A Mostly Random Collection of Links
It’s a sleepy kind of day here, absolutely pouring rain, cold and grey, more like March than June, even here in the urban rainforest where I live. I’m feeling unproductive, so in a bid to get something useful done, I’m closing some links on my poor, overtaxed computer, the ones I’ve kept open with the intention of sharing. So today, I’ll share! I’ve happened across quite a bit lately on responding to reviews. Here, a brilliant bit of perspective from author Beth Revis on handling negative ones: http://bethrevis.blogspot.ca/2012/05/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews.html Eileen Cook shares her own feelings about reviews on her blog: http://www.eileencook.com/blog/?p=3238 Changing gears completely, one of my favourite photographers, Steve Carter, shares a few panoramic shots of some incredibly beautiful places here: http://www.stevecarter.com/random/panoramics.htm These next couple you’ll already have seen if you follow the blog at siwc.ca, but in case you missed them: My friend Tyner has copies of his first published book in his hands. His take on the first book process here: http://tynergillies.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/first-time-novel-experience/ Writer Ginger Calem shares her story of achieving a goal, including an encouter with writer Jo Beverley: http://gingercalem.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/writersbutt-goes-international/ And lastly, the world lost writer Ray Bradbury this week. Whether you’re a Bradbury fan or not, if you’re a book lover, Nephele Tempest’s post is well worth a read: http://knightagency.net/2012/06/the-books-that-make-us/ Two posts in one week… don’t know if I can keep up this pace, but I’ll try! More soon, with any luck. Share...
In Praise of the $5 Office
I don’t have a dedicated office. I have instead a variety of spaces in my house where I can work: a desk in the middle of my kitchen, a guest room where I can sit on the bed with my laptop for a change of scene, an elliptical trainer where I have Skype meetings and catch up on reading email and blogs, and a favourite spot in my living room where I spend the bulk of my working hours. Whether it is the lack of a space specifcially dedicated to work or simply that my home also contains all the distractions and procrastination triggers everyone else’s does, some days there is nothing as unproductive as attempting to work there. It’s too easy at home, in the place where I do most of my paid work, to get caught up in the minutae of not wholly necessary bits and pieces of that job when I could be writing. It’s easier still to be conscious, even if I don’t do anything about it, of all the stuff that needs doing around the house, making it difficult to get lost in the world of words. On days like that, when two hours have disappeared and I’ve done nothing more productive than check email and Twitter, rinse, and repeat, I know it’s time for a change of scene. And when I realize it’s one of those sorts of days before I completely blow the available time, I decamp and head for one of several branches of my favourite coffee shop. There, armed with my $5 hot chocolate or a cup of tea, surrounded by space I’m not responsible for cleaning, chatter I’m not responsible for listening to (except as an eavesdropper) and sights and sounds that are simply different from the ones at home, I write. The change of scene inevitably does my writing, and me, a lot of good. For the price of a beverage, I get a fresh perspective on the day and, often, on whatever I’m working on, and, more importantly, I simply get words. Rarely is the coffee shop writing session a bust, something I can’t say for writing at home on days like that. I know for some writers, coffee shops are all about procrastination and the appearance of being a writer, a treat of time wasted instead of work done, but for me, some of my most productive hours are spent with the hiss of the milk steamer and multi-lingual conversations as part of the soundtrack of my day. And coffee shops always have better people watching than my empty house, too. Where do the words flow best for you? Share...
Things that make you throw a book across the room
I recently read a historical romance by a multi-book NYT bestselling author. I won’t name her here, but I’ve read her stuff before and have liked it well enough. This particular book, though, was saved from being thrown across the room only by the fact that I put my back out on Friday, and it was altogether too much trouble to get upstairs to choose another book from my TBR pile. In the end, the story was okay, but I had to wonder how an experienced author like this one somehow got through writing and editing the book and the editing process with the publisher without catching several instances of “I’ve done my research and now you’re going to pay.” This particular issue bothers me as much as lazy or non-existent research about easily-researched topics. I think I’ve posted before about one book that drove me crazy by having a character, set up as the expert, explain the rules of hockey to another and get them wrong. And another by a British author who hadn’t checked BC’s geography and had characters take a train from Victoria to Whistler, which was supposedly in the Rocky Mountains. “I’ve done my research and now you’re going to pay” (a phrase I first heard from Diana Gabaldon, though I’ve no idea whether she coined it) can be just as frustrating. For example, at one point in this recent read, the hero attempts to prove to the heroine that women are as easily addled by arousal as men by seducing her with a kiss. In the middle of the suggestive conversation that leads to the kiss is this, quoted here for illustrative purposes: “Taking her arm, [hero] drew her to a more secluded area of the kitchen garden, behind a pair of pergolas covered with scarlet runner beans. They stood next to a glass forcing house, which was used to compel plants into flower before they might have otherwise. A forcing house allowed a gardener to grow plants and flowers irrespective of the prevailing weather.” Now I don’t know about you, but if I’m in the middle of seducing someone or being seduced, the specific use of the building by which I’m standing isn’t going to be at the front of my thoughts. Having the explanation of a forcing house there – twice, really – threw me right out of the story and made me uncomfortably aware of, and frustrated with, the author when I should have been lost in the story. Research mistakes and giving too much explanation of things the reader might not understand are easy mistakes to make as a writer, I know. It’s one of the tough jobs of writing, making the research invisible to the reader, whether s/he knows what you’re talking about or doesn’t. I just hope that if I ever do it, I’ll spot it or someone else will while I can still fix it. Because when research is plain wrong or is presented at the wrong time as blatantly as it was in this book, it interferes with my suspension of disbelief and ruins the story for me. What makes you want to throw books across the room in frustration? Share...
Lucky 7 Meme for Ev
The lovely Ev Bishop, a writer friend of mine, tagged me in this meme. Since I’ve been woefully neglectful of my blog, her tag seemed like as good a kick in the butt as any to get something new up here. I’m nowhere near page 77 in the new WIP, which is still pretty much just a WI my thoughts rather than on paper, so this is 7 lines beginning at line 7 on page 77 of Amanda, my last MS: Peter made the first noises about heading for home. “Can I give you a lift, Amanda? It’s not very far out of my way.” My heart sank. I’d been looking forward to a few quiet moments to indulge in enjoying my private crush on Michael on the way home, but he was right. It would be much more convenient for Peter, who lived on my side of the bridge. “If you’re sure you don’t mind. I’ll get my car back tomorrow, with luck.” He agreed, and I avoided looking at Michael in case he saw the disappointment I didn’t want him to know about There you go, Ev. Thanks for the push to get back to the blog! Share...
The Great Pen Name Debate
Once upon a time when the world was young and the internet only a gleam in some computer geek’s (or was that Al Gore’s?) eye, writing under a pen name was as simple as, well, writing under a pen name. Not that I know anything about what it was actually like, of course, but it seems simple: write the book, have it published with a pseudonym on the cover, and thence be known by that name as a writer at signings, writing events, etc. But in our current world, writers are expected to have a web presence. This is where the whole question of a pen name becomes more complicated for me. I don’t suppose I’m alone. So I thought I’d post about it here and see if any of you out there have thoughts or suggestions on the topic. I intend to publish (she said, attempting to use the power of positive thinking) under another name. I know the name, I’ve checked to make sure it’s not too close to anyone else in my genre, I’ve bought the domain name, and I’ve set up the email and the Twitter account, all ready to go. But I’m not published yet. The agent hunt has been very positive so far, but is still in progress. Admittedly, I feel ridiculous introducing a pen name before I know for sure whether I’ll ever see that name on a book cover. That’s part of the problem for me in figuring this out. But more, I already have a public web presence for my day job, a job that involves interacting with the very same community I’d interact with as a published writer, and the same one I already interact with under my own name as an aspiring writer. So this all feels very complicated. Most of what I’d post as my writer self I already post as my work self or my social self. There’s a lot of overlap. And I don’t want to change the name I use for work to my pen name. Most of the people I know who’ve introduced a pen name have simply used it as their only online presence apart from personal email, either because writing is their only job or the only one for which they need to be visible online or because they were using the pen name long before a web presence became a necessity, so I don’t have an example – at least not one I’m aware of – to emulate in introducing a second version of a web presence while still needing to maintain the first. The very thought makes me want to run screaming into the night. I’m not concerned about privacy, so much; I have other personal reasons for using a pen name for my writing. So I don’t mind if my worlds overlap. But how? This has been a point of discussion at our house for awhile now, and we don’t seem to have any satisfactory answers, so please feel free to throw out any ideas you think are useful. I’d appreciate it. Share...
Valentine’s Day Links
I don’t expect my husband to do anything for me for Valentine’s Day. And not in that “I say I don’t expect it but really I’m lying” way of which women are sometimes accused, but for real. And he knows full well that when I said “Happy Valentine’s Day” this morning, that was the extent of the effort I put into the holiday for him. We’re on the same page where today is concerned. There are other days that are much more important to us and lots of everyday days where I’d rather be treated to something special than on a day dictated by societal pressure. That being said, I am a romantic, and I write about love and romance and all that good stuff, and I do like all the romance-related stuff that turns up around this time of year, so I thought I’d share some of the romance-related things I’ve encountered recently. In some cases, I’ve no idea where I first saw the link, so apologies if I miss mentioning you. Susanna Kearsley gives us some of her favourite romantic reads here. I haven’t read Random Harvest, but I’m a sucker for Goodbye, Mr. Chips by the same author, so will have to give it a try. How Hollywood says I love you (thanks to Wendy Hartley for retweeting the link from… someone else, whoever you are.) Looking for a good romance read? Joanna Bourne is one of the best, so no surprise her latest did so well in the All About Romance readers’ poll. http://jobourne.blogspot.com/2012/02/hoo-boy-black-hawk-is-best-romance-at.html One take on the top 10 kisses in literature here. Some of them I wouldn’t have picked, but it’s an interesting list. (Via Nephele Tempest, I think.) And finally, I’ll leave you with a song. Happy Valentine’s Day! Share...
The Month of Letters Challenge
The delightful Mary Robinette Kowal has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging all of us with our tech-heavy lives to slow down for a minute and send real mail, one piece of any sort every mail collection day in February, 24 days in all in the US (where Mary lives, so the number for the challenge). I’ve been debating whether to take part in the challenge since Mary first posted it a week or so ago. Like most people, I have a very busy life. Rarely do I take the time to send “real” mail, relying heavily on email for most of my correspondence. And the thought of adding one more daily task to my to-do list is daunting, to say the least. It’s that, more than anything, that’s made me hesitate. But I also love getting mail, the rare times something arrives that’s not a bill or an ad. And I’ve no doubt finding personal mail waiting is a treat for most people. And I like the idea of making someone’s day with a very little bit of effort on my part. Before email took over my life, I regularly wrote and received letters. My oldest friend moved 1000km away when we were about six, and we wrote back and forth from the time we were barely old enough to print sentences in big, deliberate printing until we were in university together. As a teenager, I had several pen pals, people my age I’d met at a week-long youth program for teens from across the country. One of those I still call a good friend, though I’m never as up-to-date on even our email correspondence as I’d like to be. His carefully-decorated envelopes were always a joy to find in mail. My entire family appreciated those creative envelopes, and I still have them – and their contents – in a box somewhere. We’ve lost something with the virtual disappearance of handwritten letters. As our resident family genealogist, I’m acutely aware of the dangers represented by our increasingly digital world. Unless we are very careful with how paperless we go, the shoeboxes full of old photos I relish digging through won’t exist for our own descendants. The old, spidery handwriting on thin, airmail sheets that tells me more about who my ancestors were than any of their official documents do won’t be there for our own great grandchildren. So I feel like I need to put my money (for postage) where my mouth is. I talk about all we could lose as our world goes increasingly digital, as incredible as the technology is, so maybe it’s time to do something about it and try to find a little balance between the old way and the new. I’m going to try by participating in this challenge. Want to join in? Check out the details on Mary’s blog, linked in the first line of this post. Share...
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