Silk & Shadows

After two and a half years of blogging here at Silk and Shadows, it’s unfortunately time for me to say goodbye. I’m still writing fiction and still blogging over at my own website, but life is forcing me to scale back a bit.

Celebrating romance novels and dark, delicious heroes with you has been a lot of fun. I’ve truly enjoyed the opportunity to meet the avid readers and writers who visit the blog. I’ve met some wonderful people—including the wonderful authors who’ve blogged with me, Sharon Ashwood, Kim Lenox, and Jessa Slade—and I’ll miss you all.

As I head out the door, I’ll leave you with some parting thoughts about surprises…

Do you believe a good story is as much about what you don’t say as what you do?

Voltaire did: The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.
Alfred Hitchcock did: Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

I do, too. However, this was a piece of craft I didn’t fully understand when I first started writing.

My initial attempts at story starts were rampant with backstory. I believed it was necessary to explain the hero or heroine’s past or to allow the reader to ‘catch up’ on some of the events that recently happened. People suggested that I take the backstory out but I still didn’t understand that not only was it okay to do so, it made the story better.

Two reasons:

1. Pacing. This reasoning I got first. It made sense to me that by giving all this information I was slowing the story down.

2. Drama. It took longer for me to realize that by dumping information on the reader at the first opportunity, I was taking the fun out of reading.

When we meet new people or start a new job or take a trip to somewhere we’ve never been before, a large part of the excitement is related to discovery. We don’t know everything about a new person when we first meet them — in fact, we usually only get a very superficial glance. The fun in meeting someone new is learning about them, bit by bit. Yes, we form first impressions, and those are often lasting, but they’re based on tidbits of information, on subtle clues, not on a detailed accounting of the person’s life story. Why should reading about a fictional character be any different?

Now, to be fair, in fiction our goal is to have the reader identify with the protagonist, so it’s important to give more insight into that character than any other. But choose your moments. Give the reader tidbits of information at the moment when it makes the most impact. Keep secrets. Real people do, so it won’t surprise the reader that your hero/heroine does, too. Well, the information might surprise them , but not the keeping of a secret.

What sort of info do you hold on to?

Well, motivations is a good place to start. We usually don’t get to know what’s motivating people. There’s often a surface reason — a quest for riches, for example — but the underlying motivation — I need to prove to my dad that I’m not a worthless piece of crap — is something we often don’t discover until we’ve gotten to know someone extremely well.

Backstory (all that stuff you wanted to tell upfront) is another place to look for what to hold back. The hero got a letter that set him off on this journey? Why not hold back the details of the letter until them finding out will incite a crisis? The heroine has three sisters? Why not hold that information back until you have a moment of intimacy between the hero and her that gives her a chance to tell him what those sisters mean to her?

If you’re holding back key pieces of info, dropping clues is vital. Readers get a little peeved if in a moment of crisis the heroine suddenly displays her black belt Karate skills when there’s been no indication she possessed them up to now. For important elements you’re going to use later, drop one or two clues along the way so the reader isn’t scratching their head going ‘huh?’. We’d much rather have reader going ‘I knew it!’ or ‘Now I see the connection!’

To use a popular TV show example: Remember the first season of Grey’s Anatomy? Yeah, I know I’m asking a lot. From the very beginning (in fact, from the first scene of the first episode), Derek Shepherd is a mystery. Several episodes before the finale, Meredith Grey, who’s dating him, gets a little frustrated about how little she knows about him. The episode ends with a romantic moment of sharing, and Meredith is satisfied that she’s finally learned the truth about him. Then, in the last minutes of the last episode of the season they produce Shepherd’s wife. Not ex-wife. Wife. Viewers are delighted with the shocker, but prepared because it’s been made clear that Shepherd has secrets.

Wouldn’t it have been dull to know he had a wife all along … even if the viewers knew, but Meredith didn’t? I think so. I love surprises.

Currently working on: Missing all my friends in New York
Mood: Wistful

As you read this, about 2,000 romance writers are converging on New York City for the annual Romance Writers of America conference. Con attendees will take workshop, “network” at the bar, giggle too much, and get blisters in the miles of hotel corridors.

In the weeks leading up to a major conference, the blogging world, Facebook and Twitter are full of advice for newbies old war horses trying to be more efficient with their conference time and money. The advice runs the gamut from the eminently practical (“stay hydrated” and “bring a sweater; some rooms are cold!”) to the sublime (“RWA is not a popularity conference. Which makes it easier to win”) to the ridiculous (“Remember, editors and agents are human too”; no they aren’t, if they hold the life of your work in their hands, that makes them demi-gods at least).

But I haven’t seen as much on post-conference advice. To rectify that…

1. Don’t lose momentum.
Conferences are exhausting. With the prep time before you leave, the travel stress, and the forced extroversion (not to mention the laundry and dirty dishes that mysteriously piled up at home while you were gone) it’s easy to come back from conference utterly drained. Take some time to recover, but don’t let it derail you for more days than the conference itself, which can easily happen.

2. SUBMIT your requested work.
The anecdotal number varies, but editors and agents all say that they get surprisingly few of the manuscripts they request at conferences. Don’t be that writer. Or if you want to be that writer, don’t take away the ed/ag appointment from a writer who WILL follow up.  After conferences, there’s always a flurry of emails on writing loops asking “How long do I have to send in my story? Cuz, uh, actually, it’s not done. Really, it’s not even started.”

My answer (and not everyone agrees) is: Send it fast. It has to be good too. Not fast OR good; fast AND good. An editor or agent isn’t going to ding you on points if you take too long, but if she asked for it, it’s because she thinks she has a place for it.* Later, that maybe not be the case.

* Or because she’s just being nice. Which is a waste of everyone’s time. But don’t waste more time by NOT sending your work.

3. Do something with those business cards you collected.
If you followed the pre-conference advice and networked like crazy, you probably have lots of cards. Hopefully you followed good pre-con advice and jotted down a note on the card to remind you who this person was. Now to figure out what use you can make of those cards. Rather than keep scraps of paper around, you can data enter names, email addresses and the identifying feature you noted earlier into a word doc or spreadsheet for later retrieval. Send a quick email to people you want to remember so you have their addresses handy in your contact system.

4. Distribute all that swag.
You probably came home with more bookmarks, pens and plastic whatnots than you thought possible.  Contact your local romance book club or indie bookstore to see if they’d like to paw through it for the vicarious thrill. Your local RWA chapter might be interested in deconstructing the swag to see what marketing efforts seemed effective.

5. Put your favorite workshop advice to use.
Handouts and jotted notes seem to accrue more easily than mastery.  Actually TRY some of the craft, business or inspiration ideas that you learned. Also, share them with writing friends to reinforce them in your own mind. Keep a folder of only the very best (for you) of what you learned. That’s a great folder to take with you to writing retreats when you need a boost of remembered excitement.

6. Stay hydrated.
Hey, can’t hurt.

What’s your best post-conference advice? Anybody going anywhere else fun this summer? I’ll be at RomCon in Denver the first weekend of August and Authors After Dark in Philadelphia the second weekend of August. I’ll let you know if I follow my own advice!

Congratulations to Kaysi, who wins the ARC of Frostbound from my book release contest!

Last week, I launched FROSTBOUND, the fourth of the Dark Forgotten series. I’m not totally out the zone of guest blogs and promo contests, but the initial push has passed. Now I’m eyeballing the dates for the RWA Conference in New York and wondering if Air Canada is still going to be on strike when it’s time for me to get on a plane. File that one under “never a dull moment.”

In the meantime, I’m in that odd post-book launch mood.

It’s two parts fatalistic, one part empty nest. We wind ourselves up to be dynamos of energy and, once the confetti has settled, feel let down. We’re no longer the centre of attention. Another book has come along, displacing our moment in the sun. All that’s left is the anxious wait to find out how our baby is doing in the big, bad world. Will people treat it kindly? Will my hero and heroine remember to wear mittens and cross only at the lights?

I’ve never learned how to effectively deal with this state of mind, other than to plunge back into writing. Put another way, the only antidote for present nerves is future plans. I did the same thing when I was entering contests prior to publication—I always made sure I had one more entry out there, because if entry A didn’t do well, entry B just might. Having lots of irons in the fire kept my nail-biting at a bearable level.

And while I fret and wonder and wring my hands for my newborn novel, I’m also jubilant because a story I desperately wanted to tell is now in the hands of readers. How lucky is that?

Currently working on: Scouring dirt from my fingernails
Mood: Soiled

The garden is finally in. Took a couple extra weekends because the ground was so wet and cold that nobody — not me, not XY, certainly not tomatoes — wanted to be in the dirt. But as of today, all the chicken poop is scattered, all the starts are started, all the stakes are stuck through the hearts of vampires are ready to bear the weight of future produce.

Which means it’s time for this spring’s edition of “All the Ways Writing is Like Gardening.”

I’ve noted before, in past editions of ATWWILG, when I read authors’ bios, a lot of them comment about their gardens. I’ve hypothesized that writing is such a head-bound pursuit, writers need an excuse to get outside and connect with life. Gardening fulfills that need to immerse ourselves in the real world — while still letting our minds wander in our storyworlds. Sneaky, I know.

1. Gardens and stories don’t look like much at the start.

As the picture above demonstrates. Baby plants and blank pages aren’t very impressive. They are vulnerable to the late-night predation of slugs and self-doubt. But they are also so fun and exciting at this point; just think what they could become! Their potential is limitless (especially in the case of cherry tomatoes) and they are still easy to weed around. But just wait for high summer when plants and pages have exponentially run amok.

2. Gardens and writing will bug you sometimes.

We do have some terrifying spiders that may or may not be black widows, brown recluses and hobo spiders, but these yellow cuties are infant common garden spiders (sometimes called diadem spiders, which sounds so pretty). In the spring, they are as numerous as the words in a very good writing session. (Although after a few weeks, they will eat each other down to just a few; much like the words after a very good revision session.)

For me, walking face-first through a spider web and getting stuck in my story engender very similar responses: lots of swatting, swearing and skin-crawling. (Ack, it’s on me, get it off, get it off!) Nothing for it but to brush away the sticky strands holding you up and continue onward.

3. Don’t forget to play.

It’s possible — likely? inevitable? — that not everything you find in the garden and in the story will be what you expected. Take, for example, the vast variety of spherical throwing objects the garden apparently sprouted over the winter. Who knew spherical throwing objects could breed and bear offspring? There’s no other explanation for why there are so many in my backyard. Digging them out of their various nooks and crannies was super entertaining. (And part of the reason I have so much dirt under my nails; Monster Girl wasn’t going to have ALL the fun…at least not when the fun came at the expense of my strawberry bed.) Take some time to enjoy the weirdness and see what might work better than what you planned.

So what’s growing in your garden — or your word garden — these days?

When you have a busy life, filled with work, family matters, and chores, it can be hard to find the time to write. This is especially true for those just starting their trek through the jungle of the publishing world. Why? Because at that stage no one believes in the dream except you.

Family and friends tend to see writing as a hobby, as easily put aside as their plans to scrapbook the family vacation to Disney World. And in the face of children who ask for snacks while doing their homework, husbands who want you to watch the latest episode of Law & Order, and friends who beg you to join them on a shopping excursion, it’s challenging to see it any differently.

But writers write. Preferably every day. They make sacrifices (like turning off the TV) all the time. If you’re serious about being a writer, then you need to carve out the hours necessary to craft a story.

One of the easiest sacrifices a writer can make is sleep. That’s because the only person who’ll complain when you trade an hour of sleep for an hour of writing is you. Try getting up an hour earlier than normal (if you’re a morning person) or going to bed an hour later (if you’re a night owl).

Another easy sacrifice is lunch hour (or lunch half hour). Brown bag your lunch, take it to a quiet spot where your co-workers won’t be tempted to interrupt, and go for it.

If you’re a work-at-home mom, perhaps the twenty minutes it takes the washing machine to clean a load of laundry would be a good place to start. No guilt if the laundry is getting done, right?

Some writers I know hop down to the local coffee shop to write—because they don’t have family demands there. Others manage to write while attending Little League games, skating lessons, and doctor’s appointments. If you carry a small notepad and a pen everywhere you go, you can ‘bring your office’ with you.

Start with a small goal—even if it’s only a paragraph per day—and work yourself up to longer writing stints.

The good news is there’s no defined amount of writing required to get that story written. The more you write, the faster the story will be finished, but a page a day for 365 days will give you a whole novel. If you only write a ½ page per day, it’ll take you two years to get that novel written, but it will still get written—if you keep going.

Good luck and good writing!

Currently working on: Chicago booksigning tour
Mood: Easter candy overdosed

I’m in Chicago for the Easter weekend, touring most of the bookstores within 50 miles. [Side note: If you live in Chicagoland and want a signed copy of VOWED IN SHADOWS, check with your local bookseller to see if I blew through.] I spent two solid days on the drive-bys, hitting as many stores as I could, signing the books in stock, and handing out goody bags filled with bookmarks and romance trading cards from fellow writers along with my book. Stock signing tours are fun, but tiring.

Yesterday, I spent Easter with my family. Woozy with exhaustion and excessive sugar intake, I listened to the priest’s homily and contemplated the Easter story of resurrection. I was also thinking about chocolate Easter eggs as well as the surprise elements and features on websites, DVDs and other electronic media which are also referred to as Easter eggs. The common element to all these Easter moments is rejoicing, whether that’s rejoicing in the  promise of eternal life or rejoicing in the discovery of a hidden chocolate or digital treasure.

As tired as I was after all the running around, I might have forgotten for a moment I should be rejoicing about having a book to sign. But even worse than that, sometimes I forget to rejoice in the writing itself. Just as eternal life shouldn’t overshadow that “This is the day the Lord has made” (emphasis mine), so I have to be careful that the joys (and trials) of being an author don’t overshadow the writing.

As I move forward with Book 3 launched and Book 4 almost a year away (yeah, yeah, it’ll be here before I know it) I am going to remember to rejoice. I will:

• Write anew and write a new…something
• Try something short and fresh as springtime
• Find the heart and spirit of my writing and set it free

Which aspects of writing or your other favorite pastimes continue to surprise and delight you? Leave a comment any time this week for a chance to win one of the goody bags I handed out this weekend.

Currently working on: Revising back cover copy for Marked Souls 4 (March 2012)
Mood: Time warped & future shocked

On Sunday, there was actual sunlight in Oregon! At one point, I was down to one single layer of clothing! Must be spring!

And spring means spring cleaning in the garden. I’ve noted before that many writers have gardens. I think a garden is sometimes an excuse to get away from the computer, to go outside, to see that blazing ball of light in the sky. It’s also a good time to think about stories. And today, as I pulled weeds, I was thinking what a lot the garden has taught me about writing.

Bloom where you are planted

Not every place is perfect. In fact, I’d hazard to say that most places aren’t perfect. Most life situations, most writing schedules, most publishing opportunities aren’t going to be perfect.

But like these balloon flower seedlings show, perfect isn’t a necessity. They found an opening in the gravel path, and they will happily sprout and blossom there. Even more impressively, not only will they bloom in the gravel, they will slowly build up dirt around themselves and make an even better situation for themselves next year.

Find the inner beauty

Oregon winters are relatively mild, but I have some plants that need to be protected through the coldest months and so I bury them in autumn leaves. In the spring, I’m always thrilled to find how some of the old leaves have been carved away to the intricate structures within. Sure, most of the leaves are a cold, wet, rotted mess, crawling with red wiggler worms, but a few are treasures.

I find the same is true of my writing efforts. Some leaves of pages aren’t going to grow into a grand novel oak; they are more suited for composting. But those are worthwhile too. And the skeletal structures that do stand the test of a winter’s rain might be the outline for that grand spread.

Think big, think small

The hairy bitter cress has to be one of the most weedy weeds ever. It’s one of the last things blooming in early winter and one of the first to shoot up in late winter. What I find most amazing about the hairy bitter cress (besides the remarkably unlovely name) is that it makes the most of every situation. Given light, space and a bit of dirt and water, it grows into an airy bush several feet across. (Pictured left, with my boot for scale.)

But in poorly lit, cold, hard soil, it will still sprout, blossom and go to seed at sizes even smaller than a quarter. (Pictured right.) Left to its own devices, it makes dry seed pods that explode at the touch of the wind, sending seeds in all directions.

I’m always tempted to think big in my writing, but the small can have just as much impact and throw its seeds just as far. Sometimes I need that reminder to focus on the intimate details.

This too shall pass

When I was a kid living through the Cold War threat of global thermonuclear annihilation, I sometimes comforted myself (and I admit I still use this technique) with the knowledge that no matter what we did, the world would keep spinning. (Although maybe slightly skewed on its axis if all the bombs were dropped in a certain pattern… Okay, TMI.) The plants NOT in my garden remind me that the best-laid plans are just that; plans, not reality. Even though I clear the patio pavers every year, every spring the Mexican feather grass, mullein, spearmint, and assorted other creepers have found nooks in the pavers and gotten a merry start on running amok.

And I kind of like the green invasion. No matter how clean-swept and barren those pavers are, new life will find a way. I know no matter how empty my writing hours sometimes feel, new stories will set root and bloom.

Go deep & aim high

Two years ago, we put in a marionberry bush. People who live outside berry country may never encounter a fresh marionberry. This is because Oregon grows most of these berries…and then eats them all. Marionberries are called the “Cabernet of blackberries” for their rich, intricate sweetness.

For all its elegant name, our plant is a monster. Last year, it sent out runners that could entangle a smallish elephant. Where the 10-20′ vines touched down, they rooted and are sending up new sprouts. (Diving and sprouting viciously-spined cane pictured right.)

What a great inspiration for my writing: beautiful and ferocious, sweet and thorny, strong and spreading, unstoppable. (And highly commercial!)

Enjoy

When I’m out there in the damp, filthy, slug-infested spring garden, pulling bent grass with roots two feet long, there’s a certain amount of growling and cursing. Sometimes I have to take a breather and remember why I’m doing this. Right now, I’m doing it for the tulips, but also for the strawberries and grapes, the dogwood and the purple smoke bush, the weeping cedar and the white birch. I’m doing it because I love my garden.

And despite the brain-bleeding brainstorming sessions trying to find the ideal story concept and the late-night revisions, I love my writing too.

Are you going to have a garden this year?  What lessons do your other hobbies teach you about life?

If you’ve never seen the series, but think someday you’ll want to, turn back now. There are a few spoilers in this list…

1. Throw them a curve ball: Take an ordinary high school cheerleader and give her an inescapable destiny as a vampire slayer.

2. Pit them against villains capable of killing them: Such as an ancient vampire who not only sucks the slayer dry, he leaves her face down in a puddle. Caveat: If you do this, you also need to give her friends who can conveniently save her life…

3. Make their nightmares come true: Afraid of spiders, clowns, or public speaking? Good. Because all the bad guys can’t be demons. Welcome to the slayer’s world.

4. Stomp on their hearts: Let her fall in love, only to discover that love can cause serious, earth-shattering problems, like awakening the soulless vampire buried in her boyfriend.

5. Kick them when they’re down: Ensure the only way to save the world is to run said boyfriend through with a very sharp sword.

6. And then just for the heck of it, kick ‘em again: When she finally gets up the courage to date again, have that guy dump her after one night of sex.

7. Take away all their support: Mentors? Fire them. Friends? Turn them into hyenas or magic-addicted dark witches. Mother? Make her a zombie, have her do the nasty with the mentor, then kill her.

8. When in doubt, make them sing: Literally, for a whole episode. And while she’s singing, have her blurt things she’d never say otherwise, wound all her friends, and almost go up in flames. Then blame it on a tap-dancing demon.

Fortunately, Buffy’s ego is never completely shattered by all that happens to her–she’s a terrific example of what doesn’t kill you (or does kill you but you come back to life) makes you stronger.

Any other Buffy fans out there?

The title of this blog post comes from a song by JoDee Messina called That’s the Way.

I decided to blog about this topic after receiving two emails from different people highlighting the challenges of being reviewed. In one instance, an author received a two-star review and then proceeded to harangue the reviewer on his blog for it. In the other, a young author got completely ripped apart by reviewers who I don’t believe have even read the book yet (it comes out in August).

One of the hardest parts about being an author is that you have to put your work out there and then take whatever comes. In today’s social media world both the review and people’s responses to it (including yours) become very, very public.

If the review is good, that can result in a flood of sales as the good word spreads. Unfortunately, a good review doesn’t automatically translate into fame or fortune. It generally has to ‘go viral’ for that to happen, and the truth is, bad news is more likely to go viral than good. The two emails I received were both examples of bad news traveling fast.

As an author, your sphere of control is very limited. You cannot control how other people react to your book. You can only control the words in the book itself, and your professionalism after the book is published.

It’s very hard to accept that some people disliked your book so much that they could not finish it, or thought it worthy of a scathing one-star review. But even if you write an excellent book, you won’t satisfy everyone. If you need evidence of that, take a look at the Amazon reviews for Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, and Jane Austen. They all have one-star reviews. Heck, pick almost any current best-selling author and you’ll see the same thing.

You can’t please everyone. And you can’t control what people think.

You need to roll with the punches. Absorb them with the least amount of pain possible and move on. Take the high ground, even if the comments are bitter and unwarranted… No, scratch that. Especially if they are bitter and unwarranted.

Which, thankfully, most are not.

One of the writing lessons I’ve learned the hard way has been the importance of having an ergonomic workspace. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with degenerative discs in my neck and the culprit was bad posture, mostly while working at the computer. Other people I know have lower back problems or carpal tunnel syndrome.

If you want to start off on the right foot as an author, I highly recommend spending a little time, effort, and money to ensure your workspace will support your ambitions over the long term. When your bones are young, you can flop on the couch with your laptop on the side table, and it won’t bother you. Later, the body won’t be as forgiving. Why not start off with good habits now and train your muse to work that way?

You can Google ‘ergonomic workspace’ and find several resources for properly setting up your desk, chair, keyboard and mouse. I also recommend investing in a good chair, or at least a good chair accessory, like this one from ObusForme.

Repetitive strain injuries (injuries done with simple motions repeated over and over again) can often be avoided if you take regular stretch breaks—at least once every hour. This is hard to do when you’re lost in your story, so setting up reminders with your Outlook calendar or using a kitchen timer might help you out.

Poor lighting can also cause strain, as can working without corrective lenses if you need them. I have a tendency to lean into my monitor, so I recently bought a pair of computer glasses—which are similar to reading glasses but they focus about twenty inches out where your computer monitor ought to be.

Stay healthy and enjoy a long career as a writer! If you have a tip or a website you found helpful in setting up your workspace, please share.