Writing – Page 27 – Sharon Lee, Writer

Whenever I meet with a deck of cards, I lay my money down

“Roving Gambler,” a Liaden Universe® story set on Surebleak, is now up at Splinter Universe, for your reading pleasure. Here’s your link.

Today was supposed to be a sit-on-the-couch-and-push-words-through-the-laptop sort of day, since tomorrow is so crammed with medical appointments and Other Stuff that I’m not going to have time read, much less write.

I must remember not to say these things when the gods might hear. No sooner had I opened the laptop then I was beset by a Plague of Technology, mostly brought on by the bevy of passwords I changed the other day, some of which did not migrate to the laptop, while some…did. No, I don’t even care why that was so at this point in the game. Then there was the tiny fact that ESET was going to expire tomorrow, so I had a little bit of fun dealing with that. And then the cover art for Carousel Seas arrived from the artist, Eric Williams, which — yay! And now I can add, “Go to Framemakers” to my still-growing list of Things To Do Tomorrow. At this rate, by the time I finish Wednesday’s business, it’ll be Thursday.

Or possibly Friday.

So, the plan now is to go back to the couch and work on the chapter regarding Chesselport and What Befell The Apprentice Trader There, and remember not to work too late, because I have to get up at omyghod o’clock tomorrow morning in order to make the first medical appointment.

But! Before I go, have a picture of some cats, sleeping.

Group Nap
Sprite and Trooper
Photo by Sharon Lee

The title of today’s blog post AND the title of the short story are from “Roving Gambler.” For those who don’t know it, here’s a link to the song.

In which the author looks for guidance in goofing off some more

I’ve been seeing a lot of squee about Winter Soldier, and! it so happens that I still have two matinee admissions left on my Flagship Cinema gift card. I’m drawn to the squee, but. . .not Cap’s biggest fan here, so I’m torn. Have you seen Winter Soldier? What did you like about it (as reasonably as you can without spoilers)? Do you think there’s enough Other Stuff/Characters to carry the movie for someone who’s lukewarm (at best) on Captain America?

In other, completely unrelated news, the blurb for Carousel Seas is now up at Amazon — here’s the link — from which we learn, among other things, that Carousel Sun is/was a National Bestseller, according, I’m thinking, to Bookscan. Which is nice to know.

In that same vein, and for those who did not read it elsewhere, Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume 2 appeared in the Locus Bestseller List for Trade Paperbacks reported in the April issue, at Number Two, just behind Fahrenheit 451.

Thank you all, because we surely couldn’t have achieved either of those list without you.

Here at the Cat Farm, it’s warm again, and sunny, but we’re not going to the ocean. I’ve done the dishes, and groomed the cats, and other Sunday chore sorts of things and in a couple minutes, I’ll be turning off the intertubes and getting down to work.

Hope y’all are having an enjoyable weekend.

In which progress is made

I’ve been working. Monday was one of those fragmented days where I couldn’t get my hours-together to focus, though I did some, um, deconstruction work on the third iteration of this novel, and realized that part of what was making things more difficult than they needed to be was the structure, and! for Extra Writer Bonus Points! if I restructured the third iteration, I could actually rescue words from the two iterations I had set aside.

Win!

So, yesterday morning, I pulled the chapter-by-chapter files for each of the three iterations (as I said on Facebook, thank ghod that the person who writes my books takes the time to keep a running chapter-by-chapter summary of each book-in-process. They’re a huge help in identifying which chapters/scenes can be rescued and where they are.

Having identified the words which could be folded into the WIP with good effect, I spent the afternoon unbraiding the (very lightly braided) narrative threads of the third book, and cut-n-pasting the rescued scenes into the (hopefully) correct order. That was a little harrowing, and in the end, I couldn’t rescue anywhere near 50,000 words. I did, however, get 13,000 words in several nice, chewy scenes that will definitely improve the final story, so the work was worth doing.

This morning, I compiled the book in its Pretty New Structure, and printed it out. Tomorrow, probably (since today is another chopped-up day), I’ll sit down with the compiled manuscript and do a continuity edit. I’m feeling good about the new structure; and while I’m doubtless up for some Serious Work in building bridges, and switching scenes/viewpoints around so characters don’t know about certain events before they happen, that’s just — work.

Over on Facebook, someone commented that this novel had gotten very messy, which is certainly true. There are a bunch of reasons for that. Part of it’s depression, as I mentioned. It’s hard to think when you’re (when I’m) depressed; especially, it’s hard to do the kind of free-flow, instinct-level thinking which is the Very Best Space from which to write a novel (IMHO). Which means I’ve got to Figure Things Out by the Numbers, which is no fun, and I have to do it when I have the Stupids.

Another thing that played into this novel becoming quite so messy is — given that there are a lot of choices open to us in terms of where to start, where to go, where to end, and who to include in the party, it stands to reason that no matter what we decide to do, someone(s) will be angry and disappointed, and therefore conclude that we can no longer write, and will feel compelled to tell us so, and. . .I really, really, really don’t right now have the spoons to deal with that. Odds are good that I will have the spoons to deal with it once the book is in a position for people to be disappointed in it, but right now, that future Angry Reader is kinda hanging over my head like a machete. I’m trying to ignore him/her/it/they, and write the story that’s true, which, some days, is easier said than done.

The result of all these choices and other situations is that we have three starts to this novel, two of which petered out at around 25,000 words (for a total of 50,000 words), including about — eh? 20,000 words? — detailing the adventures of a group of characters who (among all the characters who do) Don’t Actually Belong in this book. It’s not Bad Stuff, it just doesn’t belong in *this* book, and is being preserved (as writers do) against the future book in which they do belong.

We’ve written messy books in the past (by which I mean, we wrote them messily. I have. . .perhaps fond isn’t the word I want. . .memories of laying all the chapters of Conflict of Honors out on the living room floor and literally cutting pages apart and Scotch-taping the scenes together, until we had a novel that Actually Made Sense), but this is the messiest I’ve been lead on in a long time. Of course, I was off writing Carousel books for a little while there, which are, compared to the Liaden books, really pretty straightforward.

. . . and that’s where we stand

For those playing along at home, we’re +/- 46,000 words into a firm draft of a book that is obstinately remaining nameless, and construction is continuing, with deliberation.

In other news — Tomorrow is the first day of Spring! . . .and the weather predictions for us here in Central Maine is for one to three inches of snow tonight.

Sunday To-Do, With Commentary

1. ~~Coon cat grooming~~
2. ~~Clean cat boxes~~
3. ~~Clean humidifier~~
4. ~~Do dishes~~
5. Write a novel

I don’t actually think I’ll accomplish Number 5 today, but I need a buncha hours in a row, which, with One Thing and Another Thing and That Other Thing* Too, I haven’t been getting. In general, I’m not a believer in Ivory Towers, but if I could rent one for a couple weeks, along with the Invisible Staff, including the Staffer whose sole job is to answer annoying — and even non-annoying — emails politely — I’d be there in a heartbeat.

Lacking that, it looks like Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays are going to have to get blocked out as Compleat Writing Days, and One Thing and Another Thing are just going to have to Go Fish.

One of the things I do in the morning, after Mozart has been Served Breakfast, is that I’ll play string with the kids. Sprite especially enjoys the play, and, if I’ve somehow forgotten, she will pursue me around the house, dragging the string and exclaiming until I Make It Work. Trooper’s willing to play if play is on the table, but he doesn’t like to make a fuss.

This morning, after play, and after Mozart had finished with breakfast, Sprite was still demanding more! string! So I knelt down on the floor on my elbows and my knees, and put one hand on the string. She blinked, backed up, and meebled at Trooper. Who sighed, and hooted what I assume was, “Oh, all right, let me look at it.” And came over to sniff my hair, and my hand, and the string. . .

. . .and then laid down across from me, and put his paw on the string.

I squinted my eyes at him; he squinted his eyes at me. Sprite meebled, pushed against Trooper; he hooted. She meebled again, and he sighed. Veeeerrrrrry slowly, she skooched down next to him, put her paw tentatively on the string, and huffed her little hello huff.

And there we all sat for a few minutes, communing with the string and each other.

So, that was nice.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant Sunday.

______
*Frequent readers of this blog will have noticed that I’m one of those folks who has mood swings, of which, in case there is any doubt, the High is much preferred to the Low. Unfortunately at the moment, I’m stuck in a pretty low Low, which it took some time to identify, because (in my experience, at least) depression hurts, and this thing right here. . .doesn’t, though it has all the other trimmings, in spades, including the Stupids. What this means for y’all is that I’m going to be somewhat scarce — see the proposed Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday schedule, and if an Ivory Tower rental comes up, I’m there — because life and contracts go on, and if it’s going take me four times longer to write a book than normal, because I’ve got to piece in every damn word, then I’d better lean in hard.

So, that. Thank you for your understanding.

The writers, goofing off

So, to the dentist early this morning, on Steve’s behalf. This was the last in a series of four dental-related adventures scheduled for this week. Everything’s come out well. I do wish there was dental insurance available anywhere in the beautiful state of Maine, though. Ow.

Since we were already out, and the sun was, too; and after Steve had eaten his fill of a breakfast that wasn’t “soft,” we pointed Argent the Subaru in the direction of the Great City of Augusta, where it was our intention to visit our “local” Barnes and Noble to sign stock, and also to take on Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Age.

Stock consisted of one hardcover Trade Secret, and one each paperbacks Fledgling, Saltation, Mouse and Dragon, and was quickly dealt with.

The Tesla bio was not in stock, so it’s being sent along to the house as soon as BN finds one in the warehouse.

Bidness done, we mooched around; Steve was being entranced by the games and toys. I wandered over to the Writing and Publishing section, and saw a book titled Book in a Month: The Fool-Proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. The dental bill very much in my mind, I picked this up, to find that it is authored by one Victoria Lynn Schmidt, PhD, who has written several books touching on the craft of writing, but does not appear, herself, to have actually written a novel.

Am I wrong to want a book about a fool-proof system for writing a novel in 30 days to have actually been written by someone who, oh, I don’t know, writes novels? In 30 days? And sells them?

Sheesh.

After that disappointment, it was all the more delightful to find our friend Stew minding the music section. We shot many bulls; Steve bought a Tai Chi DVD and I bought a Yoga DVD, and as we were standing there getting the credit cards sorted out, I said, “Nice fiddle music,” and Steve agreed. Stew showed us the cover for “What’s Playing Now” and we added Lindsey Stirling to our pile. For, as it turns out, free, because BN was having an in-store “buy two, get the third free” sale.

We played the new music on the way home. I gotta tell you what — I’d’ve played the hell of this thing when I was ~~incarcerated~~ working at Colby.

Here, try one.

The schedule for the rest of the day includes writing, and laundry, and maybe a nap. Because — rising ridiculously early four days in a row? So not cool.

Sunday morning in the North Country

Slept in, had a leisurely breakfast with Steve, brushed three coon cats; two of whom like to be brushed, and one who thinks that brushing is a sign of the End Times.

Trooper and Sprite are watching the bird feeder action as the snow drifts down. Mozart is curled up in the Warmest Corner in my office. Scrabble is supervising Steve from atop the Former Home of Circular Logic BBS.

I put chocolate in my third cup of coffee to celebrate the snow, and, after I post this, will get on with the day’s writing. If all goes well, we’ll break early tonight and stream that gentle romantic comedy, The Sorcerer and the White Snake, for relaxation.

I see by the One Calendar that the rest of the week is going to be rather busy with Things, so I may be scarce around the intertubes. You have been warned.

I hope everyone has a pleasant Sunday and, indeed, a pleasant week.

The writer at work, with attending muse

It’s been a leisurely start to the new year, including a long and far-ranging discussion with Steve over coffee, and Princess-snuggles. I revised yesterday’s pages, and now I need to move on to some other mundane chores before coming back later to open Chapter Eight. For those who keep track of such things, One of Five now stands just about 27,000 words high. That’s 106 manuscript pages.

For those who come to this blog entry from Facebook, remember that I will not see any comments left on my wall, since I must and will cut back on the time I’ve been spending there. You’re welcome to leave comments at The Blog Without a Name (this is a moderated venue, so it may take some for your comment to show up), or at Eagles Over the Kennebec, using either your FB or LJ logins.

I hope that you welcomed in the new year with joy and moderation, and that this first day of 2014 is the beginning of an entire year of health, prosperity, and happiness.

And yes, I did promise a muse, in the title of this blog post. Here is Trooper, editing One of Five:

Trooper, Musing for all he's worth. Photo by Sharon Lee — Trooper, Musing for all he’s worth.
Photo by Sharon Lee

Life at the Confusion Factory

When last we saw our Intrepid Heroine, she was cleaning out her fridge in the aftermath of last week’s pre-holiday ice storm.

Since then, Steve and I have. . .cautiously. . . replenished the fridge; and I have purchased a new U(ninterrupted) P(ower) S(upply), replacing the one that either (1) died of old age at a quasi-inconvenient moment (which is, after all, Time Honored) or! (2) took a hit during the fluctuating power surges which were a Feature of last week’s Weather Event, thereby saving the life of Jack the Giant Killer, aka, my desktop computer.

Steve and I also rose to the challenge of taking Mozart to the vet in the teeth of a mildish little snowstorm on Monday afternoon. Frequent readers of this blog will recall that Mozart celebrated his 15th birthday in March. The average lifespan for Maine Coon cats is about 12.5 years. The vet confirmed what we already knew, that Mozart is an Old Cat, and verified what we hoped was true — that he’s in pretty good shape, all things considered.

Despite this, Mozart had stopped eating — crunchies, gooshie food; not even baby food, the Food of Last Resort, tempted him — which was the reason why we had braved the snow to visit the vet.

The vet’s theory was that, given Mozart’s kidney function numbers are “high normal,” he might be feeling a little sour in the stomach, and thereby not interested in eating. So, after a little hydration, Mozart got a dose of appetite-increaser, and some special food to take home, in case he’ll eat it; and we got instructions to feed him whatever he’ll eat, and as much of it as he feels like eating.

Which, at the moment, is baby food. The special vet-food is OK, but baby food is much to be preferred. So, it looks like we’re on the right path, there.

Last night, we knocked off early to view “The Secret of Roan Inish,” a favorite in the Lee-Miller household. That was nice, though it appears that neither Trooper nor Sprite appreciate seals as much as they ought.

For those who are. . .concerned about the fate of the next Liaden book — yes, I am writing. Really. But this is a shy one — particularly so, after the exuberances of George and the Carousel books — and the only way to deal with a shy book is to pretend you aren’t really working on it. In these parts, that mostly means a dearth of snippets, but I’m sure we can all agree that having the whole book, written and turned in on time and in good order, is worth sacrificing a few snippets.

P’rhaps the next book will be more outgoing.

This morning, in between loads of laundry, I’ve been updating some of the pages at sharonleewriter.com and at korval.com. Take a look around, if you have a chance.

As I write this, we’re looking down the barrel of another Winter Storm Warning; we’re apparently going to enjoy the arrival of 6-10 inches of snow between 4 pm today and 6 am on Monday. That’ll give me a chance to shovel the steps and free the car and still make Sprite’s afternoon vet appointment (for annual shots).

And I think that catches us up — no, I’m wrong.

You have only until midnight Central Time on Tuesday December 31, 2013 to order a signed-and-personalized copy of Carousel Sun! Here’s the link.

You may order signed (but not personalized) copies until Uncle Hugo’s runs out, but do you really want to run the risk of not getting your copy? Here’s that link again.

There! Now, we’re caught up.

Regarding the myth that readers determine what gets published

OK, so I just read this article in PW about new trends in YA, or What’s Hot and What’s Not.

And the Nice Agent People are all allowing as how they participated in the flooding of the market with Urban Fantasy and Dystopian novels, until nobody wants UF or Dystopian novels any more, and now they’re looking for the Coming Thing, which they believe will be “Contemporary Fiction.” Which they will proceed to flood the market with until nobody wants it anymore, and then they’ll be looking for the Coming Thing.

And my question is…why the hell can’t we learn that flooding the market with anything serves no one? That a balanced approach means that every reader can find something that they like to read, all the time? I’ve stopped reading Science Fiction a couple of times in my life because I happened to hate the Hot Thing, and there! was! nothing else! but! the Hot Thing on offer. The years when all the SF had to be Hard, and Space Opera was dead, were especially trying.

Also, I’m kind of tired of proclamations like, “Second World Fantasy is dead.” Because? Those sorts of proclamations, made by people who, actually don’t know if Second World Fantasy is really dead, or just taking a breather — mean that no one is going to be able to sell a Second World Fantasy to any of the established houses, the editors of which know that SWF is dead. . .which is why writers (1) Drink and (2) Self Publish.

And the trilogy thing? For years authors who had written a good, tight standalone novel were told that they “had” to write a trilogy. Which meant that the author sometimes “stretched” the ideas that had made a enthralling standalone until they broke, the trilogy tanked and readers got mad — at them, not at the folks who “knew” that standalones were dead.

*deep breath*

So, it’s a good thing that we’re sitting over here in our corner, writing Space Opera set in a universe of our own devising, which we’ve been doing for a while now, and not starting-out writers starving for publication, and studying the Hot Trends in the hope that their book will be bought during the flood’s high water mark.

*looks at button*

*pushes it off*

#SFWAPro

Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night

I know I’ve been scarce — my excuse is a combination of Life, both Good Bits and Not-So-Good Bits, and negotiating with a still-faintly-recalcitrant book. Apparently, there’s something still Not Quite Right, and the back-brain isn’t willing to just let me discover the problem as I go along. Which means it’s a foundation issue. So, I’ve been down in the cellar, head-lamp on, poking at the walls, looking for leaks, loose bricks, sinkholes, dead bodies — any or all of the above.

None of this makes for especially interesting reading or reportage (“Glared at screen and hated book for two hours. Threw in towel and vacuumed house.” Yawn.)

I also realize that I’ve been doing rather a lot of self-promotion; and I’ll be doing a little more promotion at the bottom of this note, too. Bear with me, ’tis the season, and even if the information isn’t of use or interest to you; it will be of interest to someone who reads here, promise.

Apropos of nothing much, today’s mail brought me a Levinger’s catalog. Now, I do love me the Levinger’s catalog, but as I flipped through it, I began to feel a little sad. Who buys these lovely pens and the all-leather desk furnishings any more? Most of my work is done on the keyboard; my “desk” is a remaindered dining room table from Marden’s, out of legend, and while I do, sometimes, write out scenes and notes by hand, my Instruments of Choice are Pilot G-2 .07 gel pens and Staples 8.5×11 yellow pads. The surface of my dining room table is covered with piles of paper, and not only is there no room for a beautiful Moroccan leather blotter; there’s no reason for me to have such a thing. A couple of the ereader/tablet pillows are tempting, but otherwise, Levinger’s is dead to me, except as a sort of archival document of a time when elegance had a place.

What are your favorite catalogs?

* * *

Trooper is standing here by my keyboard with his nose practically in my ear, purring, which I’ll take as a hint that it’s time to come around to that promotion I was talking about.

Promotion the First: Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore in Minneapolis has kindly agreed to handle a special order of autographed Carousel Sun. They have also agreed to take on the non-trivial task of accepting personalization requests, through December 31, 2013 ONLY. All the niggling little details, including a link to the proper page on Uncle Hugo’s website, are here.

Promotion the Second: Liaden Universe® novelette “Eleutherios” is eligible for Nebula nomination. It was published on Baen.com in January 2013. If you are a SFWA member and you would like to read this story, you may read it here. If you are not a SFWA member, and you’d like to read the story, you may, of course, use the same link to do so.

Other Nebula-eligible Lee-and-Miller works are: Novels Necessity’s Child and Trade Secret; short story “Out of True,” and novelette “Moon’s Honor.” If you are a SFWA member and you would like to read the unlinked works with an eye toward the Nebulas, please write to me at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom with your preferred format.

And, yes, if you read for the Hugos, all of the above are eligible for the awards that will be presented at LonCon 3 next August.

There! That wasn’t so bad, was it?

It was? Well, then, here — have a cat picture.