Elsewhere with My Chicas

Today I'm visiting the lovely ladies at Southern Fried Chicas, which is my favorite writer group blog, to confess the reasons why I won't shop at book stores in December. Drop in when you can and you might win this tote with signed books and a gift basket of lavender aromatherapy products to calm your shopping nerves.

Elsewhere Again

Today I'm over at author David Bridger's blog talking about what happens when a girl from the tropics takes a busines trip to Chicago in mid-winter. Stop in if you get a chance and you might win one of three signed copies of Nightbred I'm giving away to David's readers.

Winner

All of you contributed some great entries for the Halfway There giveaway; I think you should be writing the official NaNo site pep talks for the rest of the month (have you noticed how depressing some of these have been? Maybe I should send these folks some of PBW's patented chocolate-covered Valium.)

Anyway, tonight we revved up the magic hat, and the winner is:

LynnPenn, who wrote: When I hit a snag I grab a prompt and with the characters in mind I write my way back. Pandora in the background helps keep me moving. Stopping in the middle of a thought also helps. Writing down ideas for the next days work helps also. This is my third Nano. I have produced more stuff in these three Novembers than in my ten years of pursuing the craft.

Lynn, when you have a chance please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com so I can get this package on its way to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.

Elsewhere

Today I'm visiting with the lovely folks over at The Good, the Bad and the Unread to talk about why reading is the smart thing to do during the winter. My very kind hosts will also be giving away this lovely quilted tote (handmade by Yours Truly, and you can see a better shot of it here) that will be filled with signed books, one of my favorite reads and some other goodies. If you get a chance, stop by and say Hi.

NaNoWriMo Week 2: Halfway There

This morning's NaNoWriMo post is brought to you by the garage, where at the moment I'm hiding so I can write. My house has been in a state of utter chaos for going on three days, all the furniture shifted, every floor swept/mopped/vacummed, the bathrooms sterilized, part of my book collection relocated and objects precious to us wrapped up and stowed away for safekeeping. I personally shifted a two-hundred-pound table through three rooms by overturning it on a quilt and dragging the quilt (which is another reason why quilts rule.)

All of this effort is because in less than an hour the carpet cleaners will arrive, and then I'll have three more days of clean but damp rugs before I have to put everything back. Thanksgiving is next Thursday; the family is due to arrive on Wednesday and so far all I have is a turkey. The guest room is wrecked, I haven't yet tested the inflatable airbed to make sure it isn't leaking and the laundry room looks like, well, linen Armageddon. P.S., I started coughing on Monday, I felt like hell all Tuesday and last night I was running a fever.

For all my efforts to turn my house inside out and manage this domestic nightmare, you know what I am most proud of? At midnight last night I finished a chapter, edited three days' worth of work, and hit 25K with my NaNo novel. I wasn't going to bed until I did (and the fact that I could throw my protagonist off a bridge at the end of the chapter helped. I wasn't missing that.)

I think most writers dream of that lovely future in which we occupy a tidy, quiet sunlit home office where we can spends hours spinning our stories and enjoying our writing life. I'm still waiting on that one; right now I'm pecking out this post on a smart keyboard atop my guy's scarred, stained wooden work bench. I'm surrounded by tools of his trade, not mine. There's something in here that smells like a gymnasium. Maybe it's me; I can't remember if I took a shower last night.

NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty sent out a pep talk to everyone on the NaNoWriMo site that addressed the struggles and slogging most of us are experiencing right now (which you can read in the archives here.) I think the second week of NaNo is the toughest because the thrills of starting a new project have mostly evaporated and the delight of spending every day devoted to storycraft has likewise packed its bags and fled. Even if I wasn't currently living in homemaker hell I'd still be struggling to keep up. The finish line is still very far away. I'm only halfway to 50K, and I'm tired. I haven't hit my daily quota for three days, and today isn't looking too promising either. My back hurts, my head hurts, and all I want to do is stay in bed for 24 hours.

I won't do that. After I finish this I'm going to get my words for the day done. If I can keep at it without interruptions (ha) I'll try to write past my quota and make up for some lost time, but no matter what happens I'm writing two thousand new words of my novel today. Those of you who are ahead of me with your progress, send some positive energy my way when you get a chance. Those of you who aren't yet halfway there, I'm sending good thoughts your way. Just write today, and know as you're struggling and slogging and trying to get through that 300,000 other writers (including me) are right there in the trenches with you.

I have a little NaNo incentive to offer, as you see here: an official NaNoWriMo tote and a 2 gb usb bracelet on which you can store a novel and lots of other stuff. I will also be putting some stuff in the tote bag to surprise the recipient. If you'd like a chance to win it, in comments to this post name something you do to keep going during the toughest times by midnight EST on Thursday, November 15, 2012. I'll draw one name at random from everyone who participates and send the winner the tote, the usb bracelet and some surprises. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

First Look

Here's a first look at the cover art for Nightbound, the third and final novel in my Lords of the Darkyn trilogy, due to hit the shelves next May.

NaNoWriMojo Ten

Ten Things to Help Restore Your NaNoWriMojo

Change Locations: Moving your writing to another space may eliminate whatever is distracting you. Think of an alternative place that is different from where you're writing now (i.e., if you're hanging out in a busy coffeeshop and getting nothing written, try the quiet room at your local library. Or if your quiet spot at home isn't working, try a busy coffeeshop.) If weather permits, find an outdoor space (the backyard, a park, a lake, the beach, etc.) where you can commune a little with nature while you write.

Clean Something: Vacuuming a room, doing a load of laundry or even tidying up your writing space restores order to some part of your immediate environment and, unless you like being a slob, makes you feel better about it. That good feeling can carry over into the work once you start writing again.

Emergency Reward: Often that carrot you've hung over the finish line seems too far away, so set up one that's a bit closer. Promise yourself a small reward for just making your writing goal today. Make it something good, too; the more you want it, the more you're likely to work for it.

Exercise: Another good way to vent some frustration is to get moving: take a walk, go to the gym, jog around the block, put on that workout DVD and follow along for twenty minutes, etc. Your goal is to work up a sweat, then take a warm shower and get back to the writing (hopefully in a more relaxed, refreshed state.)

Make Something Minty: Mint is naturally soothing, so drinking a cup of mint-flavored tea, chewing a stick of mint gum or otherwise indulging in a mint treat may bump you from crabby to calm.

Muse with Music: Play your favorite CD while you sit and relax for ten minutes. Don't think about anything; just listen. If you have a soundtrack made up for your story, that's a good choice -- or just listen to the sort of music that puts you in a positive mood. If you can write with the music playing, take it back with you and listen while you work.

Project Switch: This is one of my personal mojo restorers; I stop work on one project and write on another for a short period of time. I always switch to something I enjoy writing but I'm not especially invested in so it doesn't steal me away from my NaNo novel.

Scene Skip: At least once a week without fail I hit a scene that for whatever reason I can't write. If this happens to you, instead of letting it become a brick wall between you and the rest of your story, skip it and go work on the next scene. Mark the place in your manuscript with a notation [I use square brackets and a one-line description of the scene like this] so you can easily go back and write it later.

Switch Creative Gears: This past weekend I had a particularly dreary writing day during which I fought to get every word on the page. I took regular ten minutes breaks and used them to work on a small quilting project. Switching gears like that gave me little creative/spiritual boosts, which kept me from giving up.

Write Past It: This last idea is tough, but if writing stories was easy everyone could do it. You just keep writing. Doesn't matter how well you write, or if anything you do write will be salvageable. You're not going to think about how you're writing because you're going to be too busy writing. Keep working and moving forward with the story until your mojo returns (and yes, if you push on it generally does. If it doesn't, you can always edit brilliantly.)

A Typical NaNoWriMo Day (in Pictures!)

Waiting at the Finish Line

I had a chance to stop by BAM last night, and after checking out all the new releases I picked up some books that I'm going to save to read as my reward for crossing the NaNoWriMo finish line:



I have a few more to get that have yet to be released; Rogue Rider, Larissa Ione's latest release, will be out on the 20th, and Shawntelle Madison's Kept will hit the shelves on the 27th. I was hoping Linda Howard's Shadow Woman would be out in November, too, but looks like we have to wait until January (and for an excellent list of all the paranormal and fantasy reads that will be released in November check out this post by Jackie over at Literary Escapism.)

I'm late setting up my prize for NaNoWriMo because a) I've been insanely busy writing one book, revising another, and promoting a third, all in one month, and b) for all my planning I really didn't think about what sort of reward I wanted for winning. Maybe writing this book is kind of the reward.

I know, you're shaking your head, but it's true. I get to do whatever I want with this story for an entire month. Unlike my 2009 NaNo novel I'm not going to try to sell it; once I finish Taken by Night I'll be adding it to my library of free reads. So when I'm done I'll really be done -- no pitching it to the agent, no writing up proposals, no contract negotiations, none of that.

Simply selling a book often takes five times as long as it does for me to write it. Add to that the editorial, coming up with new titles, revisions, galleys, production, hiding under the bed until the cover art comes in, hiding under the bed again after seeing the cover art . . . you get the general idea. Taking a book from idea to release date takes me about two years on average; multiple that by 50 novels (I'm currently in editorial on my 50th, which by the time it's released will have taken four years) and you can understand why for once being able to skip all that for once is a genuine reward.

What's waiting for you at your NaNoWriMo finish line? Let us know in comments.

Rockaway

My Dad's family is from Rockaway, so I'm posting this as a tribute to all the folks there who are struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy:

Rockaway Needs Us from everyone and company on Vimeo.

Also, a thought for the holidays: my agent suggested this year we skip buying presents for our friends and colleagues in Publishing and instead donate all the money we would have spent on them to any organization providing help to the hurricane victims (which is what I'm going to do.)

NaNoWriMo Week One Report

Has it been a week already since NaNoWriMo began? That was my first thought when I noticed the reminder to write this post on my calendar. That's a good sign, too, because whenever the passage of time completely drops off my radar I know my head is where it should be -- in the work. This is also why I set multiple alarms around the house, write daily notes to myself and become enslaved to my planner. If I didn't you guys might not see me until December 1st.

My stats for the novel are healthy and on track; I've been writing to or past my wordcount goals each day. I've been getting up an hour earlier every morning to have some quiet time to work and that was a good decision; I get my words done in a couple of hours and then I have the rest of the day to do other things until it's time for my evening editing session. As far as the writing goes I'm enjoying the story and I've kept it pretty faithful to the outline and chapter summaries I planned out back in October. One extra bonus of officially registering this year is the novel stats widget that the NaNoWriMo folks offer on their site; it gives me an excellent snapshot of how I'm performing. Here's what it looks like this morning:



I had planned to get out to one of the local NaNoWriMo events and meet some of my fellow writers in the area. I'd like to blame my busy schedule for failing to do that, but truth is I've not had a lot of success mingling in person with other writers, and I don't know if as a pro I'd be especially welcome. When people find out you do this for a living they see you more as an affront to their genius or a commodity to be used, and I don't care to be either. Anyway, I put that on the back burner for now.

I had one really bad day this week, which was unexpected. Fortunately, I got my words done a few hours before the trainwreck happened. I was going to use it for a blog post, and wrote up a beautiful, absolutely scalding rant about it. I waited twenty-four hours, got over it, and deleted the whole thing. I overreacted to a silly, juvenile situation that was really not worth ten seconds of my time, and as we all know, the best revenge for being derailed by someone is to get right back on track, right in their face. From my POV, by refusing to let it spoil the rest of my week I won that round.

My big reward for myself this past week was to go on a fun school field trip to the RenFaire, which got me out of the house, gave me a chance to walk for a couple hours (which my legs definitely needed) and spend quality time with the kid. I also watched and photographed an excellent joust hosted by Shane Adams (who aside from being my favorite modern-day knight was also the inspiration for Aedan mac Byrne from Evermore, who will be returning to the shelves in Nightbound next May) and found a very cool handmade leather journal at one of the artisans tents that went home with me. It was a great day, and exactly what I needed to recharge my batteries.

I'm a bit behind on my chores, and the to-do list for the holidays gets a little longer every day, so for the next week of NaNo I'm going to try to build on what I've been doing, organize my time a little better, and work a little harder at keeping everything in balance. By writing past quota I've earned an extra day off, but I don't need it right now so I'm going to save it for later on in the month when I probably will.

How was your first week of NaNoWriMo? Let us know in comments.

Bulgarian Style, Nightbred Audio

Here's some new cover art, this one for the Bulgarian edition of my Jessica Hall novel Heat of the Moment. Have no idea what it says, but I think the artwork is quite stylish.

For those of you who like to listen to the Darkyn, you'll be happy to know that Nightbred, the second novel in my Lords of the Darkyn trilogy, will be released as an audio book by Tantor on December 17th (which you can preorder for a 20% discount at their web site here.) Johanna Parker, whose amazing voice made Nightborn sound so terrific in audio, will also be narrating this book.

Character Art

To get to know my characters better I often make portraits of them. I wish I could say I always do that strictly by imagination, but alas, I'm not that talented.

My trick is to convert photographs of real people into digital sketches, parts of which I transfer as line and perspective references while I'm working on the art. Recently I've been revisiting my old love from high school, pen and ink, so I'm using that for all the portraits of my crew from Taken by Night (as you see here, clockwise from the cute guy at the top: Chavez, Kim, Ara and Deuce.)

Most of the writers I know collect pictures of faces and bodies they find inspiring or interesting. Unless you base a character on a real person from the very start, however, it's almost impossible to get an exact match to how you envision them. Sketching, painting or inking your characters allows you to make those adjustments.

If you'd like to try this, start with a clear photo of your character model that has strong lines and good contrasts. Here's one wallpaper I found of actor Matt Bomer at a fan site* that I'm going to use as a character model for James Brand:



Enlarge or reduce the photo to the size you want for your character portrait, convert it to a black and white sketch or outline in your photoshop program (if you don't have photoshop, there are lots of photo-to-sketch freewares and generators online you can use.) Erase what you don't want to transfer (the handsome Mr. Bomer here looks a bit too scruffy and hollow-cheeked for my character, so I airbrushed away those shadows), and print out the result on plain bond paper:



Take some erasable tracing or transfer paper and put it between the printout of the photo and a sketch pad, and trace the lines of the features you want to duplicate. I use red transfer paper because I can't do a portrait in one sitting, and the contrasting color makes it easy to see where I left off. Once you've done that, trace very lightly the features you want to alter. Once you've finished you'll have a foundation outline of your character portrait (and you might first scan or print out a copy of it so you have an extra one if you mess up and want to start over.) Here's the transfer of my photo:



Starting with the lightly-traced features you want to alter, sketch in with pencil your changes. You are allowed to erase whatever doesn't work. Once you've done that, use the medium of your choice to detail, colorize and complete the portrait, like so:



I like filling in negative space (the empty parts of an image) to suggest things like hair, nose shapes and other hard-to-draw features. It creates a kind of wood-block print look that I think is neat, too:



One of the side benefits of creating character art is increasing your knowledge of and familiarity with their physical appearance. Now that I've inked Matt Bomer into James Brand I know that face from his cowlick to his square jaw. I hadn't decided on his exact eye or hair color until I drew him; now he's definitely green-eyed and silver/black-haired.

Character art is created for you, so you don't have to make it perfect or show it to anyone. You also don't have to use traditional supplies or techniques to make your portraits. I once made a character portrait using bits of old junk jewelry and broken necklace chains glued to a piece of slate. If you're a scrapbooker, try using cutouts from your favorite papers to assemble a collage portrait. Art quilters often "paint" portraits in thread, which I'm going to have to try someday myself.

However you choose to make character art, just have fun with it. You'll always enjoy it, and you may end up surprising yourself.

*Image source URL: http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/20700000/Clarity-matt-bomer-20714313-1280-1024.jpg

Cooking Ten

When we're busy we often resort to microwave dinners or takeout to save time, but I've learned quick home-cooked meals help keep me on track with the work (and keeps my family happy, too.) To give you some ideas, here are ten of the recipes I'll be making in November:

Ten Things to Make for Dinner During NaNoWriMo (or any time)

Beef-Broccoli Stir-Fry: Try this quick to make, healthy version of the Chinese takeout favorite. I often use leftover steamed rice (which I revive with my double-boiler) versus the instant stuff in the recipe.

Cheesy Chicken Bagel Pizzas: I use bagels to make mini-pizzas alot (toast them, top them and microwave them for a few seconds and you've got pizza without using the oven.) This 4-ingredient recipe uses the broiler but also gives you a chance to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken.

Chicken Parmigiana: This is the easiest recipe for this classic dish I know, plus there is no breading involved. I skip the salt as the sauce doesn't need it, and serve with thin spaghetti or linguini.

Classic French Salad: An inventive way to serve tuna Niçoise style, and easy to adjust to your family's taste preferences. Dinner salads like this are another all-in-one dish you can pair with some hot rolls or whole-grain bread.

Grilled Roast Beef Sandwiches: This is one of my guy's favorite quick meals; it's as fast to make as grilled cheese but heartier for big appetites. I use horseradish mayo instead of the chile mixture in the recipe and thin sliced Chicago-style Italian bread instead of the rye. Goes great with a hot bowl of vegetable soup on a cold night.

Easy Stromboli A new treat for your pizza lovers. I like to play with this recipe and use different ingredients for the filling: mini-pepperoni, Italian sausage, sliced meatballs or salami are fun to swap for the ground beef. You can also add chopped veggies, different cheeses or whatever you love on your pizza.

Garlic-Chive Baked Fries: These are delicious as a side dish for anything; they're also healthy as you use very little oil and bake them in the oven -- no frying. My kids went absolutely crazy over them. Tip: Slice your potato strips thin (think like the fries at Steak N' Shake) they'll turn out wonderfully crispy.

Golden Burger Spirals: Forget the Hamburger Helper and instead make this casserole; serve with a tossed green salad. It's one of my favorites because the golden mushroom soup and chopped peppers give it an interesting flavor, and ground turkey works as a substitute for the beef.

Steak Soup: For the meat and potato lovers. This one is made in your slow cooker, which means in the morning you toss all the ingredients in and you're done.

Vegetarian Chipotle Nachos: Meatless Monday doesn't mean it has to be tasteless, too. Take out the chips and use the filling in crunchy or soft tortillas for a new spin on the taco. This recipe also makes a filling, healthy snack.

Today's Note

When I'm working on a book the kids always leave me notes (which is much nicer than being interrupted.) This is the one I found this morning.

Skater Boys

There's something almost beautiful about skateboarders and the gravity-defying stunts they pull off with just their boards, some architecture and their incredible sense of balance. Here's a group who skated an abandoned city in Mongolia (includes background music, and kids, don't try this at home or anywhere else):


ORDOS from Charles Lanceplaine on Vimeo.

Sold!

I know I've been very mysterious about the new series I sold over the summer, but I wanted to wait until NaNoWriMo kicked off to announce the sale (it's a personal homage thing, because this all started with the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo back in 2009.)

Every story we write is important to us, but every now and then one comes along that you believe in and then fight for, even when everyone else tells you the smart thing it to give it up. When you sell a story like this it makes all the hard work and blind faith worthwhile, too. And this is that one for me. Not the book of my heart, but the book of my dreams.

Her Ladyship's Curse, the first novel in my Disenchanted & Company urban fantasy series, will be released in August next year by Pocket Star. For more details and a few chuckles, head over to SF Signal, which has the exclusive announcement here.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Begins

Happy NaNoWriMo 2012 to everyone! Now, stop reading this and go do your writing for the day. Ha.

As promised I've uploaded on Google Docs the novel synopsis/backstory/world overview and chapter summaries for Taken by Night, my NaNoWriMo novel. These are the sort of notes I work from when I write so they're written and formatted for my personal convenience. I have tried to keep most of the details of the plot twists a surprise, but if you don't want to know in advance what I'll be writing, obviously don't visit these links.

I will be posting whatever I write each day over on the Stories blog in two versions; first draft and post-edit. I'll mark the post-edit in such a way so that anyone interested can easily see the revisions I make. I'll also share some insights on how my writing day went along with daily updates on my wordcount. Links will be posted on the sidebar under my NaNoWriMo web badge.

To give myself some breathing room I've put the photblog on hiatus for the month of November. I'll try to keep PBW updated daily, but I have two other novels to work on besides the NaNo novel. If all combined it proves too much for me to keep up with I'll probably scale back posting here to two or three days per week. For now we'll see how it goes.

Good luck to everyone who is joining in, and here we go!

Wishing You

NaNoWriMo Countdown: Final Prep

Yesterday I went to a craft festival and spent a couple of hours making rounds of the booths and finding some treasures. I also soaked up all the good vibes radiating from the artists and their creations. One glassmaker and I talked for a few minutes about direction and vision and realization, and how weird and wonderful the path is that takes us from dreaming to living the dream. Our arts are completely different but as artists we followed our hearts in the same ways. It was a bit like meeting a sibling I didn't know I had.

Something I noticed as I made my way through the aisles were the artists who were demonstrating. There is something amazing about watching someone practice their art in public. You get a decidedly rare glimpse of techniques in action, the sort of materials they use and the steps they take from idea to finished piece. Some I understood, others completely mystified me. I noted that the demonstrating artists often had helpers mind the booth and the browsers while they worked, and yet they never seemed to mind stopping work on their piece for a few seconds to answer a question or accept a compliment.

I'm about to spend thirty days writing virtually in public but I haven't considered my project from the observer's point of view. I've always assumed when I talk about my work that everyone who listens is on the same frequency, but that's not really possible. I do things that even I don't really understand, such as planning out basically everything with a story but writing dialogue spontaneously, which must seem illogical. No, it is illogical, but I do it because I've learned over the years that this planned/unplanned approach produces the best results for me. Anyway, it gave me a lot to ponder.

Some of you may still be on the fence about whether or not to join in NaNoWriMo, and you've got another day to decide before the madness begins. I wanted to talk to you fence people today because I think of all the writers out there you're the ones who are most often neglected. It's all well and good for me to natter on about writing a novel in November; I'm a pro, I've published, I can write a book in the shower (not really, but I'm rather fond of that myth) etc. I'm going to sit my virtual booth here and show off all month while I do what surely I must be able to do in my sleep.

Maybe some of that is true, but what you don't see is what's in my head right now. So here's a peek: I don't know if I can do it. I've never written these characters or operated in this world. I'm prepared but certainly I could be better prepared. I haven't color-coded everything to death yet. Sure, it's an interesting idea, but what if I fumble it? What if my mojo stops working? What if life decides to make mine miserable from 11/1 to 11/30? I have to revise another book and promote a third during November; what if I fall behind and can't finish? What if everyone hates it? What am I going to do if I screw this up? I'm a professional, for God's sake. What was I thinking?

Yes, despite all my experience and publishing glory I am just like any other storyteller. I worry, I doubt myself, and that blank page scares the daylights out of me. I'm no different from you. Right now, at this very moment, if I could call it quits I probably would. It's too much for anyone to handle. I can do this next year. Give me a day and I can definitely talk myself out of the whole mess.

I won't do that. You know how Adele supposedly throws up right before she goes on stage to perform? Same thing. We're doing the same thing right now, you and I, we're puking. Okay, mentally, but it's just as bad. So have at it: question yourself, ridicule yourself, beat yourself up, whatever it takes to get it out of your system before Thursday. Then come and join me on November 1st and do this thing. Don't think about it, do it. Because that is the difference between those who publish and those who don't. We're all nervous and doubtful and dark, we writers; it's part of why we're so good at what we do. What separates the wannabes from the pros is the courage to write in spite of anything and everything, most especially ourselves. And that's the one thing I can't teach you; you have to find it on your own. I believe we all have it in us; it's simply waiting to be found. I can tell you this much: when you do discover part of yourself, and you make that the reason you write, nothing will stop you. Not even you.

If that doesn't convince you, I have one thing for you to read. Tim Kim and the folks at NaNoWriMo's Office of Letters and Light were kind enough to lend me some space on their blog to write about another NaNoWriMo experience of mine, which you can read here.