Thursday Thoughts

Holy snowbunnies, Batman! I think this is the most snow I've seen in Bend since I moved here three and a half years ago. I love it! I may get out and drive around just for the heck of it. Or curl up with my cats and my laptop on the couch. Hmm... decisions, decisions. Actually, I really need to work. Sigh.

I don't know the total inches of snowfall, but I do know I need to go out and shovel it. Hey, it's a great workout. Yesterday's power lunges and deadlifts at the gym just weren't enough. Ha!

My back yard.

My front porch looking out on the street. Well, there is a street. Under the snow.

Teaser Tuesday a day late

The following is a short excerpt from the third chapter of KNIGHT'S CURSE:

When I rounded the corner into the enormous study, my blood went still in my veins. Gavin's gargoyle, Shui, sat hunched on a perch in the center of the room and he gazed at me with hungry eyes. He was about the height and width of a bar-sized refrigerator, his gray, scaly skin appearing dull in the dim light, his bat wings folded back but quivering with tension. Cocking his head, the blue baboon face sneered while issuing a low hiss. The thing looked a lot like a flying monkey from the Wizard of Oz, only bigger and ten times uglier.

I hesitated, repulsed by the monster that would save me from becoming exactly like him.

Jutting my chin at the gargoyle, I said to Gavin, "He looks bigger than he did three days ago."

Gavin glanced at me, then at the abomination on its perch. He lifted both eyebrows and gave me a curious look. "Perhaps that's because he's eaten recently. Haven't you, Shui?"

The gargoyle hissed again, only louder this time.

Well, there was my answer to what had happened to the other butler. Lucky for me I wasn't on the menu.

I'd only tested my bond with Shui once, about three years ago. I had no way of knowing for sure that going beyond seventy-two hours without any contact with Shui would turn me into a beast as ugly and mean as him. Where was the proof? The tattoo on my neck had been made with a mixture of ink and Shui's blood. The Shaman who put it there had warned me what would happen if I broke the rules. I was thirteen at the time and his threats scared me, but as I got older, I embraced my inner Bs: bold, bitchy and bad. I'd felt compelled to test the bond. And it had almost killed me.

Marketing Monday

Well, I don't have anything more to report since last Friday. I snail-mailed the partials that were requested and just this morning I got a rejection from a query I'd emailed last week. I sent out only a few queries to my top agent choices, so now I need to sit back and wait for replies.

Since I missed getting to post on Tuesday, I'll post my teaser today.

What's Up Wednesday

Roundtrip airfare from Bend, Oregon, to Denver, Colorado: $689

Car rental for four days of driving across town between my two kids' apartments: $128

Getting to hold my newborn grandson for the first time: PRICELESS!


This is me holding my 4-day-old grandson, Adam Christopher.

Freestyle Friday

I became a grandma -- again -- this morning. Little Adam came into the world at about 6:00 a.m. Colorado time. He's 5 pounds, 4 ounces, and 19 inches long. Momma and baby are doing fine.

Due to the new addition in the family, I will be flying to Denver (I live in Oregon) on Saturday for a short stay with my daughter and my new grandson. I'll be back late Tuesday night, but in the mean time, I'll have no Internet access and no way to post to my blog. Therefore, Marketing Monday and Teaser Tuesday will be late. But I'll post both on Wednesdsay. And I'll post a picture of my new grandbaby. Hee hee.

I have a little something to report on how the agent search is going. I've got 3 partial requests, and one very strange email response from an agent who told me I don't know what urban fantasy is because my story isn't one. WTF? Her loss.

Have a great weekend, everyone! 8^)

Thursday Thoughts

CASTING CALL

I've been thinking about this lately. How many authors "cast" the characters in their books? By that I mean some writers choose celebrities, or people they know, who they can visualize as they write their stories.

For KNIGHT'S CURSE, I first had an image of Katie Holmes as my heroine Chalice until I found out how tall she is. Uh, no, not going to work. Chalice is a petite 5'2", and Katie is a statuesque 5'9". She always looked shorter to me than that in the movies. Anyway, it was her dark, child-like features that could turn sexy in a heartbeat that made her ideal for my heroine. So I picked someone else just as perfect, though she's not an actress. She's the lead singer in the band Evanescence and her name is Amy Lee. In fact, she's even more perfect than Katie. That's who I see as I write Chalice's character.

My villain never resembled anyone I'd seen before. Still, I could picture him perfectly: older man, sophisticated, pale and silver-haired, tall and virile for his age, his visage bland and the man himself as cruel as they come. He was totally made up in my mind, but I could draw him if I had to. Like describe him to a police artist. Then one of my critique partners said that when she reads about him, she sees a demented David Niven. Aha! Perfect! Now I see a demented David Niven, too.

I have a secondary character that is villainous in her own right. She's a rather large gal whose name is Zeppelin, but everyone calls her Zee. I sort of picture her as the character Edna Turnblad in the movie Hairspray who's played by John Travolta, only with a big beehive hairdo. Ha!

I haven't seen anyone I recognize as my hero, Aydin. He has some unique features, which could be why. He's Turkish with Asian eyes that are the color of frozen jade. If you know of someone who looks like that, please let me know and direct me to his picture. 8^)

It's funny where we draw our inspiration. So the question is, who are in the cast of characters for your book? Celebrity or family relative? The neighbor down the street or your best friend's brother? That nasty clerk at the hardware store or the snooty teller at the bank? Or just totally made from the clay of your own imagination?

What's Up Wednesday

STORY OF THE CATTY BED

What's up? How about my cats. I have three of them. Each is very different from the other, and they all get along… most of the time. Costco had some cute little cat beds that are soft and cushiony, and made of washable velour. So I bought one to see how the fur babies would like it. The following is their reaction to the new bed.

Catty1: Hey, look! Mom bought us a new bed. (sniffs the cushion)

Catty 2: (begins to knead the cushion and climbs inside) This is nice.

Babycat: Ooh! What's that? Can I see?

Catty1: Scram, pipsqueak.

Catty2: Yeah, we know what you do to new stuff. Paws off!

Babycat: Soft. (begins kneading cushion in cat bed)

Catty1: (looking nervous) Step away from the bed. Now!

Catty2: Oh, no. Stop her before it's too late! (hops out of bed)

Babycat: (climbs into bed)

Catty1: (looking disgusted) Is nothing sacred?

Babycat: Mine! (squats and pees in bed)

Marketing Monday

Eureka! I have completed my synopsis and though it's still in need of some serious wart remover, I have a first draft. Yay, me!

My list of agents is complete (for now), and I have the hook written for my query letter (which has changed a bit from what I posted on the blog last week).

I'm armed and almost ready to launch my query/submission to my top pick agents. As I said last Monday, I'll post my progress every week. Please keep your fingers crossed for promising results and requests to see more!

I'd also like to mention this fabulous resource for submitting to agents called QueryTracker.net. This site is amazing! You'll be pleasantly surprised at the tools available for searching for agents, and tracking your queries. Best of all, it's FREE! Can't beat that price. You can pay $25 a year to be a premium member, which offers you a number of additional organizational features. I'll pay my $25 just because I think the basic tools warrant such a contribution, but I doubt I'll use the premium bells and whistles. I like to keep things simple. What's there is plenty enough for me.

Tomorrow is Teaser Tuesday, and please stop by to read a bit more about Chalice's adventure in Knight's Curse.

Freestyle Friday

Friday is the day anything is possible. It's the day before the weekend. What's more magical than that? So I give myself permission to post whatever comes to mind. Jokes. Family secrets. Industry gossip. Requests for help. Whatever.

Therefore, I've decided to post the hook, or pitch paragraph, I've been working on for my query letter. I hope you'll tell me what you think, and please give me your feedback if you have any:

Half angel and half human, Chalice knows that inheriting powers from your parents has its drawbacks. At the age of thirteen, she's abducted by a society of magicians who force her to use her super senses to steal cursed objects they can sell to the highest bidder. Twelve years later, a note from her dead mother reveals a secret that promises Chalice a chance for a new life.

As much as Chalice would like to tell her magical masters to go to hell, it won't do her any good. The society has bonded her to a gargoyle's curse and she must either kill the beast to be free, or, if separated from it for more than three days, she'll turn into a bat-winged creature like itself. Problem is, killing an immortal gargoyle is impossible. Her fallen angel father says it can be done, but freedom is never free. Everything has its price, and in this case, the currency is death.

Thursday Thoughts

THE REVISION CAVE

Continuing with my themed blog days, Thursdays will be devoted to my thoughts. And since I've been pretty much thinking about the same thing for the last couple weeks, I'm recycling this blog post from my RWA chapter's blog:

Bwahahaaha! Yep, that's me, spelunking through the cave, laptop strapped to my back as I dodge the stalactites and stalagmites of my first draft. It's dark in here, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel.

I think everyone approaches revision of a first draft in a different way. I know there are books on how to do it, and online workshops abound, plus plenty of articles on websites and in writers magazines. I've never taken a class, but I do own a book on revision that I haven't read yet, and I've revised off a few revision letters received from agents and editors on past projects. I'm currently in the middle of the "the first read through" phase and it's an eye-opening, but also exciting, experience.

I enjoy making revisions because it's like putting those finishing touches on a painting, adding that extra detail and dimension that will bring it to life. Or defining the features of a sculpture or carving or ceramic. It's that phase of a creative project that brings you closer to your work and makes you become one with it. It's the point when the book feels real.

As I'm writing a book, I don't blast through it in the white heat of creative frenzy. I'm a methodical pantser with a fairly good idea about my beginning, middle and end when I start. But as I write, there are some spots I know I'll have to fix later, and I make a mental note or a place holder of some kind that will tip me off when I reach that spot during revisions. Good grief, but I had a lot of those in this book. And some of them were kind of hidden. Note to self: In future books, remember to use different colored type in placeholders.

Though I revise as I go, I've been writing long enough to know that when I reach the end, it's not really the end for me. More work needs to be done. One of my favorite types of placeholders is narrative summary, which I use for two reasons: 1. To get me from point A to point B quickly so that I don't lose my creative rhythm, and I know I can expand on it later; 2. If the book ends up really long (rare for me), I can leave it as is with just minor tweaking.

Something else that happens as I write, since I have very little planned out beforehand, is that I experiment with new characters and plot points knowing I may or may not keep them. So when I go back through to revise, the character introduced in chapter eight started out duplicitous but ended up being a saint. Or in chapter five I revealed a secret that I decided to reveal in chapter thirteen instead. What I wanted a character to know in chapter two I'd forgotten about by chapter ten and have to fix. This kind of stuff is everywhere! But it's great fun because as I read through and flesh out and tweak and expand, my story is becoming a cohesive treasure for me. I can only hope the agents I query share the same view. 8^)

I've heard many of you lament over the revision process, and some of you dive into it with the same relish I do. If you don't share my enthusiasm for this phase of writing a novel, why not? And if you do, please share your reasons and offer tips if you have some. Hey, I'm in the middle of my revisions. Tips are most appreciated.

What's Up Wednesday

As part of my plan to be a better blogger, I've assigned Wednesdays as my "What's Up" day to mention miscellaneous items of what's going on my life. I thought it might be fun to do a "Good News, Bad News" rendition of things.

The Good News is: My book is done!
The Bad News is: Now the hard work begins: Revisions, rewrites and marketing to agents.

The Good News is: My youngest daughter's first baby is due this Sunday the 20th! Yippee! I'm going to be a grandma again!
The Bad News is: It's going to cost me a fortune to go to Denver and be with her and the new baby for a few days. Sigh.

The Good News is: I finished doing the laundry.
The Bad News is: Now I have to fold it.

The Good News is: I have a 4:30 appointment with my personal trainer today!
The Bad News is: I have a 4:30 appointment with my personal trainer today. I love Roxanne, but I don't love pain.

The Good News is: I don't have a bunch of ads to design at the moment, so I can take on other work.
The Bad News is: I'm afraid I've over-committed myself.

The Good News is: It's a bright, sunny day in snowy Central Oregon.
The Bad News is: It's 7 degrees outside.

Marketing Monday

If tomorrow is Teaser Tuesday, today must be Marketing Monday, right? I've been thinking of theming each day of the week to make me blog more often.

So... Revisions of my completed urban fantasy novel are underway, and the next step is marketing the manuscript to agents. I've been researching them for a while, met a couple of terrific ones at the two conferences I attended last year. I've created a list of the ones I think would be most interested in Knight's Curse, and they're also ones I think could help guide my career since this book is the first in a series. The agents I have listed on my "A" list represent authors in my genre whose work I enjoy, and authors who are friends of mine so I trust their judgment.

I've had two agents in the past, one that was really wonderful but she decided she no longer wanted to represent fiction. Sniff. Then the other one... well, it didn't work out. So I've been agent-shy for a few years. However, now I'm ready to get back on the horse and polish my query letter, revise my synopsis (practically unrecognizable from how the story actually turned out), and create some kind of tracking system for my queries. The process brings back memories, good and bad. 8^)

I now subscribe to Publisher's Lunch. Now that's a fascinating service. I've enjoyed the deal tracker feature, and it's been fun looking up the pages for my A list agents to help me get more familiar with them and what they represent. I also look forward to creating an author page of my own.

From here on out, I'll post an update every Monday on how my agent search is going and where I am in the process. Stay tuned.