my writing

I write fantasy. I can't really be any more specific than that. The first manuscript I completed was a YA urban fantasy novel, sort of a Romeo and Juliet lite, only with fey folk. In New York. The one I'm working on now is definitely an adult novel. And there's no urban about it, it's just fantasy. Not epic fantasy, either. Just an alternate world, a different set of gods to worship, and a few different human-type species. No magic, or swords, or dragons. My short fiction is all over the place: I have written non-genre short stories. I wrote one about Lucifer returning in the form of a cat. One about a woman locked in an iron room and losing her child. One about a girl who went to a different world in her dreams and raced a stag and the moon to become high priestess of the land. There's one I can't even describe about a frustrated musician who goes to a bar that turns into a pirate ship. . . . See? I'm really all over the place. And that comes about, I think, because I'm not an outline-oriented writer. I start with a character. Or a scene. Or a line. And I just keep going after that, and see what happens. I always thought that that's the fun of writing: seeing where it goes. (I'm not trying to be negative about outlines, don't get me wrong. I've even considered trying to do one and writing a novel from it at some point, to see what it's like. But I do feel that there's a magic in just following where the words lead.)
I like a lot of things about my writing habit. I like that I am motivated and disciplined. I like that I write such a variety. But. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a slow writer. Which drives me nuts, but there's no other way to be. I wish I could churn out two or three books a year, like a certain young author I'm insanely jealous of whose blog I read. But the fact of the matter is that, around working full-time and then some, and having a couple of interests outside of writing, there's no way for me to burn through writing a manuscript. I just don't have the time. Maybe someday . . . So for now I content myself with being slower than I'd like. Slow and steady wins the race, eh?
I'm currently revising my manuscript for the second time. When I'm done, I hope to convince people to read it and give me feedback again, and then I'll polish it up one more time, and then submit. But I have to be honest: a small part of my brain is already churning away on a very important question. What do I write next? So many ideas, so little time!
Anyway. It's weekend time. Enjoy, everyone!

another brief one

I know, I know, I owe the blogosphere a nice long ramble either about my book or about the publishing industry. And it'll happen. Sometime next week. I would like to say I promise, but I think that I would just be setting myself up for disaster, so instead I'll just say that I'll really try.
Today, I want to talk about the importance of deadlines, in two ways. First, deadlines you set for yourself, and second, deadlines your publishing house sets for you.
So, first. I believe that it's really important to give yourself deadlines. If you find you can't respect them, have someone else give you deadlines. Something easy, even. For example, every two weeks you give your critique partner five new pages. Something. Anything to keep you moving as a writer, and also so that you learn to work under a deadline. Because once you have a contract for your book, you will have lots of deadlines from your publisher.
Which leads me to my second deadline point. Please, please keep to whatever deadlines you're given. A couple of days here or there may not seem like a big deal. But a couple of days in a tight schedule can mean that your book gets bumped to a later pub date because something didn't happen quickly enough. And bumping is not good because the sales and marketing teams, and the bookstores, are expecting things on a certain date. It's not just a problem for them, either. Late materials can affect the editor, the art department, the text designer, the copyeditor, proofreader, etc. The typesetter. The printer! Because it snowballs. So if your editor sends you your copyedited manuscript for review and asks you to return it in two weeks, please do just that.
And now, I'm off to enjoy the beautiful weather. Have a nice weekend, everyone!

query letter link

Hi all, I only have a sec but wanted to post about this great editorial blog entry I found on query letters, since that's been a major topic of conversation here lately. Go take a peek at it, and I'll try to be back later in the day or tomorrow!

Query Letter #6

And the final one. I realized that the problem with #5 was the order.  I had a nice lead off line.  But then I needed to show where Swan was coming from instead of doing it the other way around.  So here is what I hope is my final version.

***

The last thing Swan Shreve needs is a crazy old lady with a gun following her around.  She’s already been feeling like a loser standing small ever since she graduated with a Ph.D. in English and took a job as a secretary at a weapons company to make ends meet while all her friends got tenure tracks teaching Aphra Behn to sleeping freshmen.  Now, Mrs. Hamel turns up out of nowhere, announces she’s a spy and says she needs Swan’s help.  Swan thinks the old bat needs a retirement home and medication.  But Mrs. Hamel isn’t crazy.  The Strategic Secretarial Services (SSS) is real and when a coworker is murdered, Swan needs all Mrs. Hamel's guns and help to stay alive.

Query Letter #5

So as bad as #4 was, there were a couple of new things in it that I thought were neat ideas. So I spliced 3 and 4 to create 5, which is why 4, as horrid as it is, was important to do, even it it was worse than where I started.

***

The last thing Swan Shreve needs is a crazy old lady with a gun.  It's been 15 years since the last time she saw Mrs. Hamel and now the old bat turns up out of nowhere, announces she's actually a spy for a top secret governmental secretarial pool, and says she needs Swan's help.  Even if it were real, Swan isn't interested.  She got her Ph.D. in English six months ago and has been feeling like a loser standing small ever since she got a job as a secretary to an upper level engineer at a weapons company and all her friends landed tenure tracks teaching Aphra Behn to sleeping freshmen.  But the Strategic Secretarial Services (SSS) is real and when a coworker is murdered, Swan needs all Mrs. Hamel's help and her guns to stay alive.

Query Letter #4

I thought I'd done really well with letter #3 and was thinking of skipping the other letters I promised I'd write. That was good enough right? But I made myself write another one, starting from scratch. Yeah. Um... all I can say is sometimes the way forward looks like the way back.

***

The last thing Swan Shreve needs is a senile old lady with a gun claiming to be a spy. Sure life has been a bit boring ever since she graduated with her Ph.D. in American Literature and went to work as a secretary at a high tech weapons company. She's watched all her friends move on to good jobs, relationships and success while she feels like a loser standing small, but that doesn't make her so desperate as to believe there is a top secret group of secretarial spies out saving the world. Then a coworker is killed and Swan finds out she's in danger. She's going to need all the little old ladies packing heat that she can muster to survive.