan, and I say our because if you’re a writer he should be your friend – his blog is so full of helpful writing advice, he’s always willing to help other writers, and he goes out of his way to showcase fellow writers. So I repeat, our friend Dan Alatorre just launched a new book. I have not read it yet, I missed the beta train, I was just too busy. But that’s another reason to make him your friend, he gives out bazillions of copies of his books for beta, so free books! Without further ado, an interview with Dan.
Your new Scifi adventure, The Navigators, isn’t your first book, and all have been published independently, what is the best part about being an indie author for you?
You get to keep 70% of your money – that’s a big one. There are lots of other things to love about being indie. There wasn’t an advance given to the book in front of you that didn’t earn itself back in sales so yours gets delayed another six months. You don’t pretend you’re getting marketing “expertise” you really won’t get. Lots of things. I love the adventure of indie but I’d still go trad with the right book. The Navigators doesn’t fit easily on an existing bookshelf, and that’s a lot of what trad publishers do. We need another Stephen King clone; what have you got? Nothing? Do you have anything like Anne Rice? No? Gosh, you’re not a very good author, are you? We’ll be in touch. As it stands, I’m doing fine, so I’m happy.
Define doing fine? Has your writing made you rich and famous then? LOL.
I think Bill Murray said if you can become rich without becoming famous, that’s the better way to go. I try to model my life after Bill. Well, after Bill as Carl from Caddyshack. Seriously, I don’t think I’d handle that kind of fame well, where you get recognized everywhere. I would totally try to have minions and buy castles and private islands and stuff, and then form my own armies for world domination. It would end badly, I think. Peasants will only tolerate so much. You’d find my headless corpse in a sugar cane field near Miami after making one too many smart ass remarks. Better to stay humble and live as long as possible so I can spend the money.
I’m guessing you haven’t been recognized by a fan in public for your writing?
My dad asked me for my autograph once. That was a little weird. The closest I’ve come to being recognized by fans was when people wanted to know when and where I was going to the beach so they could meet my daughter – “Savvy” from Savvy stories. When I read one of my children’s books to her kindergarten class, I’m just Savvy’s dad. Kids will keep you humble. Oh, but when I sent some copies of my books to an author friend, her kids read the inscriptions I wrote in them and were impressed she knew the author. So I have that.
That’s way cool. Kids are hard to impress, they take everything at face value. Let’s get to topic at hand. Where did you get the idea for The Navigators?
The idea for The Navigators came from an innocent post a friend put on his Facebook page. “What would you do if you had a time machine? Who would you see?” He was just trying to stimulate people to be creative, I think. He did. 105,000 words later I had a pager-turner action story and had invented a new theory of time travel. I should probably thank him. It’s my best published work yet, and a great read. Lots of twists and turns, which my readers have come to expect.
Did you give him a big thanks in your novel?
Nope. Now I feel bad about not doing it. Thanks.
You’re welcome? LOL. Just keeping you honest. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
I wrote The Navigators in about four months. I started posting chapters in a critique group in early August and finished before Thanksgiving. That was kinda fast, but then I let I sit for a year because I wanted to learn more about the craft of authoring before I released my manuscript to the world. Actually it probably was because I hate editing. Navs was worth the wait, though. It’s an incredible story.
How do you tell an incredible story then? What “person” do you like to write in? First Person, Third Person, etc. – and why?
My early work in the Savvy Stories series was all first person because it was funny stories about a dad – me – and his baby daughter, so I was very comfortable with that. When I wanted to make the leap to fiction, I started with first person for most of it, switching to third person limited whenever the narrator isn’t around, kind of like what James Patterson does. Also, I loved the idea of telling a story from “I” point of view. I did this, I did that – the reader begins to identify with “I” The reader is I. Then “I” does something bad and the reader is like, crap, I’m the bad guy? That’s awesome. Readers love a rollercoaster ride and surprises. They get that in The Navigators. Nothing is as it seems.
I’m glad you didn’t go with the whole second person thing to give immediacy. That always set off my irritation alarm. Which word / phrase do you find yourself always over-using and having to edit out?
Smile. My critique partners have a crutch word list for me. Smile, look… it goes on and on. But far and away, smile is my most overused word, which we have to edit out. I don’t mind smile being in my story, though, because it says the characters are having fun and that means readers will, too. Lots of smiles in The Navigators.
SciFi adventure with lots of smiles. Super intriguing. So I’m guessing if you could be any one of your favourite characters for one day, you’d pick one of your own from The Navigators? Or would you pick another character from a book that’s not yours?
The Great Gatsby had it pretty good, didn’t he? Retired at 40 with all that money. Of course, he got killed at the end of that book, so maybe not Gatsby… Let’s go with Mr. Mills, the father of the heroine in The Navigators. Everybody loves Mr. Mills in that story. And he doesn’t die. I’ll be him. I am anyway, so it works. People who read my stuff will get that. My critique partners say Mr. Mills bears a strong resemblance to a certain author they know…
He’s a father, you’re a father, I see the parallel. Does that mean he’s your favorite character you’ve written?
Sam in Poggibonsi is the readers’ favorite. She’s hilarious, always saying funny, smart-ass remarks everybody wishes they could say. She teases her boss mercilessly but it’s okay because she’s best friends with his wife. Sam is an awesome character. She’s like me but a woman, and that smartass attitude got me in a lot of trouble at work over the years. My favorite character is, of course, “Savvy” from Savvy Stories – my daughter Savannah.
Awww. I’m guessing reading has been a big deal in your house, as it is in mine. I mean you can’t be a compelling writer if you haven’t been compelled yourself as a reader, right? So, what book first made you cry, and why?
Encyclopedia Brittanica. I was helping my older sister do a book report and dropped one of the really heavy volumes on my foot. I think it was N. I never really recovered, creating a lifelong aversion to studying of any sort. I never opened a text book in grad school and still managed to get almost all A’s. My wife, who I met I grad school, had to study all the time. I thought my way was much better. What was the question again? Oh, a book that made me cry. I probably didn’t cry much at all until my daughter was born. Now I cry at everything. A baby girl will soften up a dad in ways he never knew were possible. These days, a sad TV commercial will get me sobbing, so lots of books can do that now. The first was probably – completely serious – the first was a book of nursery rhymes because she was having trouble sleeping and we wanted to sing lullabys to her, and of course neither my wife nor I could think of any. I started singing When You Wish Upon A Star – and I couldn’t make it through it. Now, I’m not some blubbering dolt. My daughter was born with a life threatening heart condition and hoping for wishes to come true was pretty much all we did for six months – wish for that condition not to take our baby. (She’s six years old now and fine, thanks to modern medicines.) But those early days when we weren’t sure she was gonna make it? I’d cry at Hop On Pop. She’ll never be able to hop on her pop! I was a mess.
Excuse me while I get a tissue. Clears throat. What? No, I’m not crying my eyes are just leaking a little. Shuffles pages, change the topic….
What is your dirty reading pleasure? You know the one you never tell anyone you read?
Playboy. They really did have good articles. I read a great interview of Bill Cosby from back before he got in trouble, like an article from 30 years ago, where he talked about having goals and getting to the top of the mountain but not doing it alone; that if you reach the pinnacles of success in life and aren’t there with your family, it means nothing. I guess he did that interview before he drugged all those women, allegedly… Why must all my heroes have horrible sides!
Because you can’t be a hero if you’re not human and humans have flaws. That’s what makes us interesting enough to write about. Do you like villains or heroes better? Which are more fun to write?
A good hero is amazing to write, but a really evil villain is WAY more fun. Your hero has to do good things without becoming an obnoxious goody-goody type. Your villain can be just awful and readers will love it. In The Navigators, Findlay is the bad guy and he is just despicable. Readers hate him. HATE him! That’s awesome. That means I did it right.
Can’t get much better than that. Have you ever met any of your literary heroes, and if so, were they amazing, disappointing or just plain awkward?
Most of my literary heroes are like Mark Twain, and so being dead and all, they were a little quieter than you’d like. I’ve met famous actors and sports stars (NFL quarterback Terry Bradshaw, Super Bowl winning coaches Jon Gruden and Tony Dungy, etc.), and usually they want to be treated like regular folks. That means not going over for autographs. So when I see a celeb, I basically point him or her out to my wife and then leave them alone. She hounds them for an autograph while I say, “Tsk, tsk; honey, please leave them alone. Oh! There’s Sinbad. Here’s a pen. Don’t go over there.”
LOL. When I was in my early twenties, I used to wait tables at this 24 hour restaurant. One night about 2AM Jerry Rice came in. He sat in my section and all the back house staff and waiters were flipping out. “Get his autograph for me!” Then they got mad when I wouldn’t. Seriously, can’t the man just eat a meal with his companion in peace? You want his autograph you go over there. But what would I say? Seriously? sigh. I get it, an opening line is important, but he’s Jerry Rice. This happens to him all the time, I’m sure. LOL
What is your favourite opening line from a book?
In Killer by Joey, an anonymous bio of a mafia hit man, he starts out saying the F-word. Can we cuss here? “Fuck The Godfather.” That’s awesome. The Godfather was the biggest selling book ever at the time, and this guy starts out and says screw that, it’s not reality. Then he goes to tell you the real deal, showing a mobster life much more like the ones depicted in The Sopranos. Wouldn’t you love to start a book with “F that”? I would. I may have to now. I almost did, too. In The Navigators, Roger has the opening line and he doesn’t want to go on Barry’s grand adventure. He says, “No way, you fuckers are crazy.” So I almost started with the F-word. I wonder if I can do a rewrite? Then my book would have my favorite opening line. Both are good though – hey new writers, pay attention – because they quickly let you know what kind of story you’re in for. That’s a good way to let people know, with the opening, and it’s hard to do.
I love that you’re always trying to share what you’ve learned. So give us a little more, what’s a good writing secret or time management secret?
Get up early at 4AM and write before everybody wakes up. That’s right, 4AM. You will be SO productive, you won’t believe it. Nobody does that one though, so here’s a second one: Check email and Twitter at lunch and not before. You won’t miss anything and the world will survive without you until noon, believe me. The latest exploits of the Kardashians will still be there a few hours later, sadly. But when your head hits your pillow that night and you knocked out 3,000 words, you’ll feel awesome. Every time you sit down at a computer, think of one of those balancing scales: the Kardashians on one side, your book on the other. Hmm. For too many authors, the distractions win. You control that. Let your book win. Then every morning is Christmas morning.
Guess I’m nobody then, cause I did that. I got up at five for like 6 months straight to write. I was so miserable I wanted to quit writing. Eeee, gads. The horror. Speaking of which, what story scares you?
God, The Shining put me up a wall. Things that go bump in the night are still that old lady from room 613 who drowned in the tub. Brr. Very scary, Mr. King. I may never recover. I’ll be up all night now just from thinking about it. Thanks.
I need a drink now, thanks. I’m thinking a moscow mule, hope I have fresh lime. If you had a cocktail named after you, what would it be called and what would be in it?
The Dan? It’d be a hurricane from Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans. I love them. Hook me up with a shrimp Po’ Boy and a hurricane, and I’m ready to party. It’s a sweet drink that tastes like… I don’t know; a rum and Hawaiian punch Slurpee. They’re awesome. Maybe rename it The Dannicane. Seemingly innocent but oh so dangerous; you never see the surprise coming – just like my stories.
Cheers to that. But … can I have a muffalatta instead?
I got an email from a marketing intern at a publishing house asking if I want to review Death, Taxes, and a Satin Garter by Diane Kelly before it released. Oh heck yeah. I love getting books early. Diane Kelly writes the police dog book series I adore because she includes chapters from the point of view of Brigit the German Shep. LOVE it.
So I e-gallied Satin Garter with pleasure. This is considerably along in the series, the 11th book in fact, and I haven’t read any of them before. shrug. Was not a problem at all. The cases Tara Holloway works in the book are stand alone. All characters are introduced in a way that explains quickly where Tara knows them from. The romance is already blooming but it’s still fun to enjoy their process. Cough, cough, no pun intended.
I have to admit I found the first third of the book slow, but maybe that was just my mental state at the time, because the next two times I sat down to read I really liked the book. I felt it moved at an appropriate pace, was funny and entertaining, and I was mildly irritated when I had to stop reading and handle something else. It’s a pretty quick read, maybe 5 hours. It left me with no lingering questions about the state of the world or any desire to gouge my own eyes out. LOL. It was just a pleasure.
℘℘℘℘ – Four Pages. Read it in 3 sittings. I’ll definitely grab more in this series.
Death, Taxes, and a Satin Garter releases August 2nd.
I’m a mom so there’s no real sick days. Sure, if I was in the hospital my hubs would take a day off work to watch our son but short of that…
So there are two kinds of sick days in my house. The ones where I pop some day-quill and suck on a hot tea all day while handling everything I normally would, although with less of a smile.
And then there are the other days. The ones where I am so miserably sick that medication doesn’t even get me out of the house. These are the days where I eat all sorts of things I wouldn’t normally consider consuming because they go immediately to my gut. The days where I move from the bed to the couch and back again. Where my son gets to watch TV, usually with me. And if I’m really sick, I don’t even home school him.
Most moms are probably nodding vigorously, we’ve all been there.
But here’s where I make a sharp right. When I am this sick all I watch is HGTV. LOL. Property Brothers, Fixer Upper, Flip or Flip, Design on a Dime, heck I’ll even watch old reruns of the original Love it or List it. (No love it or list it too, that chick’s voice grates.)
My son loves to watch these shows with me and guess what the people might do, talk about what the people should do or should have done, talk about what we should do to our house. LOL. It almost makes being miserably sick bearable. Soft cuddly puppy, warm wiggly kiddo, and Joanna Gaines not killing her husband when he brings home two new kittens and a puppy. Cause four kids, 6 goats, and a dozen chickens aren’t enough?
Because this is just too damn cool not to share. Thanks to the smallestforest for introducing me.
I’m scheduling a few posts while I still have an internet connection, because I can’t resist… “The Wintergartan Marble Machine, built by Swedish musician Martin Molin and filmed by Hannes Knutsson, is a hand-made music box that powers a kick drum, bass, vibraphone and other instruments using a hand crank and 2,000 marbles.” —Wired Magazine […]
Two years ago at Norwescon I attended a panel where one of the panelists was explaining how he felt he should put a warning in the front of his first novel. He actually read the warning out loud to the group. This was my introduction to Good Intentions by Elliott Kay. By the time Elliott was done reading the warning, I knew I wanted to read the book. But I can be a bit of a slacker and didn’t get around to picking the book up until after this year’s Norwescon.
Whew, what a read. I more or less read all 400 or so pages in two big blocks. The break in the middle was caused only by my trip to Hawaii – I have an actual physical copy of the book and it weighs a ton. LOL. Elliott defines this as an urban fantasy erotica. And the book is smokin hot. I mean smokin. Oddly enough it’s not the sex scenes that got my attention, clears throat, it’s the phenomenal way Elliott builds to it. The tension is very….um…yeah…
Ok, onto the plot. Love it. Imagine a world where good and evil are actually in a place of detente. Where things are balanced and the powers that be on both sides are comfortable in that balance. Now imagine a mortal with good intentions accidentally sets in motion an unbalancing of that power. Yep. And you get sex too. To share one of my favorite quotes from the book, which pretty much sums the whole thing up: “You got into this whole mess because of your conscience,” she smirked. “Thinking with your cock hasn’t gotten you into trouble once yet.”
℘℘℘℘℘ – Five Pages. Absolutely reading the rest of this series. Write fast, El
liott, then write faster.
Elliott kindly agreed to be interviewed by me and even answered ALL of my questions, though he should have been working on the next book.
But he’s awesome and I think you’ll agree when you get done reading this.
Right off the bat I have to ask, how did you come to combine such an interesting plot arc with erotica?
Originally, I only set out to write the erotica. Since erotic stories are usually a little over the top anyway, I like using a fantastical premise to help with suspension of disbelief. But even if it was “just erotica,” characters needed personalities and goals, and I quickly found myself wanting to do much more with these characters than just bringing them from one sexy scene to the next. If writing is a split between “plotting” vs “pantsing,” Good Intentions is almost 100% pantsed.
Almost 100% pantsed. ROFL. Given most of your characters spend a significant portion of time out of their pants, who are you in the book? Or are they all you?
A lot of them are bits of me. Certainly a lot of Alex comes from me, or at least who I was when I was twenty-ish. I remember being freaked out when dating & love didn’t fit the idealized models I had learned from fiction. But there’s also a lot of me in Jason, and even Lorelei.
Rachel, Drew, Molly, and Onyx are all based to some extent on friends either past or current. Wade is written closely enough to one of my buddies that any of our mutual friends who’ve read the book immediately recognize him.
I really wanted some of the external characters to die in Good Intentions, is their basis in your friends what led you to keep them all alive?
I kept them alive for several reasons. First, there are harmful tropes I absolutely hate, and I don’t want to play into them (fridging; killing off black characters; killing off bisexuals). Even apart from, I have strong feelings about character deaths for the sake of drama. I still have use for these characters. And ultimately, I wanted a Happily Ever After. It’s meant to be a light-hearted book. HEAs don’t work for me if I know there’s a funeral around the corner. I can’t stand it at the end of a film where everyone laughs even after they’ve lost friends along the way. “Hahaha oh hey wait up, someone ought to tell Frank’s wife he died…”
Er, I’ll pass on that assignment thanks. So, how long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
About three-ish months. It happened largely because I posted each chapter online (at literotica) as soon as it was done. Instant feedback meant instant gratification, so I was pushed along quickly. (Plus I was kinda trying to hide from life at the time.) I’ve never come close to writing that fast since then.
Whimpers quietly. But you’re working on Book Three right now, right? Right?
Clears throat, so… are Drew and Taylor ever going to hook up because they seem really well suited to each other? LOL
Maybe! Taylor didn’t make it into book 2, but she’s in book 3. It’s a pairing that makes sense. I’m playing with a lot of ideas for Drew right now and some for Taylor, too.
What is the best part about being an indie (or traditional) author for you?
Working at my own pace. My deadlines are all of my own choosing.
Um, well some of your readers might just complain about that. LOL. What “person” do you like to write in? First Person, Third Person, etc. – and why?
Third, because I like to get into everyone’s head. Even the villains. I especially prefer third person when writing erotic stuff, because first person somehow feels less intimate and less believable.
Even the villains? I think I know which way this answer will go before I even ask, but do you like villains or heroes better? Which are more fun to write?
I definitely like writing heroes better, but I tend not to think of “heroes” as being all that cut and dried. I like a hero who is every bit as scary as the bad guys.
Well then, what story scares you?
Virtually anything I was ever assigned to read in a literature class. Practically everything from junior high on up through college was an unending funeral dirge of helplessness and misery. I think the happiest thing I ever read in a class was Beowulf. The thought of going back to books like that scares me.
You actually read your assigned high school reading? Wow. You heard it here folks. People did actually read Tess of the D’ Urbervilles and not die of misery and boredom. You are a hero to us all. Speaking of which, have you ever been recognized by a fan in public for your writing?
Nope.
I might beg to differ. But technically I knew who you were before I read anything you wrote, so I suppose that doesn’t count. Have you ever met any of your literary heroes, and if so, were they amazing, disappointing or just plain awkward?
Probably the most formative stuff I read as a kid was comic books, and my gateway was the GI Joe comic (which is NOTHING like the cartoon). At ECCC a couple years back, I made a point of finding the author, Larry Hama (who is amazing). I shook his hand and told him he taught me how to read.
He smiled, and he was really nice, but he had this kind of exasperated look on his face, as if he was thinking, “Good God, how many times am I gonna hear that from guys pushing forty years old?”
Bwahahahah. Hasn’t he heard the saying don’t do anything great if you can’t take the credit for it? LOL. If writing suddenly made you rich and famous, what would you do?
Once I had a nice house and some investments for security’s sake, I’d probably go philanthropy-crazy. The single best thing I’ve done with my books so far was a charity drive for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). It let me make a nice hefty donation to them, and it felt really good to do. I have a lot of different causes I’d like to support.
You are just way too nice. You have some guilty secret. What is your dirty reading pleasure? You know the one you never tell anyone you read?
No guilt here at all: the original Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard. I love that stuff.
Interesting. Favourite opening line from a book?
“It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.” –“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson
First book that made you cry?
Cheesy as it sounds: Tom Clancy’s “Clear and Present Danger.” There’s a scene where Jack Ryan is watching a mortally wounded man’s last moments, and he suddenly blurts out that he’ll take care of college tuition for the guy’s kids. It really came from out of nowhere, but it felt really genuine. I was 17. That’s the earliest I can remember getting choked up by a book.
Ah ha. I knew you had a guilty secret. Wait. Crap, that’s not even bad. Ok, give us a juicy writing secret then.
To make a character more life-like in dialogue and such, cast the character in your head like a movie role. Imagine a specific actor, or better yet, someone you know personally. How would THEY deliver those lines? React to these events?
I like that. Especially since I already do it. LOL. I see all my books as movies in my head. If you could be any one of your favourite characters (your own or others you’ve read) for one day, who and why?
I’d be Captain America! It would probably be hard, but on the bright side, I’d be right about everything all day long.
I kinda think you already are. Kind to fan girls, check. Give of your time and money to charity, check. Cry over men taking care of other people’s children, check. I think I’m gonna have to force you to admit at least one flaw. Which word / phrase do you find yourself always over-using and having to edit out?
“For a moment,” “in a moment,” “after a moment.” I seem to use a lot of moments.
Well isn’t that lovely (my own personal bailiwick). We’ll be back after this moment with more from Elliott Kay. Kidding, just kidding. So you have two books in the Good Intentions series out right now, you’re writing the third. You have a Military Sci Fi trilogy out as well, the Poor Man’s Fight, Rich Man’s War, and Dead Man’s Debt. What’s next for you?
I’m *determined* to write a Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfic based on some cosplayers I saw at Emerald City Comic Con this year. They were just chillin’ on some stairs eating food. I immediately had a whole story in mind for it. Soon as this next book is done, I’m writing that fanfic.
Sounds…lovely. LOL. Thanks so much for stopping by and entertaining my readers. Thanks for writing fun porn with real plot. My husband thinks Good Intentions is fabulous and he hasn’t even read it yet.
Writing With the Master by Tony Vanderwarker was an amusing read. Mainly because Tony was so pleased with himself all the time. I kept waiting for the inevitable fall. Which of course came, multiple times.
Writing is the detailed account of the time Tony’s good friend (as in John flew them on his private jet to vacation in Italy), John Grisham, offered to help Tony write a book. It comes out as you read that John has already set Tony up with his agent but the agent passed. So John says he will help Tony write a novel.
Help is a subjective term I suppose. John helps him fine tune his plot, if you can call it fine tuning when you plunk a chunk of wood down in front of a wood worker and they whittle it into a beautiful sculpture. Then he hand holds him through the process of writing an outline, with multiple redos, all the while telling him how to make each major plot point good. Then a couple of drafts of the novel, fine tuning again.
In the end, no one wants the novel. Which is why Tony writes this one about writing a novel with John Grisham.
I suppose I learned a few things:
A) no matter who you know it can still be a rough road to get published traditionally.
B) You have to want it and it has to be the right time both for you and the market.
C) You can’t do it for the love of money. You have to do it for the love of the words.
℘℘℘ – Three pages. I read it. I would not recommend it.
Last winter our roof started leaking, in a couple of places actually. We had it replaced. But there was still a leak, a big ass, water pouring out a wall switch leak. Turned out both our sky lights in the living room were leaking too. I flippin’ hate sky lights but the hubs loves them so our current house has like seven of them.
Fast forward, we get the skylights replaced, contact the insurance company to repair the leak damage and start down a hellish path of delays, delays, and more delays. Oh sure they come out and open up my wall and use some heinous machine to dry out the extra hard wood my house is constructed from. That’s March.
It’s July before the repairs start to happen. There’s just holes in my wall for months on end. But finally the work starts. This chick comes out and insulates, puts up new dry wall, tapes, and applies the first coat of mud. Ok cool. It’s moving forward. And it’s a woman, who actually talks to me. My experience with contractors has been ridiculously sexist.
They come back to finish mud, texture, and paint. Ok it’s on a crazy busy day because originally I was told they would be here different days and I cleared those days but now I have to take care of things that got pushed off on the days they actually show up. hrm. Ok, ok, maybe there was just miscommunication between the contractor and the insurance guy. I still have faith. In fact, I ask them for a quote to do the exterior and the rest of the interior as that needs to be done this year.
I have to talk to the chick’s partner and he’s a bit condescending but I smile and nod. He gives this long speech the whole time we’re going though the house about how quality is what really matters and the over all quality is the most important thing. How if he does a great job on the walls but I skip the trim it won’t look as good overall. I can see that arguement. I can also see he’s padding his billing. LOL. I’m not actually dumb, despite what male contractors seem to think. He gives me a casual quote and says he’ll work up the formal quote and get it to me next week.
At 530 he asks if they can work on as they’re almost done. I say sure and text the hubs to meet us for dinner in town since I’m not going to try to cook in the mess. We go, have nice dinner, and come home to find them gone. And the work….um….well the mud looks like it’s rippling down the wall and bubbled in other places. You can still clearly see the replaced dry wall areas. And the paint is spotty, pitted, and all over my hardwood floors.
But this weekend, don’t miss Capital Indie Book Con in Olympia. It’s free admission and well worth the drive! Tons of NW authors to meet and great books to find. Check out the Facebook Page for more information.
I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday for a little prod of accountability.
– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.
√ Negatory, but July is still young right?
– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.
√ Yep, this weekend is our next session and I’ll be addressing how to actually format your book in Create Space and on Kindle. Plus there will be more first page/summary/letter idol. Then I’ll be off to Indie Book Con in Olympia.
– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)
√ First draft in the can and out to writers for beta. So far one beta is back and my books stinks. LOL. Can’t wait to hear what other people think.
Non writing goals
– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.
√ Vaguely preparing? I’m sick, leave me alone.
– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either.
√ Sure.
– yoga daily.
√ Yes until today when I woke up with my hubs cold. Bah. Marriage.
Remember a few hundred blogs back when I groused about how life could be worse than selling only a few books? I mentioned the books at the Scholastic Book Fair I picked up for fifty cents or less. So here it is in all it’s glory. (The other one turned out to be good and I already reviewed it.)
Dead is a State of Mind, Marlene Perez.
I’m not sure which is more horrifying A) how badly this book is written or B) that it’s third in a series, traditionally published I might add. This a YA paranormal mystery. Cool, I thought anyway. The way it is written reminds me of my writing in high school. It’s totally unrealistic in ways that have NOTHING to do with Werewolves, vampires, and psychics. It’s cliched, head jumpy, and super passive. It was so bad I want to rewrite it right now to make it better, because it could have been good. The general idea was fun. A town that is more or less open about their un-normality. A family of psychics and their human and other than human friends. And who doesn’t love a good murder mystery.
I want my 50 cents back.
This post is replacing Second quarter One Page reviews, cause this is actually the only bad book I read this quarter.
, isn’t your first book, and all have been published independently, what is the best part about being an indie author for you?
. By the time Elliott was done reading the warning, I knew I wanted to read the book. But I can be a bit of a slacker and didn’t get around to picking the book up until after this year’s Norwescon.
L of my questions, though he should have been working on the next book.
writing that fast since then.
T.A. Henry 