Reading More than One Book at a Time

I can never read just one book at a time. I might pick up a book and finish it before I pick up another one, but I've always got a number of them going at any given time. At the moment, I've got the following books that I have either started or am part way through:

Name of the Wind
This is THE fantasy book of right now. Patrick Rothfuss's name is now spoken in the same reverent tones as George R. R. Martin or Brandon Sanderson. I'm about a quarter of the way through the audio book and liking it, though I suppose I have yet to get to the stuff that will make me really lose my mind over the book. Looking forward to it, but I'm having to break this book  up into several meals, so it might be a while.

I will say that, as someone whose nickname is "Scribe", I have a soft spot for Chronicler.

Code Name Verity
OMFG. I went through the first half of this book in two days. I hit the second viewpoint character and slowed down, but kept going because of how invested I was in the story. Then...then...well, if you've read it, you know. Let's just say that something happened that made me simultaneously want to rip the book in half and jump up and down.

Rip the book in half, because that's what it did to my HEART.

Jump up and down because, in my experience, when that sort of major craziness actually makes it to publication, it's because the ending will justify the heck out of it.

That said, I did have to pause the book because of a sudden need to reread The Hobbit.

The Hobbit
I first read the hobbit when I was about nine. I remember my brother had to read it for school and I picked it up and blazed through it when he was done. I didn't remember anything beyond the eagles. Then the second trailer was released (leaked - bwahahahaah!) and I suddenly had the need to reread it with Dr. Watson Martin Freeman running around as Bilbo in my imagination. Also, I couldn't remember what had actually...happened.

So yes. Took a break from the emotional TRAUMA of Code Name Verity to reread in preparation for December.


Sabriel
Still working through this. I really, really want to figure out why I'm not grabbed by this as much as both Raven and Skrybbi were convinced I would be. It may be because I've been doing most of my "reading" through audio recently, and the amount of time I devote to actually sitting down with a book is so scant that I have trouble devoting myself to a book that hasn't 100% grabbed me, like Verity.

I may call it a lost cause and get on with A Confusion of Princes, which I grabbed because the premise was...well...awesome.

Good Omens
Listening to this on audio as well, and because of someone on tumblr, I'm totally imagining Loki Tom Hiddleston as Crowley and Sherlock Holmes Benedict Cumberbatch as Axiraphael. I picked this up on Audible because I went to see Neil Gaiman at the Unchained Tour last night, and was listening in preparation. I'm really enjoying it, but can only take so much silliness at a time (I don't tend to read fiction that's so overtly comical...probably because there's so little tension it doesn't hold me).

Raven Boys
The new Maggie Steifvater book - I grabbed the Audible version of this, but I'm not really liking the reader. The main character is fun, but thus far it's hasn't grabbed me by the throat and shook me into the same kind of nostalgic love that Scorpio Races did. Still, not far in yet, so I'm going to brave the reader a bit more: I love the premise.

Note: I don't tend to have problems when books with female MCs are narrated by men, but this person's voice doesn't seem to fit the narration to me. Not just yet, anyway. It might end up being more apt later on.

The Privilege of the Sword
I waited for the sequel to Swordspoint to come out on Audible. Ellen Kushner even favorited my tweet and tweeted me back about it! Neil Gaiman was involved in putting together the audio for the first one, so I knew he would be involved in this one as well, but the surprise was Felicia Day, who is going to be doing the voice of the main character in the chapters that are "illuminated" with full-cast.

Do you read more than one book at a time? What are you reading right now? What made you pick it up or put it down?

Longhand vs. Typing

Feather Pen by free graphics art

This past weekend I set aside the word-processor, picked up a pen and notebook, and words came out like I hadn't forced them to in weeks.

Since finishing the first draft of BULL-RUSHING THE GHOST, I haven't done a lot of writing. It's all been editing, revising, and reworking middle places. Apart from burning out at work and going nuts preparing for (and recovering from) Dragon*Con, I was exhausted. I started rebelling against the works I needed to edit, but it left me feeling a wee bit guilty about starting anything new because, well, I have to edit all the things (all the things?) and really shouldn't add more onto that pile.

Top of the list was a rewrite of the first chapter of one of my novel-length works. Last Friday night, I went to a local coffee shop and purposefully left my computer at home. I took only a notebook, a pen, and enough cash for an Irish coffee (or two).

With a clear outline of what I needed to write, I put pen to paper. The words staggered out at first, blinking at the starkness of the paper, growling and flailing at each other before grudgingly acquiescing to the flow of the scene. The process was halting at first, but soon enough the familiar energy spurred me on. My own "floating world", as the Japanese call it, is that transcendent state of writing where I'm no longer seeing the page in front of me, but seem to be a part of the world I'm writing about.

Ten pages later, I came up for air and sat back, immensely relieved.

Because sometimes you forget what it's like. Sometimes, it's good to know that you're still capable of getting lost in your own world. Pen and paper does this for me in a way that a word processor can't. I may be able to write much faster on a word processor, but I never manage to sink into that madness of the written word as easily.

I went looking for some articles on longhand versus type-writing, and I've found a couple good ones:

Why Creative Writing is Better With a Pen - from the Guardian.co.uk

Typing vs. Longhand - Does it Affect Your Writing? - From Livia Blackburne's blog

I found both of these articles very interesting. Have more? Leave them in the comments!

Do you notice a difference in your writing when you write longhand versus when you write shorthand? Which do you prefer? Why?

Plan B....irthday?

I just found this picture on my friend Rachel's blog. It's from my 25th Birthday when I was in Japan. I know I had issues while I was there, but I find myself nostalgic for this time. It was a struggle to make ends meet, but I always had a ton of fun and there was plenty of time to do things like writing.

I'm stressed out these days. Mostly because of work, and because I have no energy by the time I get home. Before, I used to have enough energy to write no matter what. But I've been running on fumes for so long, I can't make myself do it often, so my productivity has dropped to a level I'm not happy with.

Plan B isn't working out. I've abandoned my diet, my workout routine, and everything that doesn't have to do with work or sleeping, and that's not the way I want to live for the next few years. It's not inspiring and it's not helping.

I've got a few leads right now, and I'm going to make an effort to change things, so my 28th birthday will be just as happy as my 25th, which was probably the best birthday of my life.

So that's my new goal. By my birthday, I'm going to make a change. I don't want to keep running on fumes, missing all the scenery.

Live Like a Kid

Someone at work brought in Little Debbie snack cakes, and while I'm normally good a ignoring the sweets my coworkers bring, Swiss Cake rolls are one of my weaknesses.

They're too sweet, and I actually found that I don't like them anymore. Then I realized I'd just chomped the first one, and the taste is never what made me love Swiss Cake Rolls. It was HOW I ate them.

Step 1 was to break off the ridge of chocolate along the bottom where the coating had cooled, giving it a little slope of icing. That gave me access to the flat sheet of chocolate coating, which I used to take great pains to peel away in a single sheet, much like I spiral-peel my tangerines these days.

Step two didn't go as well--the icing flaked and stuck in some places, and didn't come off in one single sheet. I remember that part being easy. I guess the process or formula must have changed.

Step three was to unroll the cake, which usually broke into three pieces. I always ended up licking the filling off the two big pieces, then eating the cake part. That left me with a little trough of cake-and-filling.

My final victim.

It's funny, because just doing that one little thing I did as a kid, slowing down an letting myself be fascinated with something simple, to appreciate it for more than just its intended function, reminded me to slow down, to look around me with an eye for possibility and wonder and creativity.

I need to remind myself to look at things like a kid more often. It would be awesome to reclaim some of that wonder.

Updates

A couple of updates on what I am and will be up to now that Dragon*Con is over.

Currently Writing
*Revised middle of Bull-Rushing the Ghost

Currently Editing
*Chapter Seven of HELLHOUND

Currently Plotting
*Second half of The Beggar's Twin
*Ministry of Peculiar Occurances, Tales from the Archives short story, The Incident of The Clockwork Mikoshi

Dragon*Con, you say? Why were you away for nearly a month, you say? I think a picture is worth a thousand excuses.

Raven, Skrybbi, and I in our Steampunk Penguin, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy costumes. My hat took me quite a long time.

Cover Reveal and Giveaway of THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS by Cassandra Marshall

It is the LAST FRANTIC DAY of sewing and packing before Dragon*Con, but I decided to take a little time away from the sewing machine to bring you all this exciting tidbit: the cover for Cassandra Marshall's new book, THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS.

Ain't it gwageous? I love the starry sky and moon, and the font for the title, which doesn't so much look starry as it looks etched in glass. The reflection on the ocean makes me think that, just maybe, there might be an entire world our protagonist could discover in that ocean.

Hey wait...

Alison Arroway takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. She has to, or she won’t get paid. Alison is a stunt double for pampered teen actress Pomegranate and when the director takes the shoot to Portugal, Alison is anything but thrilled to be rooming with Pom. But getting to hang around teen hearthrob Erik? Now that’s a plus. 

Erik invites both girls on a sunset boat trip and Alison manages to have a decent time. Until the storm hits and the boat is shipwrecked on a small island, leaving Erik missing and the boat captain dead. 

In the morning light, Alison and Pom find themselves on the lost island of Atlantis. Only one problem: now that the girls know the secret of the island, the Atlanteans don’t want them to leave. They're stuck with corsets, full-skirted dresses, and the strange steam-driven contraptions that are just a way of life for the islanders.

When a plot by the ruthless army Captain to take over the island and declare himself General over all emerges, an underground group promises to return the girls to the mainland if they can help stop him. They'll go through a mountain, literally, to find the Book of Blue, a book that will explain how to make ‘the stars fall sideways' in order to save the day and earn their freedom.

THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS, a YA Steampunkish fantasy, coming October 1st from MolliePup Press!

Hollywood? Steampunk? Atlantis? An MC who is a stunt double? I'm sold, and if you are too, you might have the chance to win a signed copy of the book!

Cassandra Marshall is giving away a signed pre-order of THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS! To enter, visit each of the blogs below to find special inside info about THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS and Cassandra Marshall. The special inside info for this blog is: The title THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS happened because Cassandra has always wanted to write a book with the word 'stars' in the title and the only thing the stars in the book do is seem to fall sideways.

Be sure to visit all of the blogs to find all of the insider info and then visit thestarsfellsideways.com to enter to win a signed pre-order!  You can gain additional entries by sharing links to the cover reveals! 

Shiela Blank - http://www.shielawrites.blogspot.com

Julianna Helms -http://thereviewsnews.blogspot.com

Liana Brooks - http://www.lianabrooks.com

Jamie Corrigan - http://thiswritersworldplotbunnies.blogspot.com

James Matlack Raney - http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6430715.James_Matlack_Raney/blog

Colleen Hampton - http://adventures-in-word.blogspot.com

Rhen Wilson - http://blog.thenaturaltale.com

Kate SitHere- http://www.sithereandread.com

Erica Haglund - http://thebookcellarx.com

Alice M. - http://notveryalice.wordpress.com

Becca - http://beccaweston.wordpress.com

Amanda -  http://www.otherawesomewords.blogspot.com

Eleni - http://elenialexandraki.blogspot.com

Cassandra - http://www.camarshall.com

Good luck!

What do you think of the cover? Do you have any dreams for your own book cover?

PACK, YOU FOOLS!

Ahhhh! Only two days left before Dragon*Con, and I'm not even done with my costume! Yeah, like anyone is surprised.

I haven't had much time to post lately, but I have been looking at some packing lists for conventions. Here are two I've found really helpful:

Dragon*Con Packing List - This list has con-specific information and suggestions. Very comprehensive and thorough.

The Pretty Much Ultimate Convention Packing List - Another comprehensive list for conventions in general, with a few things not mentioned on the Dragon*Con list, and a bit more of an eye toward simplicity.

Today, my roommate and I went to Harris Teeter and purchased some foodstuffs. Then I packed some of the foodstuffs. My packing was glorious. Then I realized we'd put all the yogurt in the fridge, and I hadn't left room for it in the cooler.

Solution: second cooler. May purchase tomorrow.

How I Wrote a 35-Word Pitch

My cheap-o self-made cover

I follow a pair of blogs that have both recently hosted 35 word pitch contests (YAtopia and Brenda Drake Writes). I entered both contests with different works and got requests on both, and perhaps the most useful facet of the contest was learning to whittle my pitch down to the most important aspects of the story. Doing that forced me not only to think critically about the writing itself, but also find the moment in my story that defines the main character's critical choice.

A side-effect of focusing the conflict was that I realized, for my novel-length work, that the story needs to shift closer to the end, putting that moment of critical choice dead-center, with the inciting event of the story nearer to the one-quarter mark.


Crystallizing an entire novel is hard, because you need character, motivation, setting, conflict, stakes, and voice. In this post, I'm going to show you how I got my pitch for The Mark of Flight down to 35 words.



The blurb that follows is what I've used in my query letter, and what you'll find on the Mark of Flight page above.

The council’s preference for her tractable cousin is Princess Arianna’s biggest worry until her most trusted companion, Markmaster Tashda, kidnaps her to rekindle the centuries-long war with the neighboring kingdom, Centoren. In a fight for her liberty and the preservation of her homeland, Arianna is willing to sacrifice almost anything, but she can't escape an elite squadron of Centoreinian soldiers on her own.

A backwoods Mage and a stuttering stable boy, however, are the last champions she would have asked for. Bay is an Innate Mage who can escape neither the impulse to heal the ravaged borderlands nor the haunting absence of the master who taught him more Magic than anyone else seems to know. Even worse is Shiro, a slave illegally owned by the same inn harboring Tashda’s men. Horrified at the thought of slavery in her kingdom, Arianna swears to stop the unlawful trade if she can ever get home, and promises Shiro will never suffer chains again. Then one of Tashda’s men catches up to them, and the glittering shield that bursts from Shiro’s hand shocks even him with the impossible: the slave is a Markmaster.

Bay departs to lead Tashda astray and Shiro, unable to explain how he got a Mark, refuses to accept his power. Arianna hopes that returning to the castle will solve their problems, but when Shiro is captured protecting her from slave-traders, she faces a choice: break her promise to Shiro and rush home to prepare her kingdom for war, or risk her life to free the Markmaster-slave who gave up everything to save her.

Kind of long, right? At 263 words, this blurb is pushing it even for a query letter. However, we can see all the elements of story I listed above.

Character: Princess Arianna


Motivation: liberty and preservation of her homeland


Setting: Rizellen (which, by the fact that she's a princess, we can assume is both feudal and medieval)


Conflict: she has to choose between warning her homeland of approaching war and breaking her promise to Shiro


Stakes: war for her kingdom if she fails to warn them, and life as a slave for Shiro if she fails to rescue him. On both ends, her personal failure to protect what she cares about is evident.


Voice: words like "suffer" "rush" "backwoods" "champion" "ravaged" and "rekindle" hint at the diction of a high fantasy.

The first step was to identify the moment that encapsulates my character's most pivotal choice--the moment she gets off her lazy arse and makes the decision to start DOING something about the situation I stuck her in. For THE MARK OF FLIGHT, that was the moment where Arianna makes her choice between going home to warn her country about Tashda's plans, or rescuing Shiro from slave-traders.

With that in mind, I yanked the final lines from my blurb:

when Shiro is captured protecting her from slave-traders, she faces a choice: break her promise to Shiro and rush home to prepare her kingdom for war, or risk her life to free the Markmaster-slave who gave up everything to save her

By itself, that line is 41 words - already over my limit - so I needed to trim down. Shiro being captured by slave-traders can sort of be implied in the last line: "free the Markmaster-slave". It's probably not necessary to know that he needs to be freed from slavery for a second time. So I end up with this:

(Arianna) faces a choice: break her promise to Shiro and rush home to prepare her kingdom for war, or risk her life to free the Markmaster-slave who gave up everything to save her

Now we're talking. At 33 words, I was finally under the limit. But it wasn't ready yet. I knew I'd have to introduce the main character, the setting, and the general predicament she's in before that choice would matter to anyone.

So we would obviously need to know Arianna's name, the fact that she's a princess, and the fact that she's been kidnapped; "Kidnapped Princess Arianna" covers that in three words, but doesn't really set up the action well. So I decided to use the inciting incident (her kidnapping) as a springboard. "When Princess Arianna of Rizellen is kidnapped..."

But then what? What happens? What are the stakes of that? Easy: war. I loved the word "rekindle" from the original query, so I changed it around a bit to show the stakes of the original situation: "When Princess Arianna's kidnapping threatens to rekindle war..."

Now her choice is properly set up, so I trimmed down the verbage at the end and came up with:

When Princess Arianna’s kidnapping threatens to rekindle war, she must choose between warning her kingdom of the enemy’s approach or risking her life to help the slave who gave his freedom to rescue her.

34 words! Awesome. But I still wasn't done yet.


If beta readers are critical for your book, they're even more critical for your query, and even more important for your pitch. You want to present it to them and see what works, what's understandable, what isn't understandable, and what might be confusing. Also, beta readers will be able to give you quick tips on things like diction and voice.

I copied my pitch and pasted it into my status on facebook, and asked my friends to critique it.

The first thing to go was the "must choose between ...ing and ...ing". That construction was weak, and got replaced with "must choose: warn ...risk..."

When Princess Arianna’s kidnapping threatens to rekindlewar, she must make a choice: warn her kingdom of the enemy’s approach or riskher life to help the slave who gave his freedom to rescue her.

Exactly 35 words, and much stronger. Then another friend suggested I use  the word "sacrifice" instead of "gave", which is a much better word-choice, and I decided I liked "faces a difficult choice" better than "must make a choice". In the end, I came up with:

When Princess Arianna's kidnapping threatens to rekindle war, she faces a difficult choice: warn her kingdom of the enemy's approach or risk her life to help the slave who sacrificed his freedom to rescue her.

Yeah, it leaves out a lot. It leaves out Bay entirely, leaves out the promise Arianna made, leaves out the fact that Shiro is secretly a Markmaster (and what that is). But here's the thing: those are details. Those are trappings of the world. They're not necessary in a pitch, which is designed to present the most interesting part of the story to the potential agents.

POST YOUR 35-WORD PITCHES BELOW!

Do you have a pitch for your story? Have you participated in any pitch contests? Do you think you could whittle down your pitch to 35 words?

Writing Schedule - Do You Want to Do My Laundry?

Can I start querying potential boyfriends? I'd put out my own call for submissions, but I fear that slush pile.


No. I p-h-3-4-r that slush pile. 


Anyway, it's a blessing and a curse right now that I'm not married. A blessing, because I don't have to worry about having kids any time soon, which I know is allowing me a kind of freedom others don't have. A curse because I also don't feel like my life is settled. Part of me is seeking stability, without really knowing how to go out and look for it. Also seeking someone to either pay my bills or do my freaking laundry, because I apparently cannot cope with all the trappings of adulthood and pursue a writing career at the same time.

I will attempt not to make any more Hyperbole and a Half references, but holy God it makes me feel so much better to know that there are other people experiencing this situation. Go read her This is Why I'll Never be an Adult. Seriously. My soul is bared.

I'll simplify with the four things that seem to be the biggest contenders in my own life:

• Day job
• Writing career (dream)
• Laundry/dishes/chorestuff
• Sleep

Pick two.

For serious. For shizzle, even. Most of the house is fairly clean. Just not my room. And to be fair, the things all over the floor in my room are clean too. Just not... put away. I did two loads of laundry last weekend. Saturday night, I grabbed clothes out of the dryer and stuck it on my bed thinking, "HAH. I will have to put this away before I'm able to go to bed." Seven hours later, I'm dragging myself back to my room to go to bed, and it goes something like this.

Me: There's laundry on my bed.
Laundry: *sits there*
Me: I don't want to fold and put away my laundry. That would take too long. And I'm sleepy.
Laundry: *smirks*
Me: All right, laundry. You're going on the floor. I'll fold you in the morning.
Laundry: AAhhhhhhhhhhh!
Me: zzzzzzZZZZ

Needless to say, the next morning I got up, and did I fold laundry? Hell, no! I went to my personal training lesson, then I went to the local coffee shop and worked on my book. I get home, and my roommate is doing laundry.

Skrybbi: I took your clothes out of the dryer and put them on the bed.
Me: Awesome. Thanks.
Laundry: *sits there*
Me: We meet again.
Laundry: *smirks*

...you can kind of see where that's leading. Am I housewife material or what? Hell yeah. (Please? Let me stay home and write, and I will seriously make you ALL THE SAMMICHES.)

Anyway. My epic, whimpering, borderline-anti-feminist incompleteness aside...

SCHEDULES!

Tell me that is not one of the most horrifying fonts ever. It's like Lisa Frank barfed on a serif. I love it.


Like I said in my last post, I've had to shift my schedule and expectations around in order to get everything done. Plan B seems so far to have been more successful than Plan A. I'm still scheduling out my lunches and evenings, and even if I'm not actually doing what I've written on my schedule, that's generally because I'm continuing on with something from the day before, or a time sensitive issue.

As some of you may know, I participated in a 35-word pitch contest on Brenda Drake Writes with my novelette BULL-RUSHING THE GHOST. I hadn't been expecting to find a market for it, since it's a novelette, so finding somewhere to potentially sell it was extremely exciting. I did receive a submission request for the story, so I will keep you updated. More on the contest later, too, because I've done two of these now, and they're pretty awesome.

Despite schedules and deadlines and lots of working much harder than I probably should in general, I still often feel like I'm failing to put out the amount of work I'm hoping for. I'm hoping the summer crazies will die down soon and I will be able to focus a bit more.


That said, the daily schedule is helping. I've set some daily goals that are allowing me to keep better tabs on my time during the day and give me the bread-crumb feelings of accomplishment I need to keep going. I definitely recommend setting one up, even if you don't hold yourself to it completely. Often, I look at my schedule and see not necessarily what I've written, but the possibilities that are there, and that more than anything drives me to work.


As far as my laundry goes... it's still on my floor. Though, as long as Skrybbi doesn't mind that my room isn't clean and I forget to take out the trash most of the time, I'm probably cool for at least a little while. I hope.


How are you balancing work and writing? What techniques have worked for you? Have you finished or submitted anything lately? DO YOU WANT TO DO MY LAUNDRY?

Establishing a Schedule: Plan B

 Plan B: Wherein I don't completely and totally admit to the failure of Plan A. Just mostly.

In Plan A, I admitted that I am a binge writer--I tend to work best when I have a few hours of uninterrupted time to write, but I didn't feel that weekends were sufficient to complete the amount of work I wanted to do. I intended to combat this by forcing myself to write in the evenings with a timer, to remind myself that I was "on the clock".

I don't think I even started.

Let me introduce you to my eleven stages of failure:

1. Take on too many projects masquerading as fun
2. Become overwhelmed by number of self-imposed obligations and goals
3. Hack away at said obligations willy-nilly, accomplishing little
4. Drive self into caffeine-induced frenzy of frustrated self-abuse
5. Make lists
6. Drink
7. Ignore lists
8. Bitch on Facebook 
9. Get called out for bitching on Facebook
10. Sulk
11. Formulate new plan


Maybe that seems like a total failure of Plan A, but I don't see it that way. I actually can write in sprints sometimes--I used to squeeze it in on lunch breaks or between classes, on the train, waiting for students to show up--but those sprints are generally reserved for when I'm in the middle of a huge project, when my life itself is immersed in BOOK.

What Plan A proved to me is this: I already know how I write, and fighting it doesn't work for me.

My only other option was to work with the knowledge of my writing method. For writing, I work best in large chunks of time. Therefore, with rare exceptions, most of my significant production will be on weekends, which leaves me with weeknights, breaks at work, and lunch-breaks to do other things.


I am one of those self-imposed busy-people. I have a lot of projects I want to do and a hard time giving up once I've started. So, I made a list of the different projects I'm involved in, and the aspects of writing I could address in smaller chunks of time. One of the things I did was identify, out of all my projects, which things were long-term and which could be completed more quickly.


Voice Acting: I currently owe three people voicework, but once I finish, it will be done.


Editing: I have a short story and a novella waiting to be edited and polished. This will be a much shorter process than the larger-scale edit of my books.


Editing: I have a bit of cleanup for The Mark of Flight, and one chapter in particular that needs rewriting, but then it's ready for submission.


Editing is something I can drop in and out of at any time without really needing much of a break, so I've put that specific aspect of writing as something I will do during a few lunch breaks and evenings a week. On the rest of my lunch breaks and evenings, I've scheduled activities like going to the gym, editing podcasts, and working on critiques.

We'll see how I fare with this schedule change. I'll let you know if it works any better than Plan A.

What is your schedule like? Have you changed your schedule? What's worked for you and what hasn't?