Entries Tagged as 'Faith Hunter'

When Life Gets in the Way – Getting ‘Er Done – a Rambling Blog About Stuff

We talk a lot on this blog about being driven to write, the manner in which we write, the focus of our writing. And deadlines. Let me not forget deadlines… Sigh.

 

Quick deadline update: I managed to get my (okay, Gwen’s) last contracted mystery book off to the editor three weeks early, and the short story for the action booklet for the role playing game based on the Rogue Mage series done. I am now halfway through with the next short story, this one for Strange Brew, an anthology about witches with Jim Butcher. And I am one scene away from being done with the first draft of Skinwalker, an urban fantasy novel about a Cherokee skinwalker, or skin changer. Then I have a bit less than two weeks to rewrite while I am on the road to two conferences. See my webpage about that, if you are in or near Charlotte N.C. or Ohio. Then? June 1? I am done, deadlines met.

 

At that point, I will actually take off for an extended break for the first time in nearly three years. Extended break, to be interpreted as several weeks. Maybe an entire month. I will rip out my overgrown front garden, put in new soil and over it with black plastic to steam through the summer. I will paint my parlor and maybe my writing room. Heck, maybe my bedroom! I will kayak down some rivers. I will search for funding for my writing project for needy schools. I will be busy doing the things I haven’t done for three years because I am crazy enough to write two books a year and still work full time.

 

But this blog wasn’t about deadlines, or even my version of rest, it was, and is, about the things that life throws our way, into our paths, like avalanches or barricades, or even armies with guns, that stop the muse, stop the writing, stop everything, because there is just not enough time in the world to write, and live, and breathe, and deal with crises, and bring home the bacon.

 

Things like health issues, or family illness, or emotional turmoil (drama) in the family. OMG, how do we, as writers who have to be creative and focused, deal with a parent’s divorce, or a brother’s drinking problem, or, heaven forbid, a death in the family? Or maybe just the more mundane issues that make it feel like we are jumping hurdles just to get through the day. For those with kids, it’s illness, doctor visits, dentist visits, soccer games, ballet classes, etc.. For me, it’s laundry, housecleaning, (yes, I know I have a housekeeper service that comes and shovels me out once a month, but I still have to vacuum, sweep, wash clothes and dishes, and keep up between visits) and being the support person for friends and family and their emotional and physical health issues. It is freaking tough. Mind you, I am not whining, not at all. Just talking about the facts of life that affect writers just like they affect readers. Our lives are not any easier just because we got a book or 20 in print. We have to deal with the same problems that anyone dies, and we still have to find a way to be focused and creative and *write*.

 

I can’t and don’t write when I am on the phone to a friend whose 80 year-old father is running a fever of 103 and being noncompliant about taking Tylenol and standing in a cool shower to get the temp down. This happened this week, late in the day, after doctor’s offices closed. My best pal since I was eight needed me. Do I care about deadlines at times like that? No. Honestly, when someone I love needs me, I chuck the WIP and the deadlines and give the needy one my full attention. It’s what we all do. David has sick kids, and he doesn’t write. Misty ditto. I have sick family members, ditto. Catie, who I am just coming to know, has family responsibilities too. And the writing? Well sometimes it has to take a backseat. Life gets in the way.

 

And I thank God for that. That I have family and friends and people I love. They (and their problems and their needs) sometimes get in the way of my deadlines.

And I just. Do. Not. Care. Because I do care about my extended family – the people I love.

 

So, today, after lunch, I will get back to the short story and try to finish the rough draft. And if I get interrupted? Well, them’s the breaks. I’ll write later tonight. Eventually, I’ll get it done.

Faith

 

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Muses and Deadlines

Miz Misty is posting this for me… Isn’t she a sweetie! And why am I not posting my own blog? Because my muse and my deadlines got together and …well… read on…

Deadlines loom over me like a sabertooth lion, all teeth and fangs, poised on an overhanging ledge, ready to pounce. It makes me edgy and, well, I need to take off time to relax just to be able to write. Take off time to relax in order to meet deadlines…? Counterintuitive? Yes. It is. But it is fact too. So that is the subject of today’s blog. The counterintuitive-ness of relaxation and how my muse fits in to it all.

First – muses.

I’ve told some of you about my muse. If you have forgotten what he looks like (though how you ever could, I don’t know) here’s the mental picture. He’s a hirsute, baldheaded, six-foot-four-inch-tall Texan with a beer-barrel-belly, wearing a cowboy hat, boots, and a red thong with pasties. He sits in a squeaky wood desk chair with his feet up and crossed at the ankles, resting on the top of an old fashioned, post-world-war-two, wooden desk, while smoking a cigar, drinking bourbon, and sharing his wisdom. His wisdom? It is usually something along the lines of, “Get back to work.” Oh – his boots are red leather. With roses stitched on them.

He brooks no slacking. He cusses with abandon. He sometimes throws things. Sometimes, to make me laugh, he twirls the pasties. His favorite food is pizza. On his desk are dead plants, empty pizza boxes and empty beer bottles. He badly needs a shave. And pants.

But today (which is Tuesday, because I’m writing this early), he is thinking about my deadlines. And he told me to take off tomorrow, which, as you read this, is today. He said to pack up the RV, take off for the mountains, and spend an entire day (Wednesday) on the Green River, relaxing. He told me to ride the two-man ducky and the kayaks down the river, rest, relax and enjoy. So I will. This means that I may not respond to any replies on the blog until Thursday morning. Why? Because I have a deadline. So I am leaving the house, leaving the PC, leaving the WIP, not taking the laptop, to relax.

I am sooo looking forward to it. But for now? Back to the PC. Back to a character who is so tough she scares me. Is she too tough? Too violent? For sure she needs a massage. Maybe a restful day on the river. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll take her with me after all. Just along for the ride, not for work.

Thanks, Misty, for posting this. And thanks for the day off! Hope all you readers are having a great day off too!

Faith

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Writers Block and Other Fantasy

I was going to write on muses today, but I got…um…off track. Stuck on a tangent, which can be a problem, as you’ll see farther on. Muses and writer’s block go hand in hand, and since I don’t believe in muses, I suppose I have to put writer’s block in the same *don’t believe in it* category. And yet, I’ve experienced both. How can I not believe in them and yet have experienced them? Sometimes it ain’t easy! Here’s my take today on Writer’s Block! *cue scary music*

 

Poets, fiction writers, non-fiction writer, all claim to get writers block. So IMHO – what is it? Several possibilities of why a writer can’t write, other than some amorphous *just can’t do it today* phenom.

 

It can be a problem with plot, where you have painted yourself into a corner. I usually call a friend when this happens and suggest tea or lunch. I often call Tamar Myers, a mystery writer pal. Together we sit down and I tell her the plot conflict line then a quick plot progression. And as I do, either she makes suggestions which stimulate my thinking, or I figure it out. Presto-chango, I am back writing. I wasn’t blocked, I was confused.

 

Another thing I do sometimes is read my story with 2 highlighters and mark all the stuff that works in one color and all the stuff that changes the plot line off and away from the central conflict in another color. Because it’s conflict that make a book really good. The more conflict to resolve, the better the book. I usually see what has taken me away from my central conflict, onto some less important track. As I highlight, I can see where I got lost on a tangent that took me away from the original plot line, writer’s block took me away form muses today. Of course, sometimes the writing is sooooo good, that I can’t toss it and go back to the place where I got off track. At such times I have to remember that writing is a commercial product. Unless I do it for myself alone, I need to keep in mind that this is one-size-fits-most product. It ain’t my baby. It will be rewritten a dozen times according to the specification of others. Perhaps two times for me. Two times for my agent. Three or four times for my editor. This isn’t a living being. It is product. In fact — it’s only paper. And I can cut and paste into a *use later* file, the lovely scenes I wrote but that are stopping the conflict line from going forward, and get back on track.

 

Sometimes the problem is that I didn’t set up the solution to the plot at the beginning of the story. For me, this is just sloppy writing. I don’t care how many famous writers say they just give a character a problem and let him work it out, for me this can make for confusing and poor writing. My best books come from a problem I envision and the solution to that problem. The writing part is the way it happens for me and the reason why I write!

 

Other times, when I experience Writer’s Block (that thing that I don’t believe in) is that I am afraid. Maybe I’ve tried something new and I fear that someone will laugh at me. Or I’m afraid that I’ll get halfway through and get stumped (get writer’s block, *snicker*). Or worse, that I’ll succeed, and then that my editor or agent (or, God forbid, both) won’t like it! And that I won’t get it published. Or that some critique will say that I can’t write, when all I’ve ever wanted to do is write.

 

I can’t help you with your fears. They are yours to do with as you please. Yours – to do with as you please. You own them, they do *not* own you, unless you give control over to them. Fight fear, injure it, slay it, treat it with medication. But always remember that it is yours… Not the other way around.

 

And sometimes – writer’s block come from simple boredom. I have rewritten this book so many times that I hate it. Hate it! I have started it ten times and frankly have lost interest. Then I can do one of four things: start another book, go to the next most interesting thing that will happen and write that, or kill off a major character to shake things up a lot, or go to the end, write that, then tie it all together. Sometimes this is the best thing to do because I’ve reached a place and just can’t get any more down on paper. The ending looks ten miles away. And the ending is what is really pulling at me. I write that, and it energizes me to work through the blasted middle.

 

So. I don’t believe in Writer’s Block, yet I have specific ways to deal with it when it appears. Am I strange? Yeah. But I’m a writer, and all writers are a bit strange!

 

Happy writing, ya’ll!

Faith

 

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Bookstore Chains and Changes in the Market

I replied yesterday to a post about what was happening in the market. I’ve blogged elsewhere about this, but not in depth here, so I thought I’d do so today.  Bookstores have problems keeping books stocked, buying books that don’t sell in quantity, tieing up their stocker’s hands stripping covers and sending them back, (paperbacks don’t go back to be resold, they are stripped, covers sent back, and contents recycled.) The time the stockers spend costs the story money. So the big chains have all instituted changes that directly affect you, the book reading public, and you the writer.

First, up front, near the registers, they will only stock new books by bestsellers and new books by unknowns.  Your fav author who is not a bestseller? His/her book is back in the stocks. Er…stacks.

Second, they are cutting the numbers of new books they will buy.  Rather than stock, say 100,000 books in the store, they are stocking say 65,000.  Roughly 2/3rds the previous number.  They are making them all face-out, which is nice, but if you want an author’s backlist, (previous books you have not yet read by this wonderful author you just discovered) you have to special order it in the store or from Amazon. Amazon is gonna love this change BTW.

Third, they *may* only keep the new books on the shelves (in any quantity) for one month. So, if you don’t go to the book store every month, you may well miss a release. And a writer has only 4 weeks to make him/herself noticed in the market. Which totally sucks, pardon my English.

Fourth, they are dictating to to publishers the length of the books they will carry. They have discoverd that they make the same profit on a book that is one inch thick as a book that is three inches thick. One book takes up very little shelf space. The other…well, it takes up more. Duh. Plus the price of paper is going up fast. So publishers are now specifying the length of a book to writers.  And they mean business. I had to cut BloodRing by 24,000 words. Of course, that meant that I was a fourth of the way through Seraphs, but still, it was tough to do.

Can I understand why chains are doing this?  Yes. Do I like it?  Not really.  I want to write what I want to write. But I still want to have it read by the buying public. And if I fight, that ain’t gonna happen.

Faith — who has about 50 more pages to write in the WIP, Skinwalker.

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Monday, Monday….

This blog is supposed to have an emphasis on writing, the writing life, and fantasy writing. It’s supposed to let fans and writers in on who we are and how we write and how we live. It’s supposed to be about our real lives and our fantasy worlds and characters. It’s supposed to be fun. Intellectually, I know that. But…

I think I made a mistake in volunteering to blog on Mondays. I thought that writing this blog would kick-start my week, force me to use my brain, and make me think about writing first thing. So far, that ain’t working too great. And the reason for that is not the blog itself, but that I have new project…

People who know me well, and the amount of stress I put on myself are rolling their eyes. To friends, the obvious question is – So what else is new?

There was a time when I pulled 94 hour weeks by writing one book a year, working (for the benefits) fulltime, being on the national board for Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and being the Regional President of Southeast Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA), and working with a small writing group four hours a week. After three years, stress got to me. I had to cut back.

I stopped my MWA and SEMWA work, and that freed up 20 hours a week, gave me free time and less stress, yea!!! At which point, I accepted contracts to that required me to write two books a year for three years. And I still kept the job. Back to 90+ hour weeks, more stress, yada, yada.

Those contracts are up in six months. So, now I want to change directions again – to get rid of stress, right? Riiight…. I am trying to develop a writing program for South Carolina’s most financially challenged, economically underprivileged, deprived schools, a program that will utilize commercially published writers to go into the schools that need it most: the ones with the highest dropout rate and the lowest test scores. And that means writing the program, testing it out, and getting grants to fund it for three years. Sigh…

I’ve been traveling and talking to VIPS in the state and creating the lesson plans and talking to South Carolina writers who might want to help. Meanwhile, I have two books and two short stories and the fiction for a role playing game to turn by June 1. And I’m still working fulltime. Oh… And I have this blog and three other blogs… Not complaining, mind you. I did it to myself. But here’s where this blog is going: Most writers I know are workaholics. That is the life of being a writer—working all the time, even when we are resting. But mostly not resting. Mostly filling our time with deadlines and tight schedules.  On purpose.

Misty dances to relieve stress and because she loves it, and that means deadlines and more deadlines. Catie, like me, seems to accept contracts for more than one book a year. David has young children and travels a lot and is into music and photography. I bet you money we almost never lie in a hammock and sip a drink and watch the clouds go by. We forget to smell the roses – unless roses are written into a scene and we smell them in memory. We forget to rest and revive. We forget to do…well…do nothing. 

 

I’m challenging myself right now, to pick one hour this week when I will do something restful and fun that is just for me. I’ll try to remember to tell you about next Monday. When I blog again. And hey, I just rediscovered how important this blog is to my week. So — do you guys (my fellow bloggers and our readers, too) ever do the hammock thing? What do you do that is restful, involves no deadlines, and restores your soul? Do you *ever* take a whole day off to do *nothing*? Just curious.

Faith  

 

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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BIC — the Magical Words

I am often asked by unpublished writers (referred to by some as wannabees, unpubs, prepubs, etc.) “What is the one thing that takes a writer from the stage of wanting to be published, to the stage of *being* published?  What is that magic one thing?”  And I think I’ve been seeing a trend here on magicalwords.net that leads me to an answer.  Besides and including, BIC, of course.  Butt in Chair is the most important part of crossing the “what makes a writer” void.  But in addition, there is this one other thing.

Catie has been lamenting it, here and on other blogs.  David and Misty and I have commiserated with her on it.  We’ve all been there.  We’ve all gone through it, and know full well that we will go through it again, on the next book.  That one single thing is tenacity.  That bulldog, got-my-teeth-in-it-and-won’t-let-go, stubborn, immoveable, obdurate determination to push on through to the end.  It is the same mind-set that long distance runners have, the one that forces to them push through the *wall* when they hit it, when every muscle, bone, breath and heartbeat is an agony.  Why do they push on?  Because they know they can.  They *know* it with every painful breath.  And they run.  And they reach the finish line.  It’s the same resolve that mountain climbers have to reach the summit, despite the snow, the howling winds, the frostbite, the pain, the shattered teeth.  They climb the mountain because it is there and because they can.

Please understand that I’m not saying such pig-headed tenacity is necessarily healthy or smart.  According to my hubby it’s stupidity.  Because of it, I went through 10 years of adrenal insufficiency, am trying to rebuild my decreased upper body strength, have reflux, an unhappy GI tract, and writer’s butt.  (Not that any wannabee wouldn’t happily share in all that to be published.  I’m just sayin’…)

That determination is what takes a writer from unpublished to published.  That determination and fortitude.  If you don’t find, develop, have, possess or create inside your own heart and spirit that tenacity to push on through the hard parts of a novel, you will never be a writer.  You will skitter on to the next project, then the one after that and never actually finish a novel.

So.  BIC.  It all comes back to BIC.  A stubborn, ferocious, vital BIC.

Faith.  Currently BIC. 

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Friday Fun: Joshua Palmatier!

Happy Friday, everyone! Please join me in welcoming Joshua Palmatier to the blog today! *wild applause*

Hey, everyone! I first want to thank everyone here at Magical Words for the guest blogging invite. Hopefully I’ll have something important to say. Or at least something of interest.

First, an introduction: My name is Joshua Palmatier and I’m a fantasy author, with three books currently out from DAW Books. All three are part of the Throne of Amenkor series. The first is called The Skewed Throne and introduces my main character, Varis, an orphan who’s barely surviving in the slums of Amenkor, but who gets trained by one of the city’s Seekers to become an assassin. She comes to despise her talents and then is given the ultimate mark: the Mistress, ruler of the city, who sits on the Skewed Throne. Her only obstacle is the Skewed Throne itself. It knows Varis is coming . . . and it’s insane.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!

I couldn’t resist the evil laugh. *grin* John Scalzi said I write about disturbed furniture . . . and he’s right. *sigh* But there are plenty of other things going on as well—an invading sea force! blue people! an inexplicable White Fire! and of course, death and destruction! Pretty much everyone who had to sum up my novels in one word used “gritty”. The cover for the third novel:

The Vacant Throne

gives you a pretty good vibe of what the series is all about. If you’d like to see more about the Throne of Amenkor series, including the two sequels The Cracked Throne and The Vacant Throne, check out my website at www.joshuapalmatier.com.

But enough about me and my books! I want to talk about something nearly every magical world needs, something completely non-controversial and guaranteed to create no waves: religion! Specifically, I’d like to talk about inventing a religion for you world. [Read more →]

Tags: C E Murphy, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, Special Guest Stars by Misty Massey
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A Writer’s Tools

A question was asked on magicalwords.net recently about why writing sometimes sounds amateurish. I spouted off with the answer as I saw it:

*(paraphrasing) my work looks amateurish.
The main and usual reason is that you are telling not showing. The second reason is loss of character voice.

 

Telling Ex: Chris was sweating, the day was muggy. The fan didn’t help. (note: no voice, little setting, no emotional content)

 

Showing Ex: Sweat trickled down Chris’s back, sticking his shirt to his skin like salty glue. The fan was welcome, but more as a distraction than anything else. Nothing was going to combat the muggy August heat. He turned his face to artificial breeze and tried to think of snow. Or maybe a working air conditioner. (note voice, setting, emotional content)

 

 

Back to today’s blog… But then I got to thinking about why some writers have such polish with their work on the first draft, and some of us have to work at it. And why sometimes I’m in one group and sometimes I’m in the other. It’s partly the *tools of the trade*.

Writers have tools in our tool boxes just like any other worker—say a builder. A builder starts with a drawing; I start with an outline. Builder puts in a foundation; I do a first chapter. For me, the first chapter is the foundation that I build upon throughout the rest of the book. If something changes in a later chapter, about a character or a plot point, I have to tear out portions of the foundation (and the walls and roof, sometimes) and make it fit.

But it gets more subtle than that as I delve into a book, putting it together, building it. BTW, *building a book* is a term I’ve often used. Walls are the world I build for a reader to begin to set aside his believability issues. If the world isn’t right, why would a reader believe in magic? If the world I build doesn’t need magic, then why would I set a world there?

Windows are the setting, the things the characters feel and do that provide continuity for the reader. In a house, when a window opens onto the brick façade of the next building, it *ruins the view*. Same with setting. It is the view the reader has of the particular moment in time in the overall world. I have to set the place and time and keep it fresh through a scene as well as through the book.

Emotional transitions are like a builder’s decorating choice, color for the rooms. One room in my book has to flow naturally into the next. No jarring transitions, say a purple room and then a buttercup yellow room. Unless I *want* a reader to feel the emotional jar. When an important character dies, it better be a jar to the reader. If not, I haven’t done my job.

The roof holds a building together, provides the strength when winds press against one wall, then another. The roof of my novel is the plot outline, with its arcs and crests and troughs. No, I don’t build an outline the way a lot of writers teach it, in a graph of rising and falling action moving the character to the final conflict. But something has to happen every 10 pages, building and releasing the stresses of the story line.

Power words are like a builder’s finishing touches, words with emotional content must be just right. Scurried instead of slunk. Ripped off instead of stole. Or vice versa. Just like the right light fixture or bathroom fixture can give a room emotional tone, the right word gives a reader emotional tone. Varying sentence structure helps with this too, of course, giving a pulse and breath to writing.

These are just some of the tools in a writer’s tool box. There’s bait, the five or six main methods of character description, the wave formula, and dozens of other devices a writer can use. Do I think of them when I write? No. But I occasionally study them between books, reminding myself not to get stale in the way I build a world or present a character.

Lack of staleness is the gift of a very few, very great writers: Leonard Elmore comes to mind. Every single one of his books is written with a different voice  If a book didn’t have his name on the cover I’d never know he was the author when I start to read. But they all have this sharp, barbed, stabbing intensity, that you *feel* as you read. It’s his gift. Natural tools in his tool box.

And I guess that is where I come back to the beginning. Writing is something that resides deep in our souls, like a seed that needs nourishment to bust open and reach for the sun. But to make it reach and flourish I have to have tools in my tool box and be willing to use them. Which bring us to my number one role of writing:Butt in chair.Faith      

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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We have a winner!

It was a tricky contest, and there were a lot of close guesses, but at the last minute, someone read the hints and pulled it out. So put your hands together, people, for our winner…. Beatriz! 

She correctly guessed that it was Faith, David, Catie and Misty.  Beatriz, I’ll get in touch offlist to arrange for your fabulous prize (well, maybe not fabulous, but it’s a prize!)

Thanks for playing, everyone! We’ll be having another quiz soon, so keep watching this spot for more Friday Fun. And please drop by this Friday, April 4, to spend some time with our marvelous guest blogger, Joshua Palmatier! He’s the author of the Throne of Amenkor series, and he’ll be discussing how to create a religion for your fantasy world. Don’t miss it!

Tags: C E Murphy, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey by Misty Massey
6 Comments »

Friday Fun Time!

It’s Friday! Woo hoo! In honor of getting to the weekend relatively unscathed, we at Magical Words are challenging you, our readers.

The four hosts of Magical Words were asked the following question:

“You’ve gone to the local coffee shop to indulge yourself for an hour. What do you order?”

Their answers are:

A. A large chai tea latte, non fat, with a couple shots of raspberry. A low fat coffee cake, either blueberry or cinnamon. Or a cinnamon Danish if I’ve been virtuous all week. Man…That is just sooo girlie. I shoulda said a black coffee, and added that I topped it off with a shot of brandy from a flask in my tote. I’ve done that before too, in my wilder younger days.

B. Coffee makes me jittery, hyper. My hands shake under the best of conditions; give me coffee and I’m a total wreck. I’d get a Chai Latte. And sugar. Must have sugar. A big soft oatmeal raisin cookie maybe. Or chocolate chip (also big; also soft). And because work has no place in this fantasy, I’d bring my laptop and spend the entire time cruising around Ebay.

C. I’ll order the darkest hot chocolate on the menu and spend the next two hours copyediting manuscripts. Hrm. That doesn’t sound much like indulging myself, does it?

D. A medium latte, no sugar and no flavoring, and a toffee bar, if they happen to be in stock. I swear, every baked goodie I fall in love with goes out of stock. I used to love pistachio muffins, but the coffee shop that sold them went out of business. Maybe I should publicly announce my love of bran-carrot-banana cake, just to watch it vanish, too.

So here’s the challenge - whose order is whose? Post in comments with your answer. The first person who guesses all four answers correctly (we’ll announce on Monday morning) will receive huge accolades and the pride of being our first winner. And maybe even a toy surprise if we can arrange it!

So start guessing, and have a great weekend!

Tags: C E Murphy, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey by Misty Massey
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