A Change in Stance

Warning here - there is a possible ***SPOILER*** ahead about JR Ward's "Dark Lover".

I met with a fellow writer from the TRW, Jordanne Clark yesterday. We met at the ubiquitous Timmy's ( for our friends from the south, Tim Horton's is a coffee/donut shop - they're coming your way soon!) and then headed down to Chapters (a Canadian bookstore a la Barnes and Noble). We spent over an hour and a half talking to a thoroughly enthusiastic clerk in the Romance section there. I swear she had read every book on her shelf. (I'll have to make a note that if ever I'm published, she's one person to contact to arrange a booksigning!)

She said that:

1) Paranormals are hot right now. (no surprise)

2) Regency's are hot too (again, no surprise)

3) their Kensington Aphrodisia Erotica line moves incredibly fast (IOW people want sex!)

4) customers are complaining because they can't find medievals! Now that came as a surprise when we as authors are told that medievals/historicals aren't selling. Maybe those publishers need to talk more to the store clerks to find out what people are asking for but can't find.

I picked up more books than I could really afford. In addition to a beautiful coffee table book on English country houses that I want to use for inspiration for my character's estates, I picked up the latest Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dream Hunter, though the clerk said it wasn't up to the usual standards. Hmm, that's interesting. I'll let you know after I've read it. I grabbed Sin by Sharon Page Sharon is a TRW member and I'd read an excerpt at a previous TRW meeting and thought, Wow! It's one of the Aphrodisia line. *fans self* I read it start to finish yesterday afternoon.

And after reading Wylie Kinson's blog about JR Ward's novels, I picked up the first in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series - Dark Lover. I read it start to finish last night. (Yup, 2 books read in one day!)

So now I must announce a change in position. When I first started this blog, I'd said that there were a few reasons why I would put a book down mid-read, and several why I'd never pick it up in the first place. One of those genres I wouldn't read was anything about Vampires. I'd read Ann Rice and couldn't get into the whole Lestat phenomenon, and I'd read a half dozen Maggie Shaynes. But I never could find vampires sexy.

However, after being sucked into Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters (yes, OK, they're not vampires but vampire HUNTERS) and JR's Black Dagger Brotherhood, I must admit I will read more books in the vampire genre now. In fact, it's all I can do not to run out today and buy the next book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. JR has created some pretty hot vampires with a believable premise for their world. **Edited at 7:20 pm** Started reading Dream Hunter but lost interest at about page 34 ... I'll get back to it, but the clerk was right. And yes, I gave in and got ahold of the second in JR's Black Dagger Brother Series and just finished it this aft. It's just as good as the first ... **

The 'editor in my head who won't shut up' does have a couple of nits with Dark Lover though. (I'll find nits with every book no matter who wrote it, I'm ashamed to admit.)

First - did anyone else think there was an incredible similarity between JR's Zsadist and Kenyon's Zarek? They are so alike I had to keep saying to myself "Zsadist is the vampire, Zarek is the Hunter." And the names - Zsadist, Phury, Tohrment, Rhage ... too 'cutesy' although that's not quite the term to use for these fellas.

The other thing that bugged me was the ending. Or perhaps I should say 'endings'. It reminded me of a comment Jack Nicholson said to Elijah Wood after Return of the King came out. "Too many endings, kid."



***WARNING -- SPOILER ALERT***
I'll try not to give away specifics but ...



There's just an awful lot of 'setting up' for her next book after the 'black moment'. Yes, she settles down the Hero/Heroine onto their HEA path. But then there's another chapter where she follows what happened to the bad guy. Then there's another chapter, she brings back a character who was killed and 'reinvents' him - ok, I understand there is a connection between the heroine of this book and the character but it just seemed jarring. Yes, those chapters weren't especially long, but I found myself thinking 'it's done' only to turn the page and discover it was continuing. And yeah, I get that she's setting up for her next book in the series but couldn't this have been done in that second book; did she really need to drag out the ending with these scenes? It bugged me enough that I did actually think 'Too many endings'.

Will it stop me from reading the rest of the series? Hell no. But it's something I'll bear in mind for my own writing.

Pity Party is Over

BlueSueL kicked my rear end yesterday for getting frustrated. Thank you, Sue. Again. (Sue's used to my tantrums - hence her swift and decisive reaction.)

Wylie - thanks for your encouragement too. I needed both.

No, I won't delete the doc, but I will put it away for a while and mull over what to do about it. Although I am still amazed at the coincidence of the other lady's idea, right down to the number of people in line to the title before our heroes. What are the odds? Why can't I pick winning lottery tickets then?

Anyway, I'll clamber back into the saddle and start in on my paranormal again. Now I have to figure out whether to scavenge from the original story to continue to try to write it fresh.

Oh, and I still haven't dared get on my laptop to see the damage hubby did to that last night.

Synopses and sex (horse sex that is)

Just got back after a long day in TO (That's a local shortform for Toronto, for you non-Canucks) And though it was long, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. First the TRW meeting where Claire Delacroix talked about how to write synopsis - something I haven't tackled yet but know I soon must. And boy, was that ever eyeopening. She handed out a sample synopsis which I thought was pretty danged good. And then she spent the next hour or so telling us everything that was wrong with it. (I took about four pages of notes just from that.)

And then the critique group I'm a member of went over to a restaurant across the way and spent the next 3 hours just chatting - it was our first face-to-face meeting and may I say, I am impressed, as always, with the talent and the personalities of the group. I was honoured to have met them all.

And if you want a laugh for today, check out Blue Sue's blog - she breeds Arabian horses and tries to post topics that give details that a writer can use when writing about their hero's (or heroine's) horses - those interesting tidbits that make your writing more realistic.

Now I must admit I have fueled a few of her posts with my questions about horses, but I did NOT ask any questions that inspired today's column! Today's post is definitely one about romance - but not on the human side. If you have a delicate constitution, you probably won't to visit, but you'll learn just why we use the phrase 'hung like a horse!'

Gizmo Guy strikes again

You know the old adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? Would someone please tell my husband that?

Two days ago: Gizmo Guy bought a new graphics card for his computer so he takes the old one out and looks around, wondering what to do with it. Hey! Here's an idea! Let's put it in Leah's computer, she might like it. Except Leah's got her computer running perfectly fine, she's happy with it. But despite the 'hands off' look she shoots her husband, he merrily starts pulling the cover off and fiddling.



I have no idea what he's done, but the icons on my screen are now barely readable.

So I complain/whine/nag him about it.

"Oh, I updated your drivers for you after I put in the card." Somehow I don't think it's the drivers, my dear. It's the freaking graphics card. The quality of the graphics have gone down. Dramatically.

Oh, and did I mention the background in my gmail program is now bright green? YUCK I have no idea how to fix that one. Or that he's so helpfully changed my screensaver from a slideshow of my pictures to one he thinks I'll like better. Or that he forgot to hook up my printer/scanner?

"Fix it," I sternly tell him. I liked it the way it was before. I could READ the danged screen then at least. (no, there's no yelling, no swearing, we've been married nearly 29 years - I don't need to do that, he knows when I'm annoyed by 'the tone'.) "Fix it" is all I have to say.

So he goes out on the net and finds some program that's supposed to improve things. He puts it on my computer and yes, things improve. Slightly. I can sort of make out the text under the icons though it's still rather fuzzy. Until I turn it on today when the icons are surrounded by big blue boxes. Arrrgh. And gmail background is still bright green.

I've already told him 'hands off' of my new laptop because I let him go on it once and he decided to make my desktop look 'pretty' and got rid of icons that I'd put on there deliberately. Icons for Word. And my solitaire game. AND he changed my background from a picture I'd taken from high in the mountains overlooking Banff to one he liked better - a bland MS provided picture of green grass and blue sky. ARRRGHH.

Yes, he's a computer engineer/consultant/specialist. Do I really have to remind him that I don't need his help? That I know computers too - that I spent ten years teaching computers at a local college?

Yes, I know he loves tinkering with computers. But my computer was working just fine. Which leads me back to the opening statement - it wasn't broken, why did you feel you had to fix it?

Yes, his heart was in the right place, he had good intentions, but for heaven's sake, I think I need to put a lock on my computer.

From Slow Crawl to Stop

Days to Dallas: Too few. All right to be technical about it, I've now got:

90		days
2163		hours
129805		minutes

Over one month ago - March 10th to be exact - I was given a suggestion of changing my first-draft ms from a straight historical romance to a paranormal. I thought about it for a few days and decided, yes, there were a lot of elements there that could be used. It wouldn't take much to adjust it - most of the story could be used but some elements could be added to enhance it. So I metaphorically cracked my knuckles and started in on editing.

When I first wrote the first draft, I maintained a rate of 2500 - 3000 words per day. With this version? I've rewritten the first chapter at least eight times before I felt I could move on. I'm now at page 64, for a total word count of 14 000. It took me four days to do reach that number on last version. And an entire month this time.

ARRRRGHHH

The characters are built, the world is built, so why is it giving me so many problems?

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE the story, I think it has a lot of potential and it's fun playing with the paranormal elements. But I'm finding I'm writing a whole new manuscript and not bringing anything from the old one in. As BlueSue has suggested, I'm probably going to end up with two finished first drafts - two totally different stories. She's right. And you know, I'm all right with that but what is it about that that's making me wander away from it? Why am I not concentrating on it? Why am I finding myself wandering back to my gmail, and reading other people's blogs instead of concentrating on the story?

Get your head in the game, Leah!

Music Appreciation 101

I found this story through Miss Snark's blog and was blown away. It's about a 'survey' the Washington Post did. They asked world renowned violinist Joshua Bell to play in a subway station in Washington DC one day, dressed as a street musician. And they videotaped it. Very few people paid any attention to the violinist who days before, and days after, could command a thousand dollars a MINUTE to play at renowned concert halls where people would pay upwards of $100 per seat to listen to him. Oh, how I wish I'd been in L'Enfant Plaza THAT day!


I've often stopped to listen to street musicians. I've got a videotape of a superb violinist who played just outside Bath Abbey in England - I actually stopped and listened to him for close to half an hour. It's hard to see in this picture, but that's him in the black shirt at the bottom right of the picture. (See I was so impressed I actually put him in my picture!) I'd videotaped a flutist in the narrow streets of old York (that's York England) a few days before. I've videotaped buskers in New Orleans, Ottawa, and Montreal. And for any who travel the Toronto subway system, you may not realize it but members of the Toronto Symphony orchestra often serenade you - they will 'busk' to supplement their income. I've heard some truly spectacular playing resounding down the tiled subway halls (which have surprisingly fantastic accoustics).

When I was attending the TRW critique workshop last month, I had to change from the GO Train in Union station and head over to the Union Station subway station in the Royal Bank Plaza. In the corridor between the two buildings, a woman and three girls stood playing their violins. They played very familiar songs by Handel and Bach. I quickly recognized the 'book one' songs Suzuki violin students learn. Ah, a teacher and her students. And they played beautifully. But did I hang around to listen? Well, sort of. I did while I lined up to purchase tokens. I couldn't see them, but the violin can be a loud instrument and you could hear them hundreds of feet, and several corners, away.


I spent six years taking my youngest to his Suzuki violin lessons, hearing those songs played over and over, and even though the violin is not my favourite instrument, I wish he'd continued. My son has a gift for music, he always has. He started begging me for music lessons when he was three. I thought he was too young. He wasn't, they do start them at that age. I finally found a Suzuki teacher when he was 5. During those six years, we went through three violins (they do come in different sizes), and probably more than six thousand dollars in lessons. Curly plays the flute in his high school band class now and from what I hear from his teacher, he's good and she wishes he would continue and take extended lessons. But, as with the violin, he can't be bothered to practice - the eventual reason I pulled him from his violin lessons. And I can't see forcing him to take flute lessons for the same reason. I can't see ploughing good money after bad if he stays so intransigent.

If I hear a good busker do I stop and listen? Yes, but they have to be good. Whether it's someone strumming a guitar, romancing me with a violin or juggling swords, I'll stop and give them a few minutes of my time. But they have to be good to warrant a second look. And unfortunately I usually can't give them more than a minute of my time because life does intrude - trains have to be caught, meetings have to be attended when they start, not when I feel like showing up.

Do I pitch a looney or twoney in their case? Yes, I have. I generally don't have much to spend, but I will toss in a buck (or a pound), or two, or three, if they have the gift I wish I had. The gift I wish my son would nurture.

White Easter

Countdown to Dallas: 93 days, 19 hours, or a total of 2251 hours, or 135074 minutes.

It's been a few days since I posted - not that I've been particularly busy, I just haven't had much to say. What can I say, life's been quiet, which is a good thing to my way of thinking.

It's snowing. We had a green Christmas, and it looks like we'll have a white easter. But we only have 'snow in the air' as opposed to Texas, whom Blue Sue tells me have snow on the ground. Sue - you're welcome to it! As I write this, a bunny is sitting about fifteen feet from my patio door, all huddled up and the snow is starting to stay on his back, turning him white. It's nice to see him back again - I didn't see him through most of the winter as I have in other years. He looks fat - which makes me wonder if he is a she and expecting a litter (what is a bunch of baby bunnies called anyway?) He/She is just in time for Easter anyway, even if she's not chocolate. And no, I won't eat the little 'chocolate raisins' they leave behind, though my dog used to like them. Yes, I can hear you all saying 'Eeeeww'.

The slog through my MS as I change it from regular history to paranormal is progressing, although my countdown clock to Dallas is scaring me as it whirls down. But it's keeping me motivated.

I'm wondering why I decided to try to write straight historical, I'm having a blast with the paranormal version, falling back upon my 'roots' so to speak. I just hope it makes sense when it's finally finished.

My passport was supposed to have arrived by Registered Mail on April 4th. It didn't. Hmm. I'll give it a few more days before I start tracing it down, I suppose. There was another report that the expected number of applications is twice as much as they expected, so perhaps they're behind.

And I haven't heard about my tickets yet either. I have a confirmation and a little booklet with all the information, but the agent was supposed to phone me when they arrived. She hasn't phoned. Hmm. Another thing to follow up on - perhaps I'll do that on Monday. Jim wants to take me out with my laptop to show me how to hook up to wifi hotspots in town so I'll know how to do it when he's not around.

We didn't win the 6/49 lottery for $38 million last Wednesday. Rats. Then again, we didn't have tickets - both Jim and I forgot to stop off and pick some up. 2 winning tickets were sold, and one was held by a group of 20 carpenters. That's nice because they'll get close to a million each -- each to make you happy, but not enough to totally screw up your life. I could use a million right now. Heck, I'd settle for a hundred thousand. That would at least let me pay off my mortgage. Just.

Another reason to get back to editing my ms. It'll have to be finished, and polished before I can shop it around.

Can you teach an old (and entrenched) brain new tricks?

Days to Dallas: 96 days, 23 hours

I'm taking two courses - Great Beginnings: How to introduce Irresistible Characters, and Writing with Sexual Tension. It's only day two and I've already felt like I need to beat my head against the desk several times, that all my writing is crap that should just be abandoned. But at the end of the day, by the time I'd given myself some time to absorb the material, I get what the instructors are saying, and although there are some points, some examples, I can't say I agree with at this stage, I think on the whole they should improve my writing.

I've moved on from editing the first chapter of my ms, but it's an extremely slow process where every word, every change is an agonizing decision. I feel like I'm crawling kicking (and occasionally screaming) to edit each word whereas with FastDraft I flew through the story. I really don't feel like it's ever going to get finished, and with Dallas quickly approaching I knew I had to dig in my heels. So I pulled out Candace Haven's Revision Hell notes and printed them off. They're actually similar to the way I had to teach my youngest son who has ADD to handle his homework. Advice for him? Don't look at the whole pile of homework -- it'll overwhelm you and make you feel like it's impossible - break it into smaller more manageable segments. Look at the first question and answer it, then look at the next question. Don't start worrying about the one after that, or the next page. Just the one right in front of you. Adjusted for me? Print out a set number of pages to work on that day and work only on those pages. Don't scroll back to work you've already edited, or heaven forbid forward. You'll just get hopelessly mired and throw your hands up in the air. (yeah, been there, done that!) Today her post was - there are some days it's just not going to work, so give yourself permission to walk away that day.

Today I'm glad I didn't walk away. Because by the end of the day, I had written two scenes I'm pretty happy with that I 'think' have some sexual tension as well an interesting paranormal addition that I hadn't thought of before but hit me in the middle of the night. (Candace Havens is right, if you concentrate only on your story your subconscious works on the problems while your conscious isn't.)

Why he's Gizmo Guy now

Gizmo Guy came home with another laptop today.

No, he didn't buy it - and I'm cringing because I know it will shortly be abandoned on a shelf in the office like a ton of his other computer equipment. This is a freebie a friend gave him - did I mention GG works/worked in the mainframe computer industry where they often install desktops and laptops attached to the mainframes as a method of monitoring them and running diagnostics from far off places? When they de-install the mainframe (translation: they're OLD) they also remove the desktop/laptop and the SE's are told they can either take them or scrap them. His friend removed one a few months ago and has had it sitting around his house and offered it to my hubby today when he stopped in for a visit. It's an absolutely unknown brand name built specifically for the mainframe company, but it's got a Pentium 3-400 mhz chip and Windows 2000 loaded. Thank Dog (as Miss Snark says) I got my Sony last week otherwise I would have found myself with this latest gadget -- which by the way is batteryless and has only a four gig hard drive partitioned into two 2-gig partitions.

However this now brings our household to a total of:

• four people
  
• five desktops (ok, so one isn't hooked up and is sitting on the floor in the basement but it works still)
  
• four laptops (if you include GG's work laptop that we don't own but he brings home every day, and the 1993 brick he bought from his old company for $50 when they were changing their computers - it runs Windows 3.1 with AmiPro as its word processor! Watch NewsRadio, it's exactly the same computer that Dave Foley uses)
• two external hard drives (one on my desk and hooked to both GG's and my computer for backups), and a tiny 120 gig one he carries with him since he is not allowed to store anything non-work related on his work computer
• four printers - only two of which are hooked up to computers. Which means the kids have to email me or GG their homework if they need it printed
  
• four palm pilots (two black and white, two colour - only one of which works anymore),
  
• and a blackberry that he whined about very loudly when he got home today because they're asking the people in his department to turn them in because someone in another department complained because his department had blackberries and theirs didn't. So he'll get a cellphone and a pager instead of his neato cool blackberry -- yeah, that's cost efficient. Pay rent on two items instead of one.

Hence the nick Gizmo Guy. He LOVES technology.

Gizmo Guy spent the night puttering around with his latest toy, trying to figure out if he could install Windows XP on it (which takes 1.5 gig - there goes one partition). He opened up the ram compartment to see what it looked like, and fiddled around with the Ethernet cards. In other words - he was happy.

I guess it would be like me writing a really good first draft.

Good idea/Bad idea of laptops

Days til Dallas: 98 days, 20 hours at this writing.

First - editing the MS. Though it's been a struggle, I'm getting there. I've rewritten the first chapter for what must be the ... 8th? time. Although it's technically only the third attempt for the paranormal version. And I'm much happier with it. I have to remember that when I'm writing or editing I need to NOT read other people's work or I get sucked out of my world and into theirs. (Candace Havens of the FastDraft and Revision Hell course recommends that you think only of your manuscript when you're editing so that even when you're not editing your subconscious is still working on your ms, solving your problems and creating new ideas.) I really need to remember that.

My course on Understanding and Writing Sexual Tension has started and looks promising. (I've got another one starting today too, Great Beginnings: Introducing Irresistible Characters, but it's too soon to tell as it's still in the 'who are you' stage.)

However, I have learned some things about working on a laptop (for some reason I'm stuck on the old 'Good idea/Bad idea' theme from Anamaniacs today):

Good idea: you sit down in your favourite chair in your favourite room that actually has sunlight rather than the icy cave you generally shiver and write in. And even if that room is cold at least the laptop is like having a hot water bottle on your lap. (Having a laptop actually chains me to a chair better than a desk -- it's tough to get out of that lazy boy when you've got a laptop on your lap.)

Bad idea: Inevitably as soon as those writing juices start flowing and you're congratulating yourself on your forward momentum,one of your kids (or Gizmo Guy) will wander in and start a conversation. Or turn on the TV - you don't mind, do you? Hell, yes! Having an office with a door you can close works better.

Good idea: You're playing Mom's taxi. Again. Not a big deal anymore - you can take the laptop wherever you want to go and keep writing while you're waiting for your eldest son to sign up for a course at the local college. So even when, 45 minutes later, he comes back to tell you that he should have listened to you back in February when you told him to register before it filled up because, yup, it's filled up and he's SOL, you can congratulate yourself that you haven't wasted your time. Just gas at $1.05 a litre.

Bad idea: You power up your desktop computer and stare at that document you worked so hard to edit only to find everything you changed/added has disappeared. Panic attack time! OMG! What happened to my work? Whoops, you shamefacedly tell yourself, it's on the laptop, you dolt. So you have to remember to either mail it to yourself or bring along your little flash drive and transfer it over before you power down.

Still, I'm having fun, and the laptop is working great.

Catching Up

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Although I must say I had a hard time choosing between several choices they gave me.

I've been AWOL for a few days. Not for any particular reason, just been busy with life itself. Plus I'm stuck with my editing still. So I spent a day setting up my laptop and downloaded nearly a gig of updates (480Meg just for the Sony software itself). And may I say that Mr. Gates ego-filled company really bugs me - I like to use Firefox a whole lot more than IE and yet to download any Microsoft updates you are forced to use IE. *Bleh*

I spent yesterday scanning pictures of my kids when they were little. Ones like this. My eldest at about 8 months:


The next one is of him and his girlfriend Heather.







And when I was done I took 9 of the best and sent them to her and apparently made her night.


And now I really need to get back to writing. If I could just figure it out. I'm at the stage where I'm thinking I should have just scrapped the whole first draft and started a new one when I went paranormal.