Category Archives: writing

Progress Report (formally known as this week in writing)

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The biggest thing that happened since the last update is the conclusion of the editing workshop. I learned so much from the class. I plan to do a post at a later date of the most important lessons. It wasn’t without it’s trials. The teacher had a look at the first chapter of Random Acts of Nudity. Her major feedback was that I was over writing. Using ten words where two would do. Overwhelming the narrative with flashbacks and digressions. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard feedback on those lines. But it was the first time I could see the problem for myself.

I must admit, it threw my confidence for a few days. There was so much that needed to be cut! Would I still have a book by the end? How could I be so blind about how bad the writing was? Was it even worth editing? And it got into my head as was writing my current WIP. I kept questioning every line as I was writing. Am I doing it right now? Which words do I need? It almost paralyzed me.

But after a couple of days the feedback sunk in. I could look at the text I was editing and see what was essential and what could go. I’ve edited the first five chapters, and have cut around four thousand words so far. And the book is essentially the same. I might end up with a much shorter book by the time I’ve finished this latest edit. But I’d rather have a very good 50,000 word book than a decent one of 70,000.

And I reminded myself that the book I was beating myself up over, had gotten to the top one percent of ABNA. It had garnered a glowing Publishers’ Weekly review, excess words and all. The book is not worthless, but it has room for improvement.

Another development is that my critique group read RAON in its entirety. They too gave me valuable feedback. Helped me see areas that needed to be fleshed out and/or clarified. I love my critique group, they’re so encouraging and generous with their time. Though they don’t sugarcoat the critique. I’ve decided to put querying on hiatus until I’ve finished this round of editing, and implemented their feedback.

Of course I already had it on submission with a few agents as this was going on. I’ve heard back from three of the four who requested pages. Two have passed, offering similar feedback as my editing teacher. One I’ve yet to hear from. And one requested the complete manuscript! That was very exciting. And she had seen the pre editing class version. We’ll have to wait and see what happens there.

And in spite of the self imposed hiatus, I couldn’t resist entering another pitch contest, and got another request. So I sent out the new streamlined version of the first three chapters this afternoon.

On the non RAON writing front, I did not finish the WIP in time to begin a new project for NaNoWriMo. Between the WIP, the intense editing on RAON, critiquing this month’s manuscript for the group, and holding down my day job, I just didn’t have the time. But I do have a pretty good idea of what my next project will be. I’m thinking of trying my hand at Middle Grade fantasy.

In the meantime, I’ve bounced back from the self doubt, and the end of the WIP is in sight. It’s currently at 113,000 words. I expect to add another 15 to 20 thousand by the time it’s done. It’s the longest book I’ve ever written, (previous champion is 80,000). Granted once I’ve cut the excess, it’ll likely be closer to 90,000. Regardless it will feel good to get to the end.

Finally in baked goods news, I went on a bit of a baking spree. I made chocolate chip cookies, chocolate ganache cookies, and dark chocolate peanut butter cups. And now my pants are way too tight. So the baking is also on hiatus. Except for the batch of pumpkin bread I made this afternoon. I basically used the same recipe as the banana bread, but substituted pumpkin pie filling for the bananas. It’s super moist.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

This week in writing

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It’s been more than a week since my last progress report, but these few weeks in writing doesn’t have much of a ring to it. So what’s happened? I’ve heard from two agents. One was one of the four who requested pages. She was very nice. Said the concept is fabulous, but that it wasn’t quite the right fit for her. The other is one I queried during a time when she said every query would get a personal reply, even if it was a no, rather than a form rejection. A form rejection is a prewritten letter just saying no, with no reasons behind the no. Her response was also a pass, because she had recently signed an edgy YA, and that mine sounded too issue driven for her taste. So, no agent yet, but both rejections were encouraging in their way. Neither said the concept wasn’t sellable or that the writing was bad. The first specifically said it was likely an agent out there that will want it. But that she isn’t that agent. The other already had a project that could possibly compete. The  interesting thing to me about her feedback is I don’t think of Random Acts of Nudity as an issue driven book. I see the sex tape as the catalyst of the story, not the focus of it. It’s an important part of the story but its not all sex tape all the time. but I’ve been working on the book for over a year, I’m too close to see it objectively.

Also going on is the editing class. It’s been really interesting so far.  This week the task is to read the entire manuscript and cut any scene that does not advance the plot or the character arcs. I’m pretty pleased so far, I’ve found a couple of brief scenes that can go, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve got many wasted scenes. They almost all tie into either the overarching plot or are important to character growth. With one exception. There’s a scene just past the halfway mark that does neither. It’s just a sweet moment between the main character and her sister. I should cut it, but I can’t. I love it! Which means I really should get rid of it. There’s an adage that goes “kill your darlings.” It means don’t get so attached to any of your writing that you can’t change or cut it. It can apply to the wording of a sentence or entire scenes. I’ve never had a problem changing sentences, but hooboy, this one is tough. I’ve marked the scene to delete, but haven’t actually done it yet. My critique group is reading Random Acts this month. I’ll ask them if they think it should go.
I’ve also made a little more progress on the WIP. It’s very close to being finished. Maybe four more chapters until the end. If I can finish it by the end of the month, I’ll start a new novel for National Novel Writing Month.
And in baked goods news, I made banana bread from scratch just because I had all the ingredients on hand. It’s delicious, I don’t think I’ll ever use a mix again. I also made a deep dish pizza for my sister’s birthday dinner. It was just okay. Since I had left over ingredients I tried a different dough recipe and made a stuffed spinach. Also just okay. The pizza code is tough to crack, but I will prevail!

Flamewar: by a Lady

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I’m a big fan of Jane Austen.I’ve read all but two of her books. I like to space them out between readings, so first readings of Northanger Abby and Persuasion are still in the distance. I also enjoy adaptations and retellings of her works, though the quality often varies. When FYA announced they’d be doing a Pride and Prejudice theme week, I might have responded with a loud “booyah!” You can read their many hilarious posts here.

Over the last few years there has been a rash of authors embarrassing themselves and damaging their reputations by responding to negative reviews on blogs and sites such as Amazon. It is a shocking phenomena, with both indie and traditionally published authors making a spectacle of themselves. These authors seek out the negative reviews of their work and lash out and attack the reviewers. It is a terrible idea on their part. Bad reviews are no fun, I’ve had my share and should I mange to publish something I’m sure I’ll have many more. And yes they sting and sometimes I get defensive and dismiss the review as “not getting it.” But only in the privacy of my own head. I would never attack someone else for their opinion of my writing. Watching these meltdowns from the outside can be a bit of a head desk moment. What on Earth are these writer’s thinking? No matter if the review in question is well written and thoughtful essay or a single sentence along the lines of “This author sucks, they should stop writing.” A tirade always does far more damage to an author’s career than a bad review could. In short if you can’t weather a bad review here or there, maybe publishing isn’t for you.

Which is a long winded explanation for what I’m about to lay out. I posed myself the question. If the experienced, successful authors of today, who should know better, can’t resist the lure of railing against a bad review, could one of the greatest of all time?

Jane Austen Gets Into a Flamewar With Her Fans

To the editors and readership of the “Austentonian Times,”

Before I address the comments which compelled me to put pen to paper, I would first like to ask that you cease appropriating my name for this “publication” which I most certainly do not endorse. I would also like to point out that while you purport said publication to be an outlet for so called “fanatics” of my work, it seems to me that it is more a place for uneducated lunatics to criticize and ascribe meaning to my work that was never intended.

I would like to refute the anonymous contributor who accused me of having a bias against the clergy.  On the contrary I have the utmost respect for men of God as a whole.  I am in fact a rector’s daughter, and consider the loss of my excellent father to be the great tragedy of my life. To suggest that because I painted characters such as Mr. Collins and Mr. Elton, both clergymen, as undesirable and comical is evidence that I have no respect for the church is utterly ludicrous! Must I explain the function of fiction to your readership? Must I defend my choice to create characters with foibles regardless of their profession? I fear even if I were to try, they would not have the intelligence to comprehend.

To the young lady who wrote to lament that “Fanny Price is so dull! As is Mansfield Park on the whole. La, what happened to the liveliness of Pride and Prejudice? It is by far my favorite.”  I must ask, did I force you to read Mansfield Park if you were not enjoying it? Were you perhaps stuck at the bottom of a well, with only my third novel to pass the time? Did you burn Pride and Prejudice on acquiring my next book, and therefore can no longer derive enjoyment from the less mature piece?  Am I not allowed to explore new themes in my work? Must I rewrite Pride and Prejudice time and again? Only changing the lovers names to Miss Traliza Bonnet and Mr. Pitzsimmon Farcy? Is that what you would have me do? I suspect it is.

To Mr. Currer Bell, if that is indeed your true name, I detect a feminine hand behind your words, but that is neither here nor there. I do not take offense that you and your family believe I concern myself too much with propriety and not enough with “poetry and passion” as you so eloquently put it. If you cannot detect the turmoil within my characters regarding the conflicting pulls propriety and passion, then you are not the audience to which I write. I encourage you to take the next few years, you will excuse me for presuming you are still quite young, there was much in your letter to give me that impression, to seek out books written with your sensibilities in mind. Perhaps if no one is writing such literature you can do it yourself, you clearly do not believe it is the least bit difficult. I look forward to someday seeing the overwrought, sensational, and likely sentimental stories you come up with in print.

There is much more I would like to say, but I have decided you are no longer worth the paper it would take to do so. Good day to you all, and God’s grace on all your future endeavors.

Miss J. Austen, authoress.

This week in writing

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It’s been an eventful week. I participated in a pitch event on twitter. The rules were simple. Pitch your book in 140 characters or less, and mark it with the tag #pitmad. Agents were following the tag, and if they liked what they saw, they’d favorite your tweet. I had three agents request mine. Which means there are now three agents with pages from Random Acts of Nudity in their inbox (plus a fourth who had requested pages off a similar event the week before). So now I wait to see if any of them ask for more. And I try to not to obsess over the undiscovered typos that appeared in the excerpt seconds after each time I hit send. Hopefully a missing quotation mark here and a random paragraph break there won’t ruin the query’s chances, but who knows? Having an agent/s request pages is a small goal to check off on my mental list of “things that mean I’m a real author.”

It would be very easy to get carried away, imagining that because they asked for pages, I’ll be signed and have a book deal by next month, but that ain’t happening. In truth this isn’t that different from the unrequested queries I’ve sent. With those I sent a query letter and five to fifty pages of the manuscript, which the agent or their assistant would read and then choose to pass or ask for more. (So far it’s all been passes). In this case the agent has only seen a one to three sentence description of the book. The pages will be the first sample of my writing they’ll see. If they ask for more, that will be exciting (and another check on the list).
The major difference, and it’s a significant one, is that these agents already like the concept of my book. With the blind queries I never knew for sure if the agent passed simply because they didn’t like the idea of the book. These agents are into the idea of a high school girl with a sex-tape (uh…a book about a high school girl with a sex tape, I’m not implying they like child pornography. Whoops) So now it’s a matter if they like my execution of the concept.
So as I said, it’s all about waiting. Though what I’m waiting for is hard to say. I only know I’ll hear from them if they like what they saw. None of the agents said they’d contact me if they didn’t. For all I know they’ve already read the pages and decided it wasn’t up to snuff. Or it might still be in their to read piles, and they might not make the decision for several months. It’s best to just celebrate that I qot a couple of requested queries, and go back to business as usual.
In other writing news, I made some progress on my work in progress. And I got another couple of chapters edited. Plus starting this week I’ll be taking an online course on professional editing, which will hopefully make the self editing process easier and more productive.
That’s all for now.

Week 14: The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

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Thanks to J Lenni Dorner for asking me to be a part of this.  You can see J’s answers by clicking here.

***Answer these ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress) on your blog

***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

What is the working title of your book?
Random Acts of Nudity

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I kinda stole it.  NOT REALLY!!!  I did not steal it, but my idea was sparked from reading someone else’s concept.  I participate in a board on Amazon where authors post their pitch and get help from other authors in making it as appealing as possible.  About two years ago I read a pitch there about a person who saw themselves in a viral sex tape.  It got me thinking.  The other author’s idea was about an adult male, who didn’t remember making the video, and the book was a psychological thriller.  But the idea of being in a viral sex tape stuck with me.  I started thinking about how most kids these days have recording equipment and how easy it is to distribute video online.  I began weaving the story of a teenage girl who casually makes a sex tape with her boyfriend, not expecting anyone but themselves to see it.  Then after they breakup, it’s seen by their entire school.

What genre does your book fall under?
Contemporary YA.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
There aren’t many actors that fit the description of my main character, since she’s plus size.  There isn’t an abundance of teenage plus size actress working today.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A shy honors student is mortified when her ex releases their sex tape to the whole school.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m submitting it to agents now. Fingers crossed, one will like it.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I wasn’t keeping track, somewhere between five and eight months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t read a lot of other contemporary YA.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
See the first answer.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The MC has a snarky, self deprecating voice.  The way she handles being humiliated and ostracized is (I hope) unique and entertaining, while still being believable.  And the supporting characters rock, if I do say so myself.

Thomas A Knight, I.A. Uaro, Dana Brantley-Sieders, Maggie Young, and Janet Oakley– you’re it!

I Fail! (don’t worry, it’s cool)

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A few months ago I ran across a tongue in cheek quiz called the fantasy novelist exam.  It posed a series of questions about fantasy novels.  If you pass the quiz, your novel is original and could be worthy of publication.  If you fail you’re SOL, and should consider a new career.  My novel failed.  Other novels that would failed are: Harry Potter, the Song of Ice and Fire series, American Gods, and every other fantasy novel I can think of.  (Answering yes to any one of the over 70 questions means you fail.)
I really like this quiz.  (which can be found here.)  As I said, it’s obviously not to be taken one hundred percent seriously, but it is good at pointing out tropes that have become cliches.  If you do end up answering yes to the majority of the questions, it might be worth taking another look at your work.
I’m posting my results here.  Anything in bold is copied from the website and belongs to rinkworks.com.  My answers are in plain text.
The fantasy novelist’s exam
By David J. Parker
Additional Material By Samuel Stoddard
Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this “great, original fantasy” is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we’re sick of it, so we’ve compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam. We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering “yes” to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.
1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
Nope.  Stuff happens.
2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?

No.
3. Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn’t know it?
No.
4. Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme badguy?
No, because she’s already of age.  But otherwise yes.
5. Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
Not really.
6. How about one that will destroy it?
Sort of, but no.
7. Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about “The One” who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?
Nuh uh
8. Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information?
Nope, but there is a character that shows up at random moments to hit on the heroine.
9. Does your novel contain a character that is really a god in disguise?
No.
10. Is the evil supreme badguy secretly the father of your main character?
No.
11. Is the king of your world a kindly king duped by an evil magician?
No, there is no king.
12. Does “a forgetful wizard” describe any of the characters in your novel?
No, but if you remove the forgetful bit, yes.
13. How about “a powerful but slow and kind-hearted warrior”?
No.
14. How about “a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons”?
No, there is a character that refuses to give away information for personal and mysterious reasons, but he’s not a wise mystical sage, and the info isn’t that important to the plot.
15. Do the female characters in your novel spend a lot of time worrying about how they look, especially when the male main character is around?
No.
16. Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued?
No
17. Do any of your female characters exist solely to embody feminist ideals?
No.
18. Would “a clumsy cooking wench more comfortable with a frying pan than a sword” aptly describe any of your female characters?
The main character is a pastry chef from our world, who’s never handled a sword in her life, so technically I suppose yes.  Though she does turn out to be a bit of a badass.
19. Would “a fearless warrioress more comfortable with a sword than a frying pan” aptly describe any of your female characters?
No, none of my characters regardless of gender are fearless, though they occasionally act it.
20. Is any character in your novel best described as “a dour dwarf”?
No.
21. How about “a half-elf torn between his human and elven heritage”?
No, there’s an elf, but he’s happy in his elfness.
22. Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?
Dwarves get mentioned but don’t appear in the book, and the sole elf wouldn’t care about dwarfs unless they were attractive and female.
23. Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
No, I think all the characters are over four feet.
24. Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy?
No boats.
25. Do you not know when the hay baler was invented?
No, I don’t.  Is that important?
26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like “The Blasted Lands” or “The Forest of Fear” or “The Desert of Desolation” or absolutely anything “of Doom”?
No, I didn’t draw a map.  There is an agony swamp mentioned in passing, but it’s sort of a joke.
27. Does your novel contain a prologue that is impossible to understand until you’ve read the entire book, if even then?
No prologue.
28. Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
No
29. How about a quintet or a decalogue?
No
30. Is your novel thicker than a New York City phone book?
No.
31. Did absolutely nothing happen in the previous book you wrote, yet you figure you’re still many sequels away from finishing your “story”?
No, it’s a stand alone.
32. Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books?
Nope.
33. Is your name Robert Jordan and you lied like a dog to get this far?
No.
34. Is your novel based on the adventures of your role-playing group?
No, I’m not in a role playing group.
35. Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm?
Yes!
36. Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names?
No
37. Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
No.
38. Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named “Tim Umber” and “Belthusalanthalus al’Grinsok”?
No.
39. Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings?
Yes to elves.  Dwarves are mentioned but don’t appear.  No orcs or halflings.
40. How about “orken” or “dwerrows”?
No, is that a thing?
41. Do you have a race prefixed by “half-“?
No.
42. At any point in your novel, do the main characters take a shortcut through ancient dwarven mines?
No.
43. Do you write your battle scenes by playing them out in your favorite RPG?
No.
Have you done up game statistics for all of your main characters in your favorite RPG?
No.
44. Are you writing a work-for-hire for Wizards of the Coast?
No, but I probably would if they asked.
45. Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?
No inns.
46. Do you think you know how feudalism worked but really don’t?
Probably.
47. Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place?
Yep.
48. Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won’t break the plot?
No, they share what information they have when they have it.
49. Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as “fireball” or “lightning bolt”?
Yes.
50. Do you ever use the term “mana” in your novel?
No, should I?
51. Do you ever use the term “plate mail” in your novel?
Nope, but there is some chain mail.
52. Heaven help you, do you ever use the term “hit points” in your novel?
What the what?  Is that a gaming term?
53. Do you not realize how much gold actually weighs?
Uh, can’t say that I do.  Don’t have anyone toting it around either, so not too concerned.
54. Do you think horses can gallop all day long without rest?
No, that’s why they fly, duh. (there are no flying horses in my books, but  maybe there should be.
55. Does anybody in your novel fight for two hours straight in full plate armor, then ride a horse for four hours, then delicately make love to a willing barmaid all in the same day?
No.
56. Does your main character have a magic axe, hammer, spear, or other weapon that returns to him when he throws it?
No, but that would be cool.
57. Does anybody in your novel ever stab anybody with a scimitar?
No, but also cool.
58. Does anybody in your novel stab anybody straight through plate armor?
No
59. Do you think swords weigh ten pounds or more?
That sounds impractical.
60. Does your hero fall in love with an unattainable woman, whom he later attains?
No she doesn’t.
61. Does a large portion of the humor in your novel consist of puns?
No.
62. Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?
No, that would really hurt.
63. Do you really think it frequently takes more than one arrow in the chest to kill a man?
Not especially, but sometimes you want to extra kill a guy extra hard.
64. Do you not realize it takes hours to make a good stew, making it a poor choice for an “on the road” meal?
I do realize that, does that make this a yes answer?  Is that cheating?
65. Do you have nomadic barbarians living on the tundra and consuming barrels and barrels of mead?
No, but it sounds like fun weekend.
66. Do you think that “mead” is just a fancy name for “beer”?
Kinda, I don’t drink much.  Mead is yummier than beer right?
67. Does your story involve a number of different races, each of which has exactly one country, one ruler, and one religion?
No.
68. Is the best organized and most numerous group of people in your world the thieves’ guild?
No.
69. Does your main villain punish insignificant mistakes with death?
No, but she might if she’s in the right mood.
70. Is your story about a crack team of warriors that take along a bard who is useless in a fight, though he plays a mean lute?
No.
71. Is “common” the official language of your world?
No.
72. Is the countryside in your novel littered with tombs and gravesites filled with ancient magical loot that nobody thought to steal centuries before?
No.
73. Is your book basically a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings?
No, it’s a rip off of the Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, and a bunch of fairy tales.
74. Read that question again and answer truthfully.
Okay there is a character that wears a gold ring on a chain around her neck and it’s an important plot point, but that was an intentional homa—yes, sigh.
6 yes out of 74.  As far as failure goes, it could be worse.

Welcome! Aka the boring introductory post

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Welcome to my new site.  Some of you will be coming here because we know each other, either in the real world or in the nebulous webland.  To you folks, thanks for dropping by.  The rest of you are probably wondering who I am and why you should care.  I can’t answer the latter for you , but as for the former I’m a big old geek/nerd/dork.  You might have seen some of my nerdy ramblings over on Read Comics.  Or a few guest posts I wrote for Forever Young Adult.  I grew up in Chicago, but recently moved to Minneapolis.  I love comic books, regular books, baking, and baked goods in general.  I’m also an aspiring author.

I’ve completed four novels as of this post, with a fifth hovering on the edge of being done.  None are published, though I’m feverishly working on getting them in publishable shape and into people’s hands.

My young adult novel, working title: Random Acts of Nudity, was a semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012.  Which was a thrill.  I’m currently querying agents in an effort to sell it to traditional publishers.

I’ve also got a humorous new adult paranormal romance (that’s a mouthful), as well as one finished sequel.  I’m working on the third book in the trilogy right now.  I’m thinking about going the self published route with them.

Finally, I’ve got a stand alone fantasy (neither of the urban or the high variety).  I call it a Magic Land tale, since it follows the formula of say the Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland.  In which a person from our world is transported to a new fantastical world.  I’ve yet to see an official name for this particular subgenre of fantasy.  If you know of one please fill me in.  I’m not sure which path  I’ll take with it.

I have a short story in the anthology Horror, Humor, & Heroes Volume 3.  I’ll put up a link to its Amazon page for anyone interested– once I figure out how to do that.

I’ll be posting updates on how my writing career is going.  Could be entertaining on a train wreck level.  You’ll also see excerpts of the novels and short stories from time to time.  And maybe a drawing or two.  I’ll also post on whatever is going through my mind, mostly about things I love.  So expect to read about a lot of baked goods and books.

Until next time, Susie