Sorrrrry

I know I've been neglectful here when I've been meaning to post more consistently, but as I'm waiting for the paperback of Kings & Queens to go live--come on! come on!--after countless delays, I've been working hard on its sequel, Sapphire Reign. I can't wait to put it out. The editing is coming along nicely, but because it's insanely crazy, even twistier than K&Q, I need to have it checked for continuity to make sure I answered everything and didn't leave any danglers. I have the cover design that I'll share in a few. So Gorgeous. Kings & Queens features lips prominently, and this one, hands. [a little teaser]

The only problem with Sapphire Reign I foresee is marketing. I mean, I can't really blog tour in the same way. The YA book bloggers are the best!!!! No offense to the rest of you, but they're the most enthusiastic and fun. Yes, SR is a sequel to a YA book, and SR has YA POVs, but it also has several adult POVs too, so it's not actually YA. It opens up 10 years later from where Kings & Queens left off. Authors don't usually split genre but I'm a nonconformist. I write the stories that NEED to be written. And this book HAD to be written. Sometimes creativity doesn't yield so easily to the rules and rigidity of the industry. It's a good book, it's just so entirely different from anything that's out there. I know writers say that, but, no, mine really is. There's nothing like it. It's a weird, dark, and of course, twisted tale, and it's the kind of book that stores won't know where to shelve. Oh well. It needs to be free.

This was the main reason I decided to seek out a small publisher instead of continuing to shop Kings & Queens to agents. It gives me more control and I don't have to scrap an awesome book just because it's an odd, red-headed step child from a marketing and shelving standpoint. I suppose, once I get into my heavy marketing for Kings & Queens, that the people who love that book will be my market. If I keep writing great books, maybe I can develop a fan base of readers who will actually seek out my work. Hey, I can dream.

After reading Kings & Queens, some of my early readers would ask how my characters were doing. And, I secretly wondered about that too. Like, honestly. It's crazy to think of characters that way, but they just feel so real and alive to me. And apparently, to my readers too! So, I'm not the lone nut in this. And a couple dreams later, a story was born. I like that both K&Q and SR were inspired by dreams. I think that's really cool. And I guess the stickiness of my story and characters is the mark of good development, but Sapphire Reign has an arc all its own, and it's got new characters to fall in love with. They are stand-alone reads. One could read Sapphire Reign without having read Kings & Queens and still get it, but the entire mystery of K&Q will be lost ... which would be sad, since that's the best part, going along for the crazy, gut-wrenching ride to arrive at the answers of whodunit and why.

I'm really excited about Sapphire Reign. I can't wait to share it. I'm just not sure who will find it, but, hey, at least, its insanity and my inspiring, kid character, Crystal, will be out there for lucky readers to find, instead of stuck in a folder on a shelf ... or a computer that can get fried in an electrical storm--eh-em.

I'm believing I won't have similar setbacks and the process will flow more smoothly this time. Don't they say second time's a charm? Oh, wait. Or is it third? Forget it. Don't tell me. I don't wanna know. Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs

Aaahh, Breathing Room

Now that I've pretty much decided I'm going to do my own thing and choose my own journey with my YA novel, Kings & Queens, I suddenly realized I have more room. Yay!

You see, with any YA that gets into the big house, word count needs to be super minimal. About 60,000 is average. So, I worked extremely hard and slashed many a darlings to get that word count down from 106 g's to a less jaw-dropping 88. How awesome of me, right?

Well, now that I'm not going traditional with this one, it gives me more creative control, which means suit coats won't be telling me to cut this or that and more of my glorious words will be able to grace the eyes and ears of lucky readers. Sweet.

So, I'm gonna keep the terse version, just in case, ya know, an agent miraculously shows interest, but I'll also create a beefed-up version that's more compatible with its narrative-rich sequel, Sapphire Reign.

I'm only talking a thousand or two words here, but still, the extra room fills me with so much tickly delightful I can't stand it.

So, back to editing I go. This time to give a bit more fullness to my story.

And I'm still slowly but surely getting Dropping Like Flies and Online Girl closer to The End, DLF more than the latter.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

My Autumn Status

Let's see. Where am I when I'm not running or eating pumpkin pie? I am about 80% done with my novel, Sapphire Reign. I really need to be working faster and get it done. It doesn't help that I'm an edit-as-I-go kind of writer. Having my book finished by the end of the year is my goal.

I don't think I'll have time for Nano this year, even though it was so much fun last year. Although, I don't think I paid enough attention to my husband last November. All my characters in my Nano project ended up super horny. I didn't even realize it until I went back to reread it. Good luck to all those entering.

I am using Twitter more now, not a lot, but more than once a month heehee, because SO many agents are using it AND communicating with one another, so I want to be kinda-sorta likewise savvy. If you haven't already and don't mind being bored to tears, you can find me here: http://twitter.com/cvwriter

I am now seeking representation. I've been sending out queries all summer, slowly, about 4-6 agents a month. I don't like just going by what genres they represent and zipping off queries. I like to get a feel for personality, to see if it's worth my time. So, reading blogs and Twitter pages to see if there's potential compatibility takes time. If an agent is not online, I don't disregard them entirely, but it makes me wonder about their connections, so I put them at the bottom of my list. Plus, I think it's really wonderful when agents reach out and take time out of their busy schedules to post articles to help writers do their best.

Another reason why I'm going slowly is because I don't want to get overwhelmed if I get several requests at once. [Please let that happen to me!!! Come on.] Doing mass submissions by the 50's or more is just not my style. I do need to pick up the pace I think, but I will still keep it under 12 a month. That's reasonable and doable.

I am also working on a collaborative blog, which will be launching in a couple of weeks, with writers who are at various stages in their writing careers. Be sure to look for my announcement on that. This blog with all the zany regular writers and guest bloggers should be a lot of fun.

And that's about it. What have you been up to?

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Inspiration Jags and Nags

Sometimes inspiration can wane and other times it can rush in where and when you least expect it. It's often small things that inspire me, little ideas that grow into novel-length concepts. An overheard plot for mass murder in a dream gave me the plot concept for Kings & Queens. Another dream with a little girl psychically connected to a serial killer gave me my idea for the sequel, Sapphire Reign. In that dream, I was a different person, which never happens, who ended up being a character in my book.

Fellow blogger/writer, Dara, just had an inspirational dream set in a specific time period with multiple characters. Read about her experience here.

My book Dropping Like Flies was inspired by a sound, just an intercom type noise while I was lying in bed. And an article on foster children being pushed back into society right at eighteen gave me my idea for Decadence. I wondered what if the teen was even younger, like sixteen, and the world even more harsh and dangerous? What if this person had no family to turn to? What would this person do to survive? My character becomes a prostitute.

Pieces of dreams, emotions or things that affect me often inspire my poetry and short stories. And I'm usually compelled to at least write down my inspired thoughts before they escape me. That's the nagging part of inspiration, the voice that won't go silent.

Where do you find your inspiration?

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Building Momentum in Your Middles

Well, I’m at the midway point of my novel, Sapphire Reign. My main character has just been declared dead. Is she or isn’t she? Things are looking grim. How’s that for a middle?

I’ve had ups and downs, drags and bursts of inspiration in getting to this point, which is mostly because of my just-wing-it style and penchant for intricate plots that weave mystery, suspense and romance with weirdness. It's predecessor has a little bit of weirdness. This one has a lot.

I’ve taken myself in uncomfortable and different directions in this endeavor, working with more description than I usually do, infusing deeper narrative internalization beyond direct thought, and also tackling grittier material and more physical scenes, both intimate and not. I also want to get in more action and physical altercations. I think that’s the most difficult thing for me to convey and show with words. I think I'd struggle with a gladiator battle.

Do you find yourself struggling with the middle, building up to that very important climax. The middle is basically everything between the onset of the story question and the end. We hear about story arcs and are told to think of our throughlines in this way, but that arched image may be hampering your writing.

An arc may not be the best visual of your book's structure. What if your story is more like a rollercoaster with many small hills and loops and one gigantic monster at the end that takes readers way up into the sky and then rockets them down below ground level into an unexpected, underground tunnel like the Superman ride?—Love that ride BTW!

With Kings & Queens, I didn’t suffer from the dreaded sagging middle at all because I built my novel like a rollercoaster and not exactly an arc. It doesn’t just go from A to B with one hump but takes readers over here to explore this option and then rockets them over yonder to check out that, all equally enthralling to get to the answers of who and why.

These little hills are called set pieces. They are things you can hint at or build up to. They are pinnacle moments of change, danger, revelation, and character experiences that take your story into delicious directions. If your story is begging to be a rollercoaster ride, then build little hills and turns along the way and make it so.

Some stories are more like an angular slope with little curve at all. Some are figure eights. Some are circles. Find the best shape of your story. No matter your story’s shape, everything needs to move towards a satisfactory end with good pacing. Here's a list of things you can do to fix sagging middles...aside from laying off the beer and Doritos.

* Increase tension/jeopardy/conflict

* Raise the stakes

* Add a twist

* Find ways to have your subplots affect your main plot like a domino effect

* Unlock a minor mystery then add another one

* Add a ticking time bomb

* Have your MC follow a solid but wrong path then set sights in a new direction

* Add a catalyst

* Add a cause that alters your character's motivation.

* Let a character adopt a new goal. e.g. The villain was after the little girl, now he's after your MC too.

* Give your character a new problem to deal with or goal to reach.

* Evaluate your subplots to make sure they're not creating drag

Your middle should never lose its intrinsic purpose as a connector from the onset of the story question to the end. Don't let it drag and sag. Make it gripping and interesting. Build momentum. You can do it. Write on!

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Running in Slow-Mo

Some days I zip along in my penning of Sapphire Reign and get so much accomplished and then other days writing 500 words is a tremendous effort. I wonder if picking a more simplistic storyline would have helped instead of going for something so bizarre and creepy. :)

Editing Kings & Queens, the book I'm close to shopping, is taking me forever. I keep thinking about audience and itch to tweak the narrative to make it sound less YA-ish. All but one of the POV characters are teens, and I write subjectively, with a close, deeply penetrating narrator, so the novel sounds youthful as a result. I wrote it for anyone who enjoys a story with well-rounded characters and a twisty plot, not just for teens.

I consider my audience to be both older teen girls and young women under thirty, and a sliver of teenage guys because I have an intriguing male protagonist, action, baseball and violence. But is it YA or adult? Publishers like you to choose one side or the other because they need to know how best to position it. The complexity and intricacy bring it right up to the crossover line, and I'm just not sure which side it will land on first. Most likely YA, with crossover appeal, so all my painstaking tweaking will be for naught. I can hear the Q & A now. Q. What made you decide to write for teens? And how did you adapt your style when you switched to adult fiction? A. ?????...I'm sorry, folks, our interviewee has left the building.

I'm just about finished, as my critique group has reached the end of my book, then I'll give it to my husband to proof my edits. So I'll be emailing queries very soon. Wish me luck.

Back to Sapphire Reign, my sequel to the aforementioned YA-ish book, which has three twenty-something adults, one preteen and one teen as POVCs. This one is definitely not YA. The tone is much darker, the narrative has greater breadth, the world is grittier, the killers are more vicious, and everything is askew. If my first book goes YA, do I shelve the sequel until I develop a readership? I'm not sure. They're both stand-alone works, but the second picks up threads from the first. I definitely want to hover in my suspenseful-mysterious-weird niche for a while. And my first book's positioning will determine what I work on next.

Ever feel like you're running in sludge because of certain details that are killing your creative drive? I love writing, it's all the extra things like finding a perfect tag for my works that boggle my mind, stress me out and slow me down.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.