No Rest for the Wicked

Sometimes I wonder if I've started repeating blog post titles. Then I remember I'm coming up on the 11-year anniversary (!!!) of this site and I've decided not to let it bother me.

Okay, so! As of my last post about a month ago, I'd finished writing a book that had taken me on quite the journey. Whenever I finish a writing project, I always say I'm going to take a little break, maybe read some books that have been on my list for a while, play some video games, etc. Aside from my usual August vacation, though, I've noticed that break getting shorter and shorter. My "to-write" list never seems to get any smaller, and I guess I've gotten used to my routine, even if I'm not as fast as some other authors out there. There's probably also something to be said about how with the current state of indie publishing, especially for romance/erotica, the faster you produce, the more successful you are, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to tackle that topic.

All that is to say...yeah, I've started a new project. I'm not going to say "book," nor am I going to say "short story," as I don't know yet exactly where I'm going to land word count-wise. Originally, I thought it was going to be a short story, but as I started writing, the words started coming out FAST. Like, really fast. I'm as shocked as you are right now. I started it almost three weeks ago, and I'm already creeping up on 10K words. For me, that is fast.

By my estimations, which have actually been getting worse over the years as my writing has become more detailed, I think I'm around the halfway point. So much for a short story. Either way, I'm having a lot of fun, and that's the important part, right?

(I'm not 100% sure about the title yet, so no tag for now!)

The Home Stretch (of what feels like a marathon)

The release of A Flame Among the Stars went swimmingly, which is always a good thing. Reviews are popping up on Amazon and Goodreads, and they're largely favorable. As of right this second, I don't have any additional promotional events coming up, but that can always change!

As the saying goes, however, there is no rest for the weary. In addition to wrapping up AFAtS and promoting it, I've been working on finishing up the Geneva/Searching the Skies series. Book 4, Chasing the Skies, kind of went slowly, probably because I was promoting a bunch of other things while trying to write. There were a few times I questioned whether I still liked the plot I'd come up with, and one night I even debated scrapping the whole thing, but it worked out, it's done, and I'm satisfied with the results.

So, here we are at the end with Book 5, Conquering the Skies. I had a better mental outline going in than with Book 4, though there are still some details in the middle I need to flesh out. By my calculations, I estimate I'm roughly about a third of the way through, but since this is the final book, I won't mind if it goes a little longer.

It's funny - after spending so long with these characters, there are points where it almost feels like the book is writing itself. I know what they're going to say, how they're going to feel in any given situation. There have been times when I've had an idea for the plot, thought "no, that can't happen because of XYZ", and then actually included one of the characters pointing out that something can't happen because of XYZ. In fact, for the first plan I had for wrapping up one of the plot lines, I finally realized it would be out of character for our gruff but lovable space heroine and I have to do something different. (At least I realized before writing it out!) A lot has happened in five books, and I want everything to make sense and be satisfying for readers.

I still have a fair amount to write. As I've said before about other projects, I'm not quite at the point where I can say "the end is in sight!", but that point of being able to say that may be in sight. And really, it feels like a significant place to be, near the end of a five-book series that I wasn't sure was ever going to happen. I have no idea what I'm going to write once I'm done with Geneva & Co., but I think I'll finally take a bit of a writing break and play some games and catch up with Netflix. But first, to the finish line!

Multitasking

I'm pleased to say I've reached the home stretch of Surrendering the Skies. I have one more chapter to go, plus an epilogue. And honestly, I'm not crazy about where my word count is right now, so I might wind up going back and adding in a few more things, but we'll see where I wind up. Still, exciting!

As I started inching closer to the end, I also started thinking about what else I want to accomplish this year writing-wise. Regular readers will remember I have more older books that came back to me following a publisher shutting its doors, and I have to figure out what to do with them. It finally hit me that if I want to re-release any of them on my own, these things take time, and I should probably start making some sort of plan. (I know, it's obvious. Big derp on my part.) As I've been saying this past year or so, now that my kids are a little bit older, some of the brain fog is clearing, and I've been feeling more like my writerly self. So, let's attempt some multitasking!

I revisited my beloved Disintegration series to check out where it is now and how much work it would need. You know what? My love is not misplaced; those books are still fucking awesome, if I do say so myself. Really, some of my best writing is in there. They will need some editing, and I will probably sob to myself as I slash all the "thats" and "justs" and a whole bunch of adverbs, but otherwise, I don't think it'll be too painful.

Next, I realized if I want to do right by these books I love so much, I should invest in some kick-ass cover art. I've got tax return money coming. I've got stimulus money. LET'S STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AND SUPPORT ARTISTS! I put a call out on Twitter, reached out to some artists, and found someone I think will be a great match. Since I wasn't crazy about the original covers back in the day, I'm super excited about this part.

After/during cover art will come editing, which, again, I don't think will be too strenuous. And then after that...formatting. I've done e-books before, so I'm not too concerned there. It falls under the category of "time-consuming, but not terribly difficult." But I haven't done a paperback on my own yet, so I need to start doing research on that. I know there are ways to outsource this work, but since I'm spending money on the covers, I'll most likely handle the formatting myself.

So far, my plan is to finish up Surrendering the Skies, shop that series around, and then get to work on editing. As of right this second, I'm planning a release date for the first Disintegration book for September 1st of this year. It might be a wild ride, but I think it's doable. I'm also going to release the set of prequel short stories at the same time, but—BUT!—newsletter subscribers will get those for free, so make sure you're all signed up for that.

I'm voluntarily putting a lot on my plate, but as of right now, it's making me happy and motivated and all of that good stuff. Fingers crossed these plans work out (says the pantser)!

A Series of Questions

I've been saying to myself "oh, I really should write a blog post" for about the past week or so. Honestly, I don't have a whole lot to report. Progress on Surrendering the Skies, Book 3 of the series I'm rebooting, is coming along nicely. I would estimate I'm somewhere between a third and halfway through, and I've got a pretty good outline for the whole thing. (As well I should, as this has been floating around in my head for years.)

As I've been writing, I've been thinking of how this book will fit into the series as a whole, and various issues relating to doing a series in general. First, I should preface this by saying I admit I have not read a series in a long time. Free time for hobbies is limited these days, and I try to spread it around evenly. Due to that, I've definitely had a preference for standalone books the past few years. I know, I know, good readers make good writers, blah blah blah. But there are only so many hours in the day, you know.

One big issue I've been thinking about whether or not it's important for each book of a series to be able to stand on its own. As always, there's no one right answer. I read a lot of the Anita Blake series in high school and college, and I started with Book 9, Obsidian Butterfly, because I got it as a birthday gift from a friend who worked at Barnes & Noble when it came out and he liked the cover. (Hey, there are worse reasons!) Interestingly enough, Obsidian Butterfly is kind of the "side quest" of the series, in which Anita takes a vacation from all the drama in her life. So, that kind of answers the standalone question and actually made it a decent book to start with. I continued on with #10, Narcissus in Chains, liked that too, and then went allllll the way back to the beginning.

(Then I quit after #12, Incubus Dreams, and learned a few years later that I was not alone in stopping at that exact point, but THAT is another topic for another day.)

Then the other full series I've read in recent years is The Hunger Games trilogy. (I have not gotten to the new fourth book yet, but that's a prequel anyway.) I started at the beginning, and I can't think of a single person who has started anywhere other than with Book 1. I'm sure they exist, but I can't imagine reading that series out of order. Also, I did read the first Outlander book a few years ago but didn't continue with the rest of them, and that seems like another one where people tend to start at the beginning.

So, my Skies series. I've said before that back when I wrote the first one, I never had any plans for it being a series, which I guess fits in with me being more of a pantser than a plotter anyway. When I wrote Book 2, Defying the Skies, I did make an effort to make it accessible to readers who hadn't read the first one. Now, with Book 3...eh, not so much. I mean, since it's not really a complex world, I guess readers could start here and figure out the context quickly, but it's not a priority for me this time around. And unless someone whose opinion I value tells me otherwise, I'm sure I will be at the point of barely caring at all about this issue by the time I get to #4 out of the planned five.

Which reminds me, I will eventually need a better outline for #5 than I have now, but I don't need to worry about that yet, right? (Pantsers unite!)

To the Skies!

I've mentioned a couple of times over the past months that the first publisher I worked with has shut down, all the rights to my books have reverted back to me, and I had to figure out what to do with them. I took my planned writing break following the completion of A Flame Among the Stars, but then it was time to decide what to start next. As always, I had a number of ideas to choose from, but one possibility called to me the loudest: I wanted to finish off the Skies series.

To recap: Searching the Skies was my very first published book, featuring Commander Geneva Greyson and her attempts to balance her career goals with her family life, along with having to choose between two men who show a romantic interest in her. (Spoiler alert! She chooses both, and the three of them live happily ever after.) As this was my first major writing project that wasn't fanfic, I didn't really think too far ahead beyond "can I get something published?" I don't even remember what made me want to write a sequel, but I did, and it came out a year and a half after the first one. I did have plans to write a third book and had a pretty solid outline for it, but for a whole long list of reasons, it never happened.

So, here we are. Before starting the shiny new book, I wanted to go through and edit the first two. I'd skimmed through them back when the rights first reverted back to me, and I knew I had some work to do. As I wrote in a previous post, Searching the Skies was...ARGH. Ergh. Bleh. I guess if nothing else, it's nice to be able to say I've so obviously improved as a writer? Some of it was downright painful to reread, to the point where I almost want to track down everyone who read it and apologize to them. Honestly, there were points where I considered scrapping the whole thing, but if this were easy, everyone would do it, right?

I believed a good story lay hidden in there somewhere and slogged through to the end. Next up: Defying the Skies. While not flawless, I'm pleased to report this one held up considerably better. Sure, there were some errors that had been missed the first time around, and a few instances of lazy writing and awkward phrasing, but there were a few points that made me say "oh, damn, there's some really good shit in here". Us writers are often known for doubting ourselves, so those moments where the opposite happens are quite nice, I must say.

Okay, so the first two books are edited. Time to start the third! I started a new file two nights ago and I'm easing back into writing these characters I first created almost ten (!!!) years ago. But wait, there's more! As I said, I'd outlined the third book (and even titled it!), and it had a clear beginning, middle, and end...but then I realized that the ending I'd planned wasn't the most satisfactory, especially considering the series as a whole and comparing it to the previous two. I mean, it's an ending, in that it concludes the story the book tells, but I don't think I can leave off there. To make a long story short, I've decided this trilogy is now going to be five books long, and everything will be finished off with a pretty little bow on top by the end.

It sounds like a lot, and I definitely have my work cut out for me. I also have to decide on the best route for publication, and while I have some ideas/strategies, I need to get a bit more actual writing done first. For now, though, this is what I want to focus on, and I'm looking to more fun, sexy space adventures. Because I firmly believe the world can always use more of those.

Off to Some Kind of Start, Part 2

Remember a couple years ago when we were all going back to our old projects at critiquing our opening lines? It's that time again! Writing/blogging buddy Krystal Jane recently posted her new collection, and someone on Twitter just asked about favorite blog posts, so here we go for Round Two. I'll pick up where I left off and see if I've actually gotten any better at this. (I'm guessing not.)

 

Here's Part 1 to recap, from July of 2017 (apologies for the text colors, a casualty of the site redesign)

Hunting Astrid is still brand new and sparkly and shiny, so let's see how my latest release fares under the microscope.

 

“There you are. You almost missed all the fun.”

“Sorry I’m late.” Astrid hurried into the room and wheeled her chair out from underneath her desk. “Some sort of malfunction with the train. We were stuck for half an hour.”

Her coworker Lily snorted without taking her eyes off the screen in front of her. “So much for the best technology this corner of the galaxy has to offer.”

Hello, sci-fi! I've become a fan of starting stories in the middle of a conversation, like here. Not the snazziest, not the worst. I promise things pick up quickly in this opening chapter.

***

How about some fanfic? I did write a lot for Fire Emblem: Three Houses over this summer, which kicked my motivation for my original works into gear. Here's the opening for the first one, which was actually the first fanfic I wrote in quite a few years.

Aelfric couldn’t understand the strange looks and hushed whispers that had followed him around like an irritating swarm of bugs over the course of the evening. After all, why wouldn’t he have wanted to attend Sitri and Jeralt’s wedding? It was a joyous occasion, one the monastery didn’t often host. Such love should be celebrated, he declared to himself.

Not gonna lie, I'm kind of digging that first line. And a note to anyone who's played the FE3H DLC: FUCKIN' AELFRIC, MAN, AMIRITE!? (i rite.)

***

Let's take a look at Fire Beyond the Frost, whose long journey to publication has been chronicled here. To recap: the book was published a year ago after sitting on the shelf in need of a good cleaning for a few years. Before that, parts of it were originally a story written for a former friend's role-playing forum. I have no idea what got edited when, so here's a collection of words that were written sometime in 2019, 2013, and/or 2011.

Dr. Catalina Frost looked out the small window of the spaceship. A few men from the crew scurried around the launch pad of the Blackhill Spaceport. The vessel would be departing within moments. A pleasant female voice came over the intercom, informing the passengers to move toward their seats and prepare for takeoff.

All right, so we know Catalina's going somewhere, which is kind of the point of the whole book. Not too bad. I don't hate myself.

***

Rewinding a little farther, here's the intro to Closing Montage.

The large brown box sat on the doorstep, unremarkable, cast by the shadows of the dwindling sunlight. My heart raced as I pulled the car into the driveway. Though I couldn’t see any writing or labels from where I sat, I knew it didn’t contain another shipment of medical supplies or more useless gifts from well-wishers. This package was special.

You know, this one's better than I remembered it. It drops plenty of hints about the upcoming story, plus it has an element of mystery: what's in the box???

***

Lastly, because I like odd numbers for these types of lists, I'll give you a sneak peek at my WIP, Elemental Forces.

“On your left!”
 

Meg dove to the opposite side, tucking and rolling across the dusty field. The small dragon she’d been battling followed after her, but before it could launch another attack, Ronan brought his sword down on the creature’s neck. The sharp blade sliced its head clean off and it fell to the ground, sunlight glinting off its reddish scales as it gradually stopped twitching.

DRAGONS! FUCK YEAH! I wasn't lying when I said I like starting in the middle of the action sometimes. You know what I also like? DRAGONS!

So there's my latest compilation. Nothing downright awful in here, unlike last time, so maybe I am getting slightly better at this. One can dream, anyway!

Structure/Pacing in Romance (specifically THOSE scenes)

I'm still happily chugging along on Elemental Forces. I passed the 20K word mark and have plenty of story left to tell. While I don't have a firm word count estimate just yet, this is shaping up to be the longest book I've written in quite some time.

Believe it or not, I don't have a written outline here. At this point, everything's plotted out pretty well in my head, so maybe I'll never get around to making one. But as I've been thinking over the structure and pacing in this project, I realized that I have two distinct categories for my books, and most romances probably fall into one or the other. And those categories are differentiated by...wait for it...*drumroll*...the sex scenes.

(The rest of this post will probably not be sexy. Sorry to disappoint.)

Category 1: One Sex Scene

All the novellas go here, which makes sense. (Hey, sex scenes take a lot of words!) I guess in these books, the primary plot/conflict/focus/whatever you want to call it is the good ol' "will they or won't they?" and everything gets wrapped up in a pretty little bow at the end when the characters finally bang. Excuse me, get their "happily ever after." Sure, other plot stuff happens, but it's all leading up to the big moment. To be fair, in some of my novellas, the one sex scene doesn't come right at the end, as the characters still have to work out their relationship issues before riding off into the sunset, but the concept stands.

Nothing is absolute, though, so there are some slight exceptions. Elysium, while novella-length, *technically* has two sex scenes, but they're back-to-back, so lumping them together is fair. Likewise with Seductive Suspect, which hovers on the border of "long novella" and "short novel" - the two sex scenes are adjacent to each other, and then the resolution of the mystery part of the plot comes afterward.

Category 2: Multiple Sex Scenes

It's not a surprise that the longer books go here, and then that got me thinking about various plots and their purposes. "Happily ever after" is still always the primary goal of romance, but the length of the route to get there varies. I admit this is where I sometimes struggle with the pacing. When the main characters get together relatively early on, the plot has to keep moving. It's easy to say "time for a sex scene, yay!" but the scenes also have to mean something and not feel gratuitous. I also realize this is highly subjective, as a look at any book with conflicting reviews will indicate. This also probably gets into the topic of romance vs. erotic romance vs. erotica, which I'm not going to touch here.

When writing Disintegration (which I'll likely re-release sometime in 2021), I was extra super careful while plotting out the progression of the sex scenes in the book, of which there are many. Almost, if not all of them are relevant to the plot, each building on the one that came before it. On the other hand, in Fire Beyond the Frost, there might be one or two in there that aren't necessarily relevant to the overall plot, but hey, they're fun, so why not. Then, while I was reviewing The Edge of the Sphere for its eventual re-release (no date set yet), there was even a sex scene I'd completely forgotten about. OOPS.

So, those are my two categories I've discovered. Is one better than the other? No, of course not. Does one take more careful plotting than the other? Eh, possibly. Most writers have cut huge chunks of work out of their final product, and I'm no exception. As noted above, there's no right answer for when to include these scenes, or how many to put in, and so on. If it works, it works, and I try not to ask too many questions when it *does* work!

Hilarity May or May Not Ensue

So, I think we've all realized by now that I'm not one of those people who is SUPER SERIOUS, ALL OF THE TIME about her writing. That's not to say I don't write serious stories, because I definitely do...I just frequently laugh at myself while doing so. To be honest, I often find people who always take things seriously (assuming it's not a life-or-death situation) to be exhausting, but hey, you do whatever you need to do to get through your days.

I won't make any comments as to whether or not I'm "funny," as I know how subjective humor is. Maybe I've made people laugh here a few times over the years, maybe I've just made them roll their eyes at my flippant attitude before they move on. For what it's worth, while I have my "fiction writing" voice, as we all do, my "writing about writing/blogging" voice here is pretty close to what real-life me is like. I've said before, while I'm sure I'm not everyone's cup of tea, I like to think I'm fun to be around in most situations. But again, who knows.

On to the writing about writing part! I've written in a whole lot of romantic sub-genres, but I don't know if I've ever set out to write a true "comedy." Some of my books/stories are intended to be lighthearted and maybe a little fluffy, and even in some of my darker stories, the occasional odd situation or snarky remark slips through. (That might be tied to my "real me" voice, but I digress.) And now that I'm thinking about genres, I'm starting to wonder—can you even write "just" a comedy without including some sort of sub-genre? (Romance, mystery, adventure, etc.) Like, is "contemporary comedy" a thing just like "contemporary romance" is? Clearly, I am not among the people getting paid to create categories on Amazon.

(I just took a tiny break from writing this blog post to take a look. Lots of romantic comedies out there. There was a "wilderness" comedy on the first page of Amazon hits, which I would file under "adventure." And Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was also near the top, which I did enjoy, and parts were funny, but I don't know if that was the point of the story? Moving right along.)

Outside of my little website here, I have written stories explicitly intended to make people laugh, in the form of fanfic. I'd even venture to claim I was successful, in that my old Dragon Age and Mass Effect comedies were always my most popular fics, and they're still getting hits and comments and bookmarks and everything 7-8 years later. (UGH, I'M OLD.) Recently, I've been experiencing the same trends with my Fire Emblem: Three Houses fanfic. So, I know I *can* do it, but I'm also aware of the contextual differences between writing something humorous in an existing universe vs. starting from scratch with everything.

I'm still making great progress with my new project, Elemental Forces. I'm still not sure if we've established it can be a "comedy," but it's definitely on the more lighthearted end of the spectrum. I'm not attempting to land joke after joke after joke, but I made an effort to set the tone early on, and that tone (hopefully) is "this book will make you smile and feel good." As I mentioned in my last post, it's heroic fantasy and, of course, romance, since I consider myself a romance writer first and foremost. Since it's romance, there will be some emotional and poignant scenes in addition to the fun ones, because I'd argue you can't really have a romance without those, but THAT is another topic for another post.

In the meantime, I'll switch back to my Word document now, because I am still writing up a storm and it feels GOOD! (Might as well end on a "smile/feel good" moment!)

Full Speed Ahead

 (requisite reminder that Blazing Justice is available on Kindle Unlimited now!)

Guys. Everyone. Y'all. Something crazy is happening.

I am writing and I am writing fast.

Well, fast for me, anyway. I know there are writers who crank out thousands of words a day and go back to edit them later, and I know there are writers who lovingly pore over each word as it caresses the page and have little editing to do at the end. Neither of those approaches is right or wrong. I personally tend to hover near the slower end of the spectrum, like it or not.

I've discussed before about how once I had kids, it was often difficult to 1) carve out time for writing and other hobbies, and then 2) actually be productive and not just zone out in a rare quiet moment. The kids are getting older (they started virtual kindergarten this week!), and while I wouldn't necessarily say things are getting easier, the new sets of challenges maybe aren't as physically draining all of the damn time. There are definitely days where once they're in bed, I just want to park myself on the couch and click around on the internet, but I often try to at least get something done.

So. The new project. I spent some time this summer writing Fire Emblem: Three Houses fanfic and marveled at how quickly I could pop out a short story. Maybe it was finally time for me to apply that to my own original writing?

I decided I wanted to stick to a similar genre in the hopes that the energy would carry over, so I started my new heroic fantasy* romance on August 30th. For the most part, I've been maintaining my pre-childrearing rate of at least 500 words a day, and I'm four chapters in. Since it's fantasy, I'm relying on some popular tropes (because everything uses tropes to some extent anyway and you will never convince me otherwise), but I'll be playing around with some of them at the same time. It's light and fluffy, but the characters have depth and heart. Most importantly, I'm having fun, and that's contributing to the words spilling out on the page. 

 

*Before getting started, I spent some time, of course, on TV Tropes reading about the differences between high fantasy, low fantasy, heroic fantasy, etc. This is definitely heroic fantasy. The dragons show up in the third sentence.

 

Will I be able to keep this up for the whole project? Perhaps. I'm bound to hit a slump eventually, or have to deal with a section that's just not working out quite right, and so on. But for now, I'm really satisfied with my writing output for the first time in a very long time.

 

New title tag in 3...2...1....

A Humble Brag and a Humble "I Kind of Suck"

Because balance is everything.

When last we left off, I was debating about whether or not to temporarily shelve Sonata for Springtime. (And, obviously, blogging about it instead of actually writing anything.) After some internal debate, I decided to keep plugging away at it. I did write maybe a third of a chapter or so, which isn't all that much. I suck.

On the flip side, though, Fire Beyond the Frost is...dare I say it...doing well? It's getting good ratings and even reviews and bookmarks at Amazon and Goodreads, at least. I won't have hard numbers for a while since it came out at the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year, and I still don't know how said numbers exactly work with the Kindle Unlimited program, but it looks pretty good from where I'm sitting? I guess? Relatively speaking, of course?

Ironically, FBtF had plenty of time sitting on the shelf before publication. To recap, I took a break somewhere in the middle to write Second Skin, and then after that, I left it alone for quite a few years until I edited it like crazy this past spring. Funny how a book I had serious confidence issues with is now getting attention. If nothing else, that should remind me that putting something to the side for a bit isn't an automatic failure.

I'm now also wondering if I should really dig into this niche and write more lesbian romance. I mean, I don't want to write lesbian characters just for the sake of writing them, but if it seems to be working for me, maybe I should go with it for a while? In my last post, I also mentioned wanting to go back to my sci-fi roots, and how there's another idea that's been simmering in second place for a while. After mulling it over for a bit, I think it could really work if the main characters are two badass women who happen to fall in love by the end, rather than a man and a woman. And I think we're all in agreement that no matter what else is going on, we all need some more badass women in our lives.

Judging by the amount of question marks in this post, I'm clearly going through a bout of indecision and insecurity. For now, though, I think I do need to move on to something else and see if new! flashy! F/F! sci-fi! gives me the boost I need. And even if it doesn't work out at first, I just need to remember it may work out in the end anyway if I need to put it away and go back to it later on.

Racing and Pacing

I've finally arrived at the final chapter of my novella-in-progress (okay, there's going to be a little epilogue, too), and as always, I'm sprinting toward the finish line. I don't know what it is about endings that gets me to write faster. Maybe it's because since I write in order, I've been thinking about the ending for so long, it's planned out spectacularly well in my head. Maybe I just want the accomplishment of getting the damn thing done.

Either way, as I ponder this, I sometimes worry that this phenomenon affects my pacing. I ran into this issue a bit with Seductive Suspect - so much happened at the end of the book, I had to go back and balance out the beginning a bit. (And then that all got chopped up in editing anyway, but I digress.) Same thing here - word count-wise, these last two chapters are taking up, like, a third of the book. I'm going to have to go back and expand on those earlier chapters, I think, but for now, I just want to get to the end before I start working on the smaller details.

Then again, as I ponder this even more, I wonder if this issue crops up often due to the structure of romance stories. It depends on the structure of the story, of course, but there is a certain...format? template? that focuses on the journey of the characters getting together, and then explicitly stating what happens when they finally accomplish that. Or, as I sometimes joke around about, there's the climax, and then there's the climax. ;)

I've done it both ways, either saving the big bedroom scene for the end, or peppering them in throughout. For me, it seems like shorter stories are more likely to have just one explicit scene in them. Obviously, those scenes require words, but since it's expected in my genre, does that *really* count toward the overall balance of a work?

I think I've been navel-gazing for too long, instead of just writing the damn story and figuring out the more minor things later on. Also, I should turn off the word count display to avoid more crazymaking, but that's a different story for a different day.

Outside the Comfort Zone (or, Revealing the Mystery)

So I've been hinting at my new project in the past couple posts, and it's time to come clean. I've been dodgy because this is something new for me, and I'm determined to make it work. I'm about 5K words in (and I have a great outline, for reasons I'll talk about below), and so far, so good. I think. I hope.

Throughout the years, I've been half-joking about writing an old-fashioned mystery, but with a steamy romance component, since romance is how I roll. Lest you think I'm completely off my rocker, there is some precedence for this. Most stage and screen adaptations of And Then There Were None (my favorite book) capitalize on the tension/attraction between Vera and Lombard and change the ending so the two of them can ride off into the sunset together. (I believe Agatha Christie herself even wrote some of these adaptations.) Truth be told, I do prefer the original ending, because the whole book is just plain brilliant, but hey, the romantic in me doesn't mind the changes *too* much.

Throughout the years, I've also half-joked about how I would never write a mystery because I'm not smart enough to write a good one. This is still probably correct, but I'm going for it. There's a bit of a twist at the end, a deus ex machina, if you will, but I'll admit the plot isn't anything earth-shattering. That said, it's *my* plot, and I'm going to make it the best I can.

As is often the case, after thinking about the idea here and there for a long time, most of the details came to me as I was lying in bed, trying to sleep. Usually I start writing if I just have a basic framework, but this time, due to the genre and plot, I wanted a really solid outline before I even wrote the first sentence. For those of you who often make great outlines, mine still probably looks like a mess in comparison. For me, though, it's the most comprehensive outline I've had. (Whether or not it makes the writing process go any faster remains to be seen.)

So there it is. It'll either be amazing or flop spectacularly, but I'm doing this. And to save us all a future post on title woes, I think I have one for this project. I wanted something that indicated both romance and mystery, so for right now, my folders and documents are titled Seductive Suspect. (As I always say, when in doubt, go for alliteration!) And now I can make the tag for the blog! :D

The Name Game, Part 3

Next up in this series - the meaning of characters' names.

Right off the bat, I'll start by saying that though I'm a bit of a name nerd, I don't make myself nuts when it comes to the origin and meaning of names. I didn't even really care about that when it came to naming my own children. Some people do, and that's fine. In fact, for one of my daughter's names, I was even told "Oh, I love that name, but I could never get past the meaning!" (No, it's not Cecilia or Claudia, which, for someone who doesn't pay much attention to meanings, I always remember as originally meaning "blind" and "lame", respectively.) I'm sure there are plenty of writers out there who give symbolic names to their characters based on their meaning, but it's just not my thing.

However, that doesn't mean that I'll go around slapping names on characters all willy-nilly. A lot of times, my characters names do have some significance, even if it's only for me. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but a large number of my friends wound up in the Disintegration series in some way, shape, or form. Some were straightforward: Vlad is, well, named after my friend Vlad. Dr. Zedek, however, is named after another friend's role-playing alter-ego. While the two Vlads share some similarities, the two Zedeks are nothing alike. But hey, I needed a name!

I'll use this opportunity to admit that there have been times where I've TOTALLY named antagonistic characters after people I don't like. Don't get on my bad side.

Sometimes if I'm not directly naming after someone, I'll go for a similar name, or use the same initials as an existing person/character. Like I said, the chosen name may only be meaningful to me and a couple other people, but I like knowing the symbolism is there, however minor. The main character of my new WIP is named Veronica Campbell. Some astute readers might eventually pick up on some allusions with her name (once the book is complete), but for now, I'm not telling. ;)

The Name Game, Part 2

I'm knocking out the next installment in this series because I just got a big, obnoxious assignment at work that is going to suck up a lot of time and energy for the next week, so I'm using the rest of tonight to pretend it doesn't exist. (But it should pay reasonably well, so silver linings and all that.)

Next up on the topic of names: characters who name themselves. I know what you're thinking - isn't the writer in charge? Shouldn't the writer have control over what the characters are named? One would think. After all, it's not like my children named themselves. (Though that could have saved a few days of strenuous discussion. And I do know more than one set of parents who went into the hospital with a name picked out, saw their baby for the first time, and wound up going with something completely different.)

Every now and then when a character first starts to materialize in my mind, there's immediately a name associated with him/her. I don't know why or how it happens. Sometimes I've even tried to fight back against that strong association between the character and the name, and it just doesn't feel right. The same thing has happened to me with titles. As regular readers here know by now, sometimes the title comes to me right away, while other times I struggle to pick a good one.

I recently experienced this phenomenon when I was first planning for Out of Orbit. As soon as the heroine started taking shape, she became Jasmine. It's not like Jasmine is a name I particularly like (or dislike). I hadn't planned on it being symbolic in any way, though I did wind up running with it and using the flower meaning. I even tossed around a few alternatives, but nope. Always and forever, she was and will be Jasmine.

The same thing happened with April in Elysium. Again, I don't have any strong feelings toward the name either way. No hidden meanings there. She was just April. That's it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a lot of characters to name in my new WIP. Sure enough, some of them named themselves. Several of the insta-names I adopted right away, while others I wanted to think about more. However, as I was plotting out certain points, I found myself thinking things like, "Oh, Paul will totally react in this way", when Paul was one of the names I wasn't sure about. I guess he's Paul, then.

So much for being in control.

The Name Game, Part 1

Since I got the contract for Out of Orbit sooner than expected, my writing fingers are already starting to get itchy. I read the two books I wanted to read, and for whatever reason, video games are not calling to me right now, so I've already started outlining for my next WIP. I'll go into more detail at a later time, but due to the nature of this project, I want a really strong outline before I even get started.

One of the challenges for this WIP is there are going to be a lot of characters: eleven "on-screen" and a couple minor parts/people mentioned in passing. And characters need names. The name nerd in me enjoys most of this part, but as I said, it can be a challenge.

Somewhere in my archives here (before I started tagging posts, oops) I wrote about how I wanted the three significant women in Disintegration to have names that were very distinct from each other. Similarly, when I was getting ready to write The Fall of the Midnight Scorpion, I initially worried that Ro and Reggie were too similar for my leads. After all, we don't want to confuse any readers.*

I've ultimately come to the decision that having a variety of ending sounds for characters' names is more important than first letters or alliteration. (As indicated by me forging ahead with Ro and Reggie.) Having pored over tons of name lists to prepare for the twins' arrival last year, I can tell you that a LOT of female names end with -a. That doesn't mean that you can't have two characters with -a names in one story, but as the number of named characters grow, it's something to watch out for. 

When first planning this WIP, I had a Laura and a Clara before realizing how close they were. Laura's name was more tied to her character in my mind, so Clara changed (to Ruth, for the curious). On the other hand, I'm okay with having a Laura and a Veronica, as those are juuuuust different enough for my tastes. There's also a Mary and a Brittany, but to me, those are wildly different names that just evoke different feelings and images, if that makes any sense.

When looking over my file of ideas for blog posts, I saw a lot of name-related notes, so I've decided to make this the first in a series. If nothing else, it should get me blogging more regularly, right? ;) Stay tuned for the next part!

*Somewhat relevant, but not really: In Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced (STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS), part of the big!reveal! hinges on two sisters having very similar nicknames - Leticia and Charlotte are Lettie and Lottie, respectively. There's a clue when another character calls one by the other one's name. When reading, I did notice it...but this was in the early days of the Kindle and I'd just thought it was a typographical error made when converting the book, and didn't realize the name mix-up was significant. Oops. So I didn't solve the mystery, but then again, I rarely do.

Except for The Girl on the Train, which is one of the books I just read. Figuring out the ending ahead of time kind of ruined the fun. But I'll award points for the three main female characters -- Rachel, Anna, and Megan -- having names with different final syllables. There, I've come full circle. :D

Another Point of View

(Second Skin is still available a while longer for just 99 cents on Amazon, don't miss out!)

I needed a mini-vacation, so I snuck away from Thursday to Sunday. I was able to relax for a bit, eat some good food, read a book, and I even managed to write a reasonable number of words. (It was a "no men allowed" weekend with my mother, and I am not at a point in my life where I can write smutty things on my computer while she is in the room. In fact, I don't think I'll ever reach that point in my life. At least she went to bed earlier than I did.)

I'm writing another novella for the 1Night Stand series, and I'm super excited about this one. I won't give away all the details just yet, but I will say: Damn. I fucking love this fucking story. As of right now, Disintegration has the honor of being referred to as my "masterpiece", but this book might overtake it.

One of the reasons I've been writing up a storm is that I'm trying something new - the book is written in first-person present tense POV. I've done little projects using that technique before (like my story in The Big Book of Orgasm), but this is my first major undertaking in the first person.

It's not without its challenges. Firstly, I need to establish a voice that is not my own (so something other than snark and adverbs, I guess), because I am not the character and vice versa. Secondly, I have to find a way to describe things that sounds natural and doesn't slip into too much of a narration. Finally, I've arrived at the sex scenes. Those first two issues I mentioned? Multiply them by a hundred while writing those.

That said, I've realized while writing that there's no way this story could have been told any other way. It's an emotional, poignant journey for both leads, and really digging around inside their heads is the most effective way to get that across, I think. I'll also admit to torturing my characters a little bit before they find love and their satisfying happy ending. And no matter what point of view is used, we can all breathe a sigh of relief at that point, right?

Team, Assemble!

The Disintegration sequel (aka The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, which I should really start using more since I've yet to come up with a better title) is coming along swimmingly. So far, I'm really happy with the way everything's been turning out and I'm excited for what's yet to come. That doesn't mean writing it has been without its challenges, though.

I think I've mentioned before, perhaps as evidence that I play too many RPGs, that the basic plot of the book is similar to so many video games: assemble your team, save the world. After giving it careful consideration and consulting with my usual buddies, I decided to limit the number of people on the core team to six.* Six seemed like a manageable number to work with, both in terms of realism for plot purposes and making sure I could write the characters and their story well.

(*There are more than six characters in the book, of course, but the focus is primarily on this group.)

Not every one of the six teammates is going to be the star of the book, but I wanted to make sure all of them were fleshed out with their own distinguishing characteristics. That led to the age-old dilemma of how much time to spend on backstory and other details that don't really serve to push the plot along. I'd like to think I did an okay job in letting their various backgrounds and personalities come out naturally, but find me a writer who never second guesses herself.

Then there's the issue of having them all interact with each other. There have been a couple times when all six characters are in the same room involved in the same conversation, and I need to straddle the line between "realistic" and "coherent". In the real world, if it's not some sort of structured setting, I think it would be unlikely that a group of six people would be sitting around, politely waiting for their turn to speak without some sort of side conversations going on simultaneously. However, there are times when you have to cast realism aside and just tell the damn story in a way that makes sense. Sometimes, though, I'll be writing and have that moment of "Oh shit, Character C is in the room and she hasn't said or done anything in the past ten minutes." Again, even in real life, not everyone is going to be constantly actively participating in whatever's going on, but I still don't want the reader to forget who is in the scene.

Overall, I like these characters. I hope I've succeeded in bringing them to life, and I hope they're all likeable, compelling, sympathetic, flawed people. I'm not going to reveal too many plot points here, but I want you to laugh when they're laughing, cry when they're crying, and if I really do my job right, you'll feel like you're a member of the "team" right there with them.

Recapitulation

The Disintegration sequel (working title so I can make the label: The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions) is underway and the words are flying onto the page. I know I was hesitant to begin this one for a while, but all of my misgivings are gone. Despite having a touch of the flu (I could barely stand on Thursday, but went to the doctor and got a prescription for Tamiflu, good stuff), I wrote like crazy this weekend and I hope to keep plugging away at a good pace.

When I first started Defying the Skies, I mentioned here that there's a certain ease and familiarity that comes with writing a sequel. The characters and universe are already established for me, though I do try to provide a basic recap for new readers. That's been one of the [fun] challenges, actually — how do I re-set the stage without making it a giant infodump or a rehash of what already happened? What key details need to be mentioned right off the bat?

Chapter One is the longest introductory chapter I've ever written (I don't want to call it a prologue, but I guess an argument could be made). In my defense, 1) a lot happens, 2) there weren't any logical places for a scene break, and 3) only about a third of it is recapping stuff from the first book. Chapter Two admittedly has some more recapping, but it kicks off the main plot for the rest of the book, so I'm going to leave it for now. I really hope I've struck the right balance in refreshing the main plot points from the prior book vs. moving things along in the current book, but hey, that's what editing is for, right?

I know there's a good chance some (a lot?) will eventually be snipped, but I'm satisfied for now and raring to write more. I'm still itching with all the IDEAS that I want to put in this book and I'm hoping that fuel takes me far. Vroooom!

This, That, and Other Things

With all the events that have been going on, as well as the weekly features I do/participate in, it's been a while since I've actually written a typical blog post. In a perfect world, I'd sit down and organize my thoughts into a cohesive narrative...but I think we all know by now that our world is delightfully imperfect. So here's some stuff that's been going on, in no particular order:

 — I announced it on facebook, and I believe I alluded to it here, but if you haven't heard yet: I signed the official contract for Defying the Skies, and it should be published sometime in July. Yay!

 — Things are going well for my work-in-progress. I feel like I've hit that point where I've established the characters enough that they almost write themselves. I actually organized my sloppy list of "stuff I want to include" into a chapter outline. (Well, most of it, anyway.) I'm usually terrible at estimating these things, but by my calculations, I'm somewhere between a third and halfway through.

 — Also on the topic of my WIP: Again, I know I've been a little vague and coy in various places on the internet, but I'll say it outright here, in case anyone missed it - I decided to try something new and write lesbian erotica. It's been fun so far, but there have definitely been some challenges. The biggest one so far? Pronouns. Oh dear god, the pronouns. They're killing me. But we should always be challenging ourselves and trying new things, right?

 — Not completely relevant to writing, but relevant to my free time and what I do with it: I've been interning for a new job I spent a year and a half training for, so that's been exciting and a little scary and all that other stuff that comes with change. So far, I've still been finding time to write, and I hope that stays the same when I start working for realz. I also want to continue to maintain this blog, and maybe actually get off my butt and write real posts more often.

That list wasn't so bad. It's probably even neater than my chapter outline!

Hump Day Hook

I'm trying out a new blogging event - Hump Day Hook! Let's see how well I can "hook" your attention on Wednesdays.

A new feature should involve a new project, right? This little excerpt comes from my current WIP, in which I'm *ahem* trying some new things.

Sari leaned over her and stood on her toes. As she groped around the top shelf, Catalina could smell the fruity fragrance of her hair. It seemed completely incongruent with their surroundings, yet the whiff of citrus from her bouncy pigtails brought a smile to the doctor’s lips.
 
“Why am I the one doing this?” Sari asked, interrupting her thoughts. “You’re taller than me. Reach up and see what’s hiding back there.”
 
She did as she was told, and retrieved one more forgotten roll of gauze from the dark recesses. Setting it with the others on the counter, she began to organize the medical provisions into neat piles. Her partner snatched a clipboard off a rack on the wall and scrawled some notes on a piece of paper.
 
They counted in silence and recorded their numbers. The mundane task didn’t consume all of Catalina’s brainpower, and she let her thoughts meander through their shared conversations over the past day. One question lingered on her mind, and the temptation to ask it aloud was too strong to resist. “Sari?”
 
“Mmm?”
 
She kept her gaze trained on the array of supplies spread before her. “Last night, when you said that other than your brother and father, you never saw the appeal of men…what did you mean by that?”
 
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the auburn curls bobbing as Sari shook her head. “Catalina, we already established over breakfast that you are a very, very smart woman, albeit a little too concerned about what others think. I’m sure you can figure it out.”