The Joy of Discovery

If you asked me which moment I liked the best, the one where I get to type "The End" and the one where I confront the blank screen for the first time, I wouldn't hesitate in answering. They're both amazing moments,  but the moment of creation,  when that first word hits the screen, is a just shy of ecstasy. 

There's very few things I enjoy more than opening a book for the first time. The world is full of possibility. Anticipation of a really good book has raised goose bumps - no joke. You remember that moment when the prequel to a popular movie franchise came out? The theme music started. I practically vibrated with excitement. The event was so visceral. While the movie ultimately disappointed, for that one moment, the moment of creation when the music started, anything could happen. Hope and possibility ruled. Starting a story is like that for me.

I'm in an interesting place right now in my writing. I have two completed novels (King's Falcon and New Bohemia: Just One Night) that are in various stages of editing, and as of Sunday, I just started writing my next novel - Schrodinger Effect. It's actually why this post is late. I've been visiting Vonna's world.

My resistance to outlining is that the one time I tried it, the whole process took the joy of discovery out of writing for me. But Vonna's world, and her stories are too complicated for me to completely discovery write. So, for this one I have an outline of sorts with some nice big wholes that I can discovery write in.

If you haven't read  Flashes of Life from my Paths Less Traveled  short story collection, shame on you. Seriously though, the new novel features Vonna, the psychic detective from that story. One of the things I find fascinating about Vonna is the quirks in her psychic abilities. While she's an empathy, she doesn't feel emotion, she sees is as color around the person.

The connection between colors and emotion goes back a long way. People are green with envy. We associate different meanings with the colors of roses- red for love, white for friendship, and so on.

Robert Pulchik , a psychologist, used a color wheel to help categorize intensities of what he considered to be the eight primary emotions - anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, curiosity,  acceptance and joy. People have since built on that model to take into account additional emotions. The wheel to the right is an example of an emotion color wheel.

Vonna's a bit more complicated than that. Her ability to see emotion is, essentially, her 6th sense or, if I were writing a different kind of story, her superpower.  I have to thank my editor at Musa Publishing who pointed out that Vonna would notice the emotional colors as a non-gifted person would notice hair color. In other words . . . always. I realized that to sustain her gift/curse over the course of a novel, I'd have to account for gradients of emotion that none of the existing wheels did. As a result in preparing to write about Vonna's next murder investigation, I spent quite a bit of time coming up with the colors in her world. Her color wheel doesn't match up to Pulchik's or even the one above.

Similar emotions fall into the same primary color, except when the don't. For example for Vonna:

Love is spring green;
Adoration is Aqua;
Fondness  is Lavender; and
Like/ liking is Lavender Blush.

We're crossing primary colors (green,. blue and red) for emotions that are somewhat similar in nature. Also, because we don't have enough words to encompass all the gradients of emotion, Vonna had to make up her own descriptions of the colors she saw, and the more complicated the emotion, the more elaborate the color. As an example, "Trust" is sunset teal because I wanted to show that "trust" as an emotion was a combination of many lesser emotions and, thus many primary colors joining together.

So for the moment, I'm in the grip of a new love. So, please forgive me if I'm so wrapped up that I forget the outside world. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have a cover - Apollo Rising

Apollo Rising, a novella in three acts, releases on September 9, 2012 from Musa Publishing. I've talked a number of times on this blog about how wonderful Musa is. Fair warning, I'm going to do it again. For those who don't know, Musa gives its writers some fairly amazing input into the cover design process. Once you sign a contract with Musa, you need to fill out a Marketing Details Worksheet. Relevant to this discussion, the worksheet asks for input on the cover design.

Apollo Rising is a Greek Myth retelling of the Daphne/Apollo myth from the points of view of Daphne (Act I), Alex (Act II), and Apollo (Act III). Needless to say, some classic elements for the cover are Daphne transformed into the laurel tree, Apollo's chariot and Cupid's arrows - one gold, the other lead. These were all suggestions in my marketing details.

Kelly Shorten the lead artistic muse over at Musa, took those details and ran with them. I made comments on the cover and Kelly worked her magic. The result? Well,  I think it's fabulous, but you judge.



So what do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

My sincere thanks to all the muses at Musa. I couldn't do this without you.

Apollo Rising - To restore Daphne to her nymph form, Apollo must bargain with treacherous Hades, but Death may demand too high a price.

More details and a chance to win a free copy of Apollo's Rising will be coming over the next two weeks.

Release Day Contest - Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl

Today is the release day for Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl. You can find it here on the Musa site, and here on Amazon. I'll update the link for Barnes and Nobles once it goes live.

When Celina Summers gave us the task of writing a story about a drunk who gets cut by a girl, and a deadline for submission, the question became "what to write?" As I've said in other posts, the only limitations on the story were that Jack must be cut by a girl, could not get laid, and could not be killed (although one story does stretch this restriction). I figured if one girl with a sword was Jack's nightmare, a bunch of chicks in chainmail with very large swords would be his seventh level of hell. My idea was a hapless Jack would stumble into an all female Society for Creative Anachronisms ("SCA") group while they were practicing. I even had the first few lines.

This was not the story I wrote.

Why?

As I thought it through, there wasn't any real "there" there. The storyline would be predictable and staid. So, that idea was out. But the initial kernel - Jack having to deal with a trained women warrior stuck. If I couldn't drop him into an SCA meeting, where else could I dump him with a lot of women who just happened to have swords (or daggers, knifes, you get the point)? None of the restrictions said I had to stay contemporary?

What about a post-apocalyptic Earth where the men were mostly wiped out? A start. How about we take this off world too? Better? An off-world matriarchal society where Jack should be prized for his maleness and still can't cut a break or get laid? Ohh, I liked that.

I needed magic. After all, how was Jack going to get to this world and then get out to the next story since I wouldn't know where my story fit in the anthology until after it was written? The post-apocalyptic world crept back in and mixed with Stonehenge. Magic became a fusion of technology, long forgotten by most, and traditional magic. So my wizard has electric lights but also alchemical paraphernalia. She also became a minor antagonist and the Raven's, main character's, relationship character. Jack's own inept attempts to get himself home and interact in this brave new world made him the primary antagonist.

The result was Through the Stone Circle, and I hope you enjoy it.

Now for the reason you've scrolled down, the Contest.

CONTEST:

In honor of Jack's and his inherent talent to behave badly, I want your best "boys behaving badly" or drunken story. Leave them in the comments. The funniest, in my opinion, will win a copy of Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl and Shots at Redemption. The contest will remain open until July 28th and I'll announce the winner on this site on July 30.


Excerpt - Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl:

Two days later, the Sheriff’s Deputy came by our house. He is a big man, not easily flustered.

“I’ve got a few questions about the report you sent in,” he said, holding up a printout of my email.

“Yes sir,” I said, all cooperation, and launched into a recount of my misadventure. I had barely got to the part where I encountered the unfriendly drunk when he stopped me with a wave of his hand.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he said, shaking his head. “You mean to say this happened here?”

“Uh, yes?”

“And… it was you with the sword?”

“Yes…”

The deputy slapped the email printout against his thigh in frustration. Shaking his head, he said: “That Jack Gorman, I’m just sick of him. He came to me, you know, saying he was attacked by a gay guy with a sword outside the Waterwheel!”

I remained silent. The Waterwheel is a bar almost a mile away. And I am most definitely not a guy.

My mother, who had been listening from the front door, came out and stood behind me. “Um, no,” she said. “It happened here, on our front porch. I heard it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I believe you,” said the deputy, rubbing his face. “Look, clearly you did nothing wrong, but the fact that he filed a report—even if it’s a false one—means I may have to confiscate that sword as evidence. You’ll get it back,” he assured me, “don’t worry.”

“That’s okay,” I said, grinning. “I have two more as back up!”

Ultimately, even though my sword was confiscated, I had the last laugh. Walking the dog a few days later I was stopped by my neighbor and asked what the commotion was last Saturday night. I told them.

“Aw man, Gorman messed up bad.” he said. “He’s been going around bragging about how he got attacked by a man with a sword. I’ll never let him hear the end of this: he got cut by a girl!”

What I didn’t tell him, what got left out of the email and my official statement, is what I did after I wrote that original report.

Before I went to sleep that night (and it was a difficult thing to do), I cast a little spell. I had never tried to cast a spell before. I have a friend who is a witch and she tells me I am probably a witch too, just untrained.

So that night I cast a spell. A spell to make sure that if this Jack Gorman was ever going to cause trouble again, anywhere, any time, there would be a girl with a sword (or something similar) to stop him. I also imagined him going away—preferably far away. I imagined him, very clearly, walking away down a dark and deserted road, toward a door made of light, and a sound like a sword being wiped clean with a cloth.

Shing.

It probably won’t work, I thought as I went to sleep. But one can hope, right?

Braiding Stories

One of this Friday's releases from Musa Publishing, Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl, is a "braided" anthology. Writing one poses its own special challenges and benefits. Before we go too far, let's pause for my definition: a "braided" antholofy is a group of interlocking stories with either a common event or character. Rashomon is a braided story. In Rashomon, four characters tell their version of a rape and murder. The stories are knit together by this common event.

In this case, the anthology title, Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl, tells you the common threads: Jack, and he's cut by a female in every story. With those very loose guidelines, and two additonal ones (Jack could not get laid, or be killed), the six writers went to work. Months later, Celina Summers, our editor and head Muse, sent us the first draft of the anthology. Celina had the unenvyable task of taking six very different visions (three contemporary stories with various levels of magic, a steam punk story, am alternate world fantasy story and a science fiction story), and come up with a plausable storyline. She is so amazing that she made this daunting task seem easy.

The next hurdle was making the "Jack" character consistent across six stories. This took several Skype chats.

But what did we do?

First, there were the small tweaks. Variations in Jack's physical description were voted on and standardized (subject to point of view issues)- an easy fix.  We also needed to make location or event references consistent. As an example, Heidi Berthiaume's story (Kzrma Coyotes), the second in the anthology, had Jack staggering out of a bar. In this round of edits, we substituted the name of the bar she'd used for the one in Goldeen Ogawa's story. We decided the type of beer Jack would buy. Several of the stories were adjusted for this. If Jack carried an item out of a story, that item had to be dealt with in the next or, if an item was needed in a story, we had to show the reader how Jack acquired the item in a previous story. Some of these tweaks were minor, some required new sections to ensure internal consistancy.

We also had to have the same method of moving Jack in to and out of the stories. This discussion required some help from Celina. Once we understood her rational for the story progression and vision of what was happening, this detail fell into place. Again, we all needed to add to our stories to incorporate this common element.

What I had the most fun doing, however, was standardizing Jack's many idiosyncrasies. We created a list of Jackisms (some of the sayings I've been Tweeting for the last week), and then needed to decide if our Jack would really say that. There was a lively discussion about whether Jack would say "piss" or "whiz." (FYI - We went with "piss.")  The merits of "silly boy" versus "sissy boy," and keeping the "g" in words ending with '-ing" were discussed.

In three stories, Jack quoted from movies or television shows. This quirk we wanted to keep, but there was a hitch. Sometimes Jack quoted the movie correctly, or mostly so - "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" - and sometimes he butchered the quote - “Ooh, watch out, Toto. I think we’re in Narnia.” We decided that having Jack  misquote was funnier. So now, Jack references the "Ruby City" instead of the "Emerald City." Of course, once we made these decisions, some more rewriting was in order.

Small details like which profanity Jack would use bring the stories to life, but they also make the six very different tales a complete whole. This braided anthology borders on collaboration. The interweaving of the story elements made Jack Gorman a lot more work, but a lot stronger. And from a personal prospective more fun.  

I would definately participate in another braided anthology. If I could convince Celina to edit it, or any of my co-authors on Jack Gorman to write again, I'd be there before the sign-up sheet was posted.  I hope you enjoy reading about Jack's exploits as much as we did writing about them.

Blurb:

Jack Gorman would rather spend his time swilling brewskies, scoring with the babes, and watching football. Instead, he's been cursed by sword-bearing girl he harassed while on a bender.

Now, karma is dragging Jack's sorry ass across time, space, and alternate histories. The curse can be broken if Jack manages to learn his lesson, but Jack is nothing if not consistent. From small California towns to a steampunk past, a magical future, and a space odyssey of narcissistic proportions, Jack flirts and drinks his way across reality only to discover that girls with blades are everywhere.

Will Jack ever break the curse? Or is he doomed to an eternity of getting cut by girls? Regardless, Jack still can't get a break. As he learns the hard way, karma kicks ass in all timelines.

Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl

New Release - Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl

So. we're a week away from the release of the Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl anthology. I've talked a little about how the Jack Gorman Project got started in my post about striking while the iron is hot. I'll post on Monday a bit more about the process of creating a braided mixed-genre anthology like Jack. But for tonight, I thought I'd give you a better idea about what the anthology's about.

Jack Gorman would rather spend his time swilling brewskies, scoring with the babes, and watching football. Instead, he's been cursed by sword-bearing girl he harassed while on a bender.
Now, karma is dragging Jack's sorry ass across time, space, and alternate histories. The curse can be broken if Jack manages to learn his lesson, but Jack is nothing if not consistent. From small California towns to a steampunk past, a magical future, and a space odyssey of narcissistic proportions, Jack flirts and drinks his way across reality only to discover that girls with
blades are everywhere.

Will Jack ever break the curse? Or is he doomed to an eternity of getting cut by girls? Regardless, Jack still can't get a break. As he learns the hard way, karma kicks ass in all timelines.

***

You're Jackism for today is: "Kick me in the balls, fine, I deserve that. But why did you have to cut me? Man. Whadda' fuck is wrong with you?"

Stay tuned for more about Jack Gorman Got Cut By A Girl including a Release Day Contest for a free copy.

Strike While The Iron Is Hot - The Jack Gorman Project

The Jack Gorman Project, an anthology coming from Musa Publishing in July, 2012, was born out of a Dog End dinner at the World Fantasy Conference in October, 2011. For those of you who haven't attended a large conference, the Dog End Party is what happens the night the conference officially closes, and while most attendees are still around. At World Fantasy this includes parties to consume the last of the Hospitality Suite's, and anyone else's, for that matter, food and drink so it doesn't get thrown out or dragged back home.

So, I went to dinner with 14 women, some of which I knew and some I met as others invited them, that night. Critical to this story is Celina Summers, the chief editor and head goddess at Musa was part of the group.

During dinner, Goldeen Owgawa told an amazingly funny story. You'll have to read the anthology (and check my updates here on the blog) to find out more about that story. But it probably took a good 15 minutes before we stopped laughing. When Celina could finally draw a breath said she hadn't laughed that hard in a while, and the story really should be published. A moment later, she said, "Oh the heck with it. I'm a publisher. I'm going to publish it. We're going to do an anthology."

The Jack Gorman Project was born.

Everyone at the table was invited to participate. Not submit. But actually participate in a published anthology.

Celina agreed to be the editor. So, the head of a new publishing house had not just offered to publish us, but also to edit us to her standards. Talk about an amazing opportunity. She then gave us a deadline for submissions.

I struggled with my day job, family and other writing commitments and got a story, Through The Stone Circle, submitted.
What surprises me is not that the opportunity arose, but that of the 12 writers (one of the women was an editor) at the dinner only six of us submitted.

Six.

Six people (50%) turned away from a guaranteed writing contract.

I'm not telling you this story to criticize the women who didn't submit. I understand that life intervenes, and often yanks us to where it wants us to be rather than where we planned. After all, that's what life's all about. I'm in the middle of one of those life yanks now. But I digress . . .

I'm telling you this story because writing professionally is often about taking advantages of opportunities that "fall" into your lap or "striking while the iron is hot" to borrow an old phrase. I quoted "fall" because often those opportunities exist because of steps you've taken in advance. For me, those steps included attending the Superstars Writing Seminar, meeting Colette Vernon there, staying in touch with her through the SWS Facebook page and Fictorians, attending World Fantasy and rooming with Colette. She, as I've mentioned before, introduced me to Celina at World Fantasy.

Whether in writing or in any other aspect of your life, when at all humanly possible take advantage of the opportunities that come knocking. You never know where they might lead.

And stay tuned for more about The Jack Gormon Project coming from Musa Publishing on July 20, 2012.

Shots at Redemption - Blurb

My latest short story collection, Shots At Redemption, releases on June 1, 2012 from Musa Publishing. In anticipation of the event, I'm posting the back cover blurb.

And, I'll give a free copy of the book to whoever comes up with the best joke, in my sole opinion, using the phrase, "A witch, a goddess and a dragon. . ", before the June 1 release.

Blurb:

We all make mistakes. In this collection, a witch, a goddess, and a dragon take their shots at redemption in the hope of reclaiming lost love.

In "Best Dressed and Obsessed, Janelle, a graduate-level witch, chooses a magic dress to enthrall her professor. Sadly, the dress is cursed. At her graduation ball, will she kiss the man
she loves? Or kill him?

Eons ago, Zeus decreed that Odysseus leave Kalypso. In "Kalypso's Song", Odysseus is reborn as a scholar. Can Kalypso convince him to reclaim the love they were denied?

The sea dragon Ryu spares a ship crossing her domain when a human child aboard reminds her of her own lost children. Ryu finds an unlikely surrogate family in "A Sea Serpent's Tale". When her new family is attacked by another dragon, can Ryu save them?

Shots at Redemption. We want them. We need them. But, do we get them?

Coming June 1 from Musa Publishing -

http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=296

Paths Less Traveled - Excerpt

Paths Less Traveled will be available from Musa Publishing (http://musapublishing.com) and Amazon this Friday. In celebration of the imminent release, I'm posting an excerpt from Flashes of Life.

*****

A blonde female officer growled as I bent to slide under the yellow police tape. Her aura flicked with the burnt amber of authority and a hint of annoyance. Her jaw snapped shut as she took in my white leather outfit and gloves, the outward sign of my other than human status. Silver surprise limed her before changing to puce and signaling her disgust. Her gaze flicked to the emblem bearing the Greek letter Psi on my chest, and then skittered away.

"A pleasure to meet you Officer Williams. I'm Vonna Sinya, the assigned Psionic . Detective Muller is waiting for me."

Williams tapped her commlink and turned her back.

"The Charlie's here," Williams whispered.

Charlie-short for charlatan.

The word burned across my skin. It’s what the insens called psychics despite the scientific proof of our existence. I drove my fingernails into my palms. The white leather gloves only transferred the barest pressure to my hand. Recently graduated from Psy Corp, the gloves were a new addition to my wardrobe.

The gloves chaffed.

Muller strode briskly toward me. "Let her pass," he said as he approached. "Ms. Sinya, nice to meet you." He looked down at his hand, and then dusted it off on his pants before extending it.

Touching a psychic was the equivalent of offering your throat to a hungry vampire. The corners of his eyes tightened making the three crow's feet under each one stand out from his skin. He wasn't as sanguine about his offer as he'd like me to believe. He knew psychics were a threat even when smothered in leather. Maybe especially then. Still, the alpha dog was offering me a place in the pack and hoping I didn't challenge his authority.

I pasted a smile on and grasped his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Please call me, Vonna."

"Rick." He lifted the tape. "First murder?"

I ducked under the line separating cops from little people. "My first crime scene."

He shifted a step back. "Why do I get the newbies?"

"Because you're willing to shake hands with us?"

The change in his mood was so rapid that his bark of laughter and bright blue slash of humor startled me. "That may be it." He walked toward the house. His pace was half the speed of his departure. "Main talent?"

A rash of heat flamed across my features. "We don't know."

Muller stopped and turned. "The Company does not let unknown psionics wander the streets, much less join active investigations. It's not like I just asked your favorite sexual position."

The Company was a pejorative term for Psy Corp. I'd heard it referred to an ancient song about owing your soul to the Company you worked for. If so, it wasn't a misnomer.

"I'm a thirty-seven."

"Excuse me?" Muller went pale in the flashing blue lights.

Despite the pit in my stomach at what might await me in the house, I smiled. "Just realize what you'd given your hand to?"

* * * *

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Vonna's world. Please follow Vonna and Falcon on their Paths Less Traveled. Strange universes. Kick-butt heroines.

Paths Less Traveled - Blurb

In anticipation of the May 11, 2012 release of Paths Less Traveled from Musa Publishing (http://musapublishing.com), I'm posting the back cover blurb from the collection. I hope you enjoy it.

* * * * * *

Some women walk their own paths through the ages, even when mayhem follows. Follow two of these women as they each walk the Paths Less Traveled.

In “Lightning Strikes", Falcon, a disinherited princess, wants to be the king’s spy. The theft of a prize stallion is her chance. But when her best friend stands accused, far more than her dreams are at risk. Falcon races to catch a thief before fatal vengeance falls on an innocent man.

Worlds away, Psyonics Corporation controls all paranormals and psychics in “Flashes of Life.” Its highest-testing but still latent psychic, Vonna accepts an assignment with the D.C. police to avoid the company’s breeding program. The company works to ensure failure in her first case – a homicide. If she can’t unlock her talents, a murderer will go free and she’ll be consigned to slavery.

The Paths Less Traveled. Strange universes. Kick-butt heroines.

Penumbra Advertisment for Paths Less Traveled

Attached is a preview of my advertisement for Paths Less Traveled ,which will be in the May issue of Penumbra Magazine published by Musa http://musapublishing.com. Paths releases on May 11, 2012.

Some women walk their own paths through the ages, even when mayhem follows. Follow two of these women as they each walk the Paths Less Traveled.

In “Lightning Strikes”, Falcon, a disinherited princess, wants to be the king’s spy. The theft of a prize stallion is her chance. But when her best friend stands accused, far more than her dreams are at risk. Falcon races to catch a thief before fatal vengeance falls on an innocent man.

Worlds away, Psyonics Corporation controls all paranormals and psychics in “Flashes of Life.” Its highest-testing but still latent psychic, Vonna accepts an assignment with the D.C. police to avoid the company’s breeding program. The company works to ensure failure in her first case – a homicide. If she can’t unlock her talents, a murderer will go free and she’ll be consigned to slavery.

The Paths Less Traveled. Strange universes. Kick-butt heroines.

I have a cover for Paths Less Traveled

Over the weekend, my cover for Paths Less Traveled, which releases on May 11, 2012, was finalized. Thank you Kelly Shorten and Musa Publishing - http://musapublishing.com - for the amazing job.

So, how did we get here?

Musa writers are involved in all aspects of the publishing procees. We fill out a questionairre on cover design issues, including time period, setting, architectural details, mood of the story, elements I wanted for the cover, elements I didn't want, and any other suggestions I had for the cover art. I suspect the only way I could have had more input into the process would be to self-publish.

In my response I attached a photograph of the mountain I'd been using as the base template for the castle in the Lightning Strikes story. This photo --------------->.

The castle in the top right corner of my cover is the same shape as my mountain. Kelly then stylized it to fill in the details. The end result was a distinctive castle, and therefore, cover.

Because Paths is a short story collection my cover suggestion was "a pathway leading from field and castle setting into glass and metal city. The pathway changes over the route from dirt, to stone, to pavement to quicksilver sheets." My idea probably would have been too cluttered for a cover, but that's why I'm not the artist.

Anyway, Kelly then took my input and came up with a draft for the cover. I had the opportunity to comment on it and request changes. I loved the design and approved it as soon as I saw it.

So, I think the cover is pretty darned wonderful. What do you think? Please comment and let me know.

Editing Paths Less Traveled

I promised to update you on the editing process for Paths Less Traveled, which is my short story collection coming from Musa Publishing http://www.musapublishing.com on May 11, 2012. So, this is your first update. The collection currently has a story I wrote over 10 years ago (Lightning Strikes) and one I wrote last year (Flashes of Life). We might be adding a third story too. It’s probably not surprising that Lightning Strikes needed more work than Flashes of Life. It was interesting to see how these two stories showed my development as a writer. Flashes of Life was, generally, clearer and definitely provoked fewer comments from Jen, my editor at Musa. The contrast also put the million word paradigm into affect because I wrote at least 1 million words between those two stories.

The editing process is alien. Writing is a deeply personal and individual process. Editing is collaborative. Some of us have trouble making the transition. Fortunately, over my fifteen years as a lawyer, I've had thousands of documents edited - by partners, by clients, and other lawyers. I don’t react hostility (most of the time, I am still only human) to suggested changes. When I do, I use a 24 hour rule. In other words, time permitting, I wait 24 hours, read the comments again and then consider whether they changes help or harm what I’m trying to do. If they help, I use them. For Paths, no cooling off was required. I agreed with Jen’s comments, and only had a few questions.

First, props for my editor. Her suggestions were clear and I could see how the stories benefitted from her proposed changes. While she caught typos and other grammatical errors I’d missed, she also flagged story issues. Description and internal contemplations are weaknesses in my writing. As a reader I’d rather broad strokes for setting, and characters that don't take twenty pages to make a fire because they wonder what kind of wood would be best. The reason I call this reading preference a writing weakness is that they make it harder to engage a reader. Jen pointed out a number of places where I could add a line or two to enhance the story. As an example, Vonna, the main character in Flashes, sees emotion as a color swirling around a person’s aura. Jen pointed out that if this was part of Vonna’s makeup, she’d notice their colors as naturally as we breathe. She’s right. The first round of edits had me adding in this detail more often, which makes the world Vonna lives in richer.

I love writing dialog. I’m a big fan of the idea that the words should convey the emotion and, for the most part, the only dialog tag you need is “said.” Apparently, I've reached the point of obsession. The word “said” isn’t invisible when you use it 62 times in 37 pages. The fact that Jen actually counted was bad. The “invisible” word was a distraction. Again, that “error” is something we worked on fixing in the first round of edits.

The best thing about professional editing, in general, and Jen, in particular, is that she sees where I’ve left out necessary information because I know my story too well. This aspect of the editing process was invaluable. It is also why having the right type of editor is important. A technical editor will be looking for different issues than a genre editor in your genre. A technical editor may, in fact, harm your storytelling. He’s looking for conciseness and might change “voice” and the story as a result. The genre editor will help you stand out in the genre.

Here’s the bottom line for me: Jen’s comments and feedback help me make my stories more compelling. In the process, I’m becoming a better writer. She’s helping me refine my voice, not changing it. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to her, and Musa. Editing may be a pain, but I enjoy going through the process with Jen. We're almost done (I think). To date, Jen has sent me two revision drafts and I just sent the second revision back to her. Once we’re (note the plural there) done with the editing process, I'll post a section from Lightning Strikes as originally written more than 10 years ago, as cleaned up about four years ago, and through the editing process so you can see Jen's helped me bring out the story without changing it. After all, that's the goal. Right?

Work in Progress Update

I just finished the first draft of my latest short story, A God's Quest, in which Apollo tries to break Daphne's curse and restore her to her proper form. It's the third act of my short story collection, Apollo Rising. The newest short story needs a week or so to "cool" before I start the editing process.

In the meantime, I'm back to work on my urban fantasy novel, The Nocebo Effect. The novel features Vonna, one of the characters from Paths Less Traveled, my upcoming short story collection.

Paths Less Traveled will be published by Musa Publishing http://musapublishing.com on May 11, 2012. I'm anxiously awaiting the comments on the collection from my editor. I'm sure I'll be blogging on the editing and publishing process, including the blurb and excerpt, as we get closer to the release date.

Q&A

I recently participated in Love Romances Cafe's Publisher Day for Musa Publishing. There was a question and answer section of the day. I've reproduced some of the questions and my answers below.

How long have you been writing? What inspired you to pick the pen up one day and create characters that capture the imagination?

I've been writing since at least 6th grade, and that's a long time ago. I stopped writing after high school and didn't start writing fiction again until about 12 years ago. I'd had a very vivid dream and woke my poor husband up to tell him about it. I knew I had to get the scene on paper before I forgot it forever. Once I did that, I needed to figure out what happened before and the conclusion.


What influenced you to get published? How long did it take for your first book to get published?

I wanted to get published to share the characters I loved so much with other people. My first published short story was in October, 2011. Musa will be publishing my first books in 2012.


What makes your characters so vulnerable yet strong? Can you describe them to us?

I try to show that my characters are as flawed as the rest of us. They have some real strengths as well as weaknesses and blind spots. In an upcoming story from Musa, Sea Serpent's Tale, one of my characters is a sea dragon. She destroys ships and the men who sail them because hundreds of years earlier a mage sailed into her waters and slaughtered her children. Needless to say, it would be easy to make her a monster. In this story, however, she spares the ship because it has a child on board. She befriends the child. To find out what happens next, you'll have to wait until Musa releases the story.

What do you do when characters stop talking to you when writing?

I've been lucky enough not to have this happen often. Usually, it means I've lost the story thread. I need to stop forcing words onto the page. I'll then try to visualize the scene and let the characters move about without my overt interference. So far, the technique’s worked, and I've been able to convince the characters to start talking to me again.

What about the heroines for these strong determined heroes? What makes them equal to the heroes and capture the heart of one of these alpha males?

I usually start with the heroine and try to ensure the hero is good enough to capture her heart. My heroines are experts in at least one area and very self-sufficient. The hero has to provide her with some trait or characteristic she needs, and vice versa.

When a new book comes out, have you ever been nervous over readers’ reactions to it? How much does reader reaction mean to you as an author? What do you hope readers get from your books?

I get nervous about readers’ reactions when I send the story out to my beta readers. The nervousness doesn’t seem to stop. Obviously, I want readers to like the stories and care about the characters as much as I do. Reader reaction is very important, which is why I ask people whose opinion I trust to read the story before I submit it for publication. I hope my readers enjoy the time they spend with the characters and that the story stays with them.

What is your writing process? Do you outline, fly by the seat of your pants or a combination of both? Do you use mood music, candles, no noise, when you write?

I’m still playing with the writing process. Until about 2 years ago, I was completely a “pantser” or discovery writer. I usually started with a character, idea or scene and go from there. The down side was that I spent a lot of time re-writing to find the story. Then I tried outlining “everything” and found that writing became a chore. I’d done all the discovering and writing the story didn’t bring me joy. Lately, I’ve been outlining the story high points and conflict and discovery writing the rest. It seems to be a good balance for me. I have a rough outline, which keeps me from falling down the rabbit hole, but I have enough room to go off the path if a better road to the conclusion presents itself.

I need noise in the background to write. Generally, I’ll have the music playing. Sometimes I will have the TV on. Experience has shown that if the TV is on, it needs to be set to something I’ve seen before otherwise the TV will win the ADD tug-of-war and no writing will get done.

What do you feel is the most important aspect for all new authors to remember when writing or creating their own stories? Any advice for aspiring authors?

Keep writing, and learn to effectively use critiques. Even if you only manage a page a day (about 250 words), you need to write. The story won’t get written if you don’t spend the BIS (Butt in Seat) time.

Critiques are your friend. Try not to get defensive when someone points out an issue they see with what you’ve written. Breathe deeply, and then look at the comments with a more dispassionate eye. If more than one reviewer/ beta reader points out an issue, they probably are onto something. It might be time to go back to the story to address the issue.

What is on tap for the rest of 2012? Do you have other WIP’s you want to get published? Can we get a taste of what is to come from you in the future?

Musa has contracted for six of my short stories which should come out in three anthologies in 2012.I mentioned Sea Serpent’s Tale earlier in this post.

Three stories – Kalypso’s Song, Best Dressed and Obsessed, and Laurel Branches – are Greek Myth retellings. I’m working on a fourth retelling – Pythia in Training – that I hope Musa will offer a contract on when it’s complete.
In Lightning Strikes, Falcon must find a stolen horse before her wrongfully accused best friend is put to death for the crime.
Flashes of Life is an urban fantasy. Vonna is a psychic whose talent defies classification until she’s assigned to a murder investigation.

I’m also looking to sell my high fantasy novel, The King’s Falcon. Falcon, the main character in Lightning Strikes, has given up her life as a princess and become a spy. As the trusted agent of Queen Sabryna of Fayette, Falcon never lets her investigations get personal. Yet, when she is ordered to Fayette for an assignment, she’s drawn into a conflict that requires her skill as a princess and spy to resolve. Mordent, a sorcerer and lord, uses the wealth of Falcon’s realm to rebuild his own war torn country. When their lives collide, neither will ever be the same as their clash draws Falcon inescapably closer to her abandoned throne.

I’m also working on an urban fantasy, The Nocebo Effect, in which Vonna, from Flashes of Life, tracks a serial killer.