Off to Nationals July 28, 2008

Tomorrow morning I step on the plane heading west to San Francisco – to RWA Nationals.

 

This is my first time attending, but not my first professional conference by far. Neither is it the largest conference but still I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Here are some of the things I learned at other conferences that I’m keeping in mind.

 

I’m in an non-writing industry that has as diverse a conference as RWA. Everyone at *said conference* either looks like kindergarten teacher or high powered business woman. Just like at *conference* I’ll be hitting RWA Nationals trying to balance somewhere in between.

  

People DON’T LOOK LIKE THEIR PICTURES. Ok, ok, I know what those of you who know me are saying. Not all of us will ‘pull a bria’ — I’m getting fairly famous for sitting down next to nationally acclaimed authors, introducing myself and asking them if they’ve published yet. *sigh* Watch what you say, how you act – I believe kindness should be your first response to everyone, but you never know what thing you may say and who may overhear it. 

Also, one of the things I remember very clearly is the burnout. Just like in life, you need to remember when to say when in a conference setting.

 

You may not be in the office, but you ARE at work. Having a Writing Career is just that, a career. Don’t blow it by crossing lines that you wouldn’t cross with co-workers.

 

Pens die or people sitting next to you forget them – a couple extra never killed anyone.

 

Some rooms are hot, some are cold. That’s life. Layer.

 

Suck everything you can out of the week, because it doesn’t happen for another year. I’ll try to take my own advice here: don’t be shy! Enjoy the people around you.

 

Well, I’m almost packed. I’m just waiting for the febreeze I flooded my luggage with to dry.

 

Water if sold is outrageously price. Bring a Nalgene.

 

So did i forget anything big? Let me know!

 

Hopefully I’ll have wonderful things to report this week!

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up July 25, 2008

Well, I said I’d be taking a break from blogging while prepping for Nationals, but really – did anyone believe that?  With all the interesting things that happen in a week, I thought I’d post at least a couple for your perusing enjoyment.

 

First, Romance Divas – a writers board – is having a Not-Going-To-Conference Conference for free on their site this coming week. Door prizes, Workshops, Contests – Really, can you go wrong with this? Did I mention it’s free?  Check out the Romance Diva board HERE.

 

If you haven’t found DailyWritingTips yet, I highly recommend checking it out. This week Ali tackled the “conversational email” and a bunch of other interesting topics.

 

FundsforWriters is a wonderful website with so much information I only skimmed the top. For anyone looking to support herself or supplement her income in the pursuit of a Writing Career, for contests to add to your resume, article publication opportunities, and a lot more you should check it out.

 

Read the post above and thought, “Hey, writing articles! I should try that!” Check out Freelance Writing Jobs HERE. Lots of great information beyond just opportunity postings.

 

And finally, we alllll know how I love a good goal. Author MBA talks about goal overload HERE.

 

OK, next week I’m at RWA Nationals – taking some workshops and pitching Markbearer. I’ll try to let you all know how it goes. I’m sure everyone is dying to hear lol

Characters Unedited July 24, 2008

Do you have a character that never seems to need editing? That flows and is so clear that you HEAR her in your head as you read her scenes?Hopefully, if you do, it’s a major character. But, if you’re me, she’s a minor character.

 

My girl Ellenia is so real, so clear that her scenes fly. The pace is fast, the description light but right on, the other characters seem to struggle to keep up with her frantic pace. We all know that person in the real world, but to have her spring life so clearly as a secondary character was almost startaling.

 

She makes me laugh out loud, she makes me cry. Knowing what’s in her future, I rush through emotions like a Diva at a shoe sale.

 

But the funniest part is, the other characters don’t seem to need editing when she’s on the go either. The descriptions are crisp, the action is moving along without skipping all over the page. Everything just feels a little fresher.

 

So, why couldn’t she be my main character? Why oh why is it the secondary who steals the scene without, well stealing the scene?

 

I’m not sure. I wish I knew. Actually, I wish I could bottle it!

 

The best part is everyone’s reaction to her. As soon as she hit the page, everyone wanted to know who she was (she’s a bit of a mystery) – I won’t tell, but I’m collecting guesses. Some are close, some are great but not close, but all show a love for the character that excites me to no end.

 

And so, am I tempted to put her in every scene I ever write so I’ll never have more than quick edits again? That seems a bit like eating too much chocolate — yes, I personally found out there is such a thing.

 

I’m dying to know, tho – does anyone else have the uneditable character? If so, what’s YOUR secret?

BRIA Q: Adverb Slayer – where’s my t-shirt? July 22, 2008

What do you do when your readers say they didn’t notice adverbs, but you do a count (see: HEALADOC) and find you have 952 adverbs?

 

Panic!

 

Of course, the majority are in dialogue, but still – that leaves a lot to be accounted for.

 

So, what did I learn as I hunt and destroy the dreaded adverbs?

 

My Hero is gentle with my heroine

My Heroine does everything ’slowly’

People pause and ‘finally’ do stuff

Everyone gets studied ‘closely’

 

So, repairs? A lot of them just needed to be deleted. Here’s how I did it:

1. Using Word’s find tool, I searched: “ly ” — “ly,” — “ly.”

2. Any of these outside dialogue got highlighted

3. On this read through, I pay special attention to where and how the pink is.

 

I found out another interesting tidbit: I could go pages without any pink highlighted words and the BAM a bunch of them in a paragraph. I’m guessing it was a pacing description crutch.

For example:

“dabbed gently” became “dabbed” —- gently is pretty much stated.

Other places needed to be cleaned up, needed to be stronger or go bigger. Things that seem obvious on a read through instead of during the inital writing time when you’re just trying to get it all on the page.

Another example from when a nurse is noticing a cut on the heroine’s forehead:

BEFORE: The woman studied her more closely.

AFTER: The woman pushed Faela’s hair back where her braid had come undone.

Not only does the second one get rid of the adverb and weak “studied” verb, but it tells us more of what’s going on instead of relying on dialogue alone to say dude, what happened to your head to bloody you all up and stuff.

 

And so, while I spend time I should be writing googling — T-shirts “Adverb Slayer” — and finding nothing, I know my count is nearly 1/5 of what it initially was outside of dialogue and think, Hey, what other newbie flub did I make???

 

Stick around, I’ll let you know!

Summer Vacation and Packing Books July 21, 2008

Well, this week and next I’ll be preparing and then attending a writer’s conference on the other side of the country — so, I’m backing off from blogging.

 

But – of course – it brings up a new question.  This conference is going to send me home with my share of free and paid for books, so packing on seems a little space stupid.  And yet, I can’t seem to help myself.

 

The idea of the summer read began for me when I was 10 and made my mother buy the Narnia collection so I could read them in one swoop. Since then, summer seems to be about reading running through backlists or series.

 

So, what’s your favorite type of summer read? One book a time, chewing through an author, slow and steady, an old stand by?

 

Lets hear it?

Summer Reads: THE QUIET MAN, by Maurice Walsh July 16, 2008

The week of short stories continues.

 Anyone who followed our writings over at the Purple Hearts, knows how I feel about cadence. Sometimes, the cadence of a a story tells as much as the words. The Quiet Man is just such a story.

This is another great short and great movie that have little to do with one another – yet, I highly recommend them both. As usual, the movie can’t help but adding an obvious motive and expressing it more clearly than a man at the running of the brides.

 

Sometimes a man just wants to escape himself. That’s what Shawn Kelvin does when he returns home from America. Instead of fighting for his family’s farm, he takes a quaint cottage on the hillside, as distant and quiet as he is.  Knowing that he’s come to care for the only woman he cannot court, the sister of the man who stole his family’s farm, he remains content.

 

Until. . . .well, untill you read the story for yourself and find the hidden strength the man carries within himself. Very few stories show this preciesly the importance of knowing who you are and being confident in it.

 

Plus, I mean, played by John Wayne. . . .just saying

Summer Reads: THE DEAD, by James Joyce July 16, 2008

I did my senior symposium on James Joyce. It was a long semester, but I walked away with a short story that took over my mind as perfection. The plot, story, characters, symbolism – how many layers you can read this on. . .The ending and the demolition of what you think you see and feel as a person who can’t honestly see inside another.

 

I’ve forced this short on many of my friends and ended up in cafe’s with coffee (ok, tea. I don’t drink coffee) discussing the more easily missed symbolism that is common enough if you read a lot of Joyce. Even the walk on characters have a very clear role in the heavy picture of things. 

 

Did I mention it neared perfection.

 

It basically tells the story of Gabriel Conroy spending an evening at a house party thrown by two spinster, piano teaching aunts and their odd collection of friends. The evening turns into Gabriel’s own personal firewalk.

 

Of course, the academics say in a different way:  “The Dead” is a story about “man’s withdrawal into the circle of his own egotism” (Daiches, The Novel and the Modern World)

 

Surprisingly, this story carried personal weight for me as well. Graduating from college, I had a lovely coffee (tea) with one of THOSE professors – you know the ones. Older than the ivy clinging to the side of the dean’s center and just as brilliant. The one that when he asks you for coffee, you’d turn down dinner at the white house to go.

 

The conversation turned down a frightening path when he asked me what my greatest fear was.  Being a Short writer, I replied that it was to be Poe: Brilliant at shorts and sucking at the novel. . .yes, I said sucking. We referred to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym  as the original ‘read it and weep’ ….

The good doctor turned to me and said, “Ms. Quinlan, I believe you can do anything you set your mind to even half-heartedly. My biggest fear for you is that you will be Molly Ivers.”

 

I have never been quite so stunned in my life. At that age, in that competitive environment, it never dawned on my to fear personal outcomes instead of academic or professional. It saddened me that (in this era) we can still as women educate ourselves out of the marriage pool.

 

So, read the short HERE and let me know, was Gabriel trapped by his own ego? Did Molly lose her femininity through education? Was Gretta truly never in love with him or did he only come second or gain her love eventually? Did the catholics treat Mr. Brown differently? AND, most importantly – what does it mean?

 

I know, I know. A horribly broad question. But with Joyce and his focus for that collection of shorts and his view of Ireland, family and life, it really is the most important place to begin.

Summer Reads: The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton July 14, 2008

This weekend, someone asked me if I liked short stories. Seeing as that was my chosen medium in college, I went on a short story tirade — she’s probably sorry she asked.

 

And so, this weeks summer reads are all short stories.  The great thing about them is they’re all so different. Different time periods, genres, lengths, feels, voices. 

 

And so, today’s short story is The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton.

 

This is one of my favorite works because it never leaves you. I first read it in high school – freshman year – and could not stop thinking about the ending. What would be behind the door? Would her love equate with jealousy or protection? How would their being a barbaric people effect how she made her decision? Could I give up my soul mate to another person? Could I (no matter how barbaric my upbringing) watch him be torn apart by a vicious animal?

 

Years go by and every once in a while I pick it up and re-read it. Every time I come up with a new question. Every time I still don’t have an answer.

 

Stockton later wrote a little heard of sequel called The Discourager of Hesitancy which I have never read — out of fear. What are the chances that it will be a Godfather II and not a Speed 2? The question has captured my imagination for years, what if it’s been answered and the answer is less fulfilling than the ambiguity? What if. . . what if . . . what if. . . .

 

So, what work (short/full/novella/movie/poem/etc) has left you questioning things

Publishing Blogs Weekly Round-Up July 11, 2008

After skipping last week due to the “Driving thru the East Coast version of wine country” day, I’m excited to jump back in to what’s going on in the pub world J

 

 

 Anyone who followed me over from Purple Hearts knows that I’m a goal junkie.  Author MBA did a great segment on touching base with yourself about your writing life: 4 tips for switching gears in your career.

 

As always, Nathan says it best —- HERE.

 

Revisions While On Submission – Jonathan Lyons answers a question we’ve all thought at least once.

 

 

And just because this is REMARKABLY cool: Black out poems (no. not THAT type of black out – the good type)

Summer Reads: THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton July 9, 2008

Every time I think of the brilliance of this book I have to ask myself “What the heck have I done with my life?” Ms. Hinton wrote The Outsiders while still in high school, influenced by the social divide she saw every day.

 

While all schools have social structures, the extremes here are telling. This isn’t just who plays what sport or what type of clothes they wear. This book is about the bone deep difference that occurs when raised with values, expectations and privileges so different that people feel as though they come from different worlds, not the same town.

 

One of the reasons I included this book (beyond it being one of my favorite YA books) is the fact that Ms. Hinton wrote it so young. For every one out  there who has no one encouraging them to chase after a dream – look to this! For everyone who listens to people say “after high school” or “after college” or “after you have a steady job” or “after you get that promotion” – look to this! To everyone who thinks that young people can’t channel that emotional core they haven’t yet lost sight of – look to this!

 

The one thing I beg you is – if you haven’t read the book, go get it today. You’re robbing yourself if you believe the movie holds a candle to it – no matter how many hot guys are in it!

Summer Reads: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by LM Montgomery July 8, 2008

I found out about midway through high school that, as usual, I was doing yet another thing backwards.  I had been reading books my parents couldn’t understand where I was getting (the English professor next door and the librarian down the street) let alone discuss because they’d never heard of most of the authors. But then, some time around 17 or 18, I found some young adult writers and fell in love again. But it wasn’t until college that the YA bug really bit me, but it got a taste on long bus rides to track meets.

 

That was when I met Anne and instantly fell in love with her. (To this day, one of the best complements a guy ever gave me is that he liked me because I reminded him of his boyhood crush: Anne of Green Gables! I’ll take that!) – Her spunk, her intelligence, her loyalty and imagination – she personified everything I wanted to be as a girl and often could not because of the difficulties at home.

 

She’d overcome painful memories and tragedies to live in optimistic zeal. She embraced life with a zeal she never grew out of. She loved with her whole being. She chased learning with a veracity that impressed. She new when she was wrong and humbled herself with a sincere apology.

 

But most of all, she was well and truly her whole self her whole life. Not many people (fictional or otherwise) can make that claim. I hope to always remember the lessons I learned from Anne.

 

Ms. Montgomery — thank you for teaching me that a character can be interesting when her flaws and strengths aren’t necessarily different.  Looking at yesterday’s blog about Elizabeth Bennett and today’s about Anne Shirley, I can see that – while Anne would call them Kindred Spirits – as a writer, their differences are what make them both characters who are unique and worth studying.

Summer Reads: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen July 7, 2008

Long before there was a “YA” category, there were still books young adults loved to read. Personally, the incomparable Ms. Austen has always and will always fit in that category.

 

I first read Pride and Prejudice when I was 12 – and fell in love. Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane, Bingley, Wickham. . .characters that have been replicated for generations now.

 

When I was young, I feel in love with Elizabeth, I saw so much of myself in her and justified her actions, thoughts, and words in everything she did regarding Darcy and those around her. Every few years I re-read the book (sometimes two times in a row because I hated for it to end) and saw the hero and heroine more and more on equal footing – something they both had to come to see for themselves.

 

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I saw the unbelievable – the FLAWS in Elizabeth. How her own stubbornness, judgementalness and a couple other -ness’s kept her from SEEING the man she loved. How her sharp tongue, while entertaining to the reader, was harmful to herself. How being clever is not always as uplifting as being kind.

 

And now…..the literary blasphemy: I love Colin Firth – he will always be Darcy to generations of Austen lovers, BUT, the Darcy I read years ago hidden in the stacks of my Jr High library was not he. Shockingly, as poor as the movie itself was (although I think for a 90min version, it wasn’t horrible, but why bother when the BBC has perfected the story already — oh yeah, money.)  Matthew Macfadyen played a closer Darcy to the one I knew in my heart.

 

That Darcy was not only prideful, but uncomfortable. Strangers, groups, and the woman he fell in love with against his own judgement made him anxious. The Darcy I loved was a combination of arrogance and anxiety. The scene where Elizabeth is playing the piano and he tries to tell her this — that scene was always Elizabeth’s downfall to me. The scene where a proud man lowers his shield away from his heart and feels the lance of her sharp tongue for it.

 

I’m sure your Darcy is even different than mine — So, which Darcy do you love?

Summer Reads: BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE by Annette Curtis Klause July 2, 2008

The first time I read this book, it blew me away. I was sucked in by the author’s use of sensuality (and I don’t mean that necessarily in a sexual way, although there are tones of that as well) — Imagine you are a wolf. Do it for just a second. Or if you can’t, then go with a dog. Watch them and how they watch things, how the sniff, how they recognize and deal with one another.

 

Now layer that over being human.  That is essentially the task Annette Curtis Klause took on and overcame in her book Blood and Chocolate. While other authors hint and dance around and try to overcome the duality of being two things – Ms. Klause (IMHO) hits it on the head.

 

Not only that, but she goes on to tell a tale so universal in its soul that everyone can identify with it on some level.

 

Vivian is 16 (yes, darn it. I said 16. DO NOT RENT THE MOVIE unless it’s to mute it and watch Hugh Dancy. . .) and a typical high school girl — Ok, not at all. Vivian is 16 and the only female coming of age in her pack. The boys all show off for her and even the older Gabriel seems to glance her way. But now, after a fire the boys had a hand in, her father is dead, her mother has become a flirt and her whole world has been uprooted and moved to a new town.

 

Enter sensitive-poet-boy, I mean Aiden. Aiden is the antithesis of the boys she knows – softer, kinder, focused on words and thoughts and feelings instead of the intense physicality that carries the boys she knows with their instincts.

 

Oh, there is popularity and other girls and other couples and outings and school to deal with. But, in the long run, it’s the same things that attract Vivian to Aiden that eventually pushes them further apart.

 

The ending is great and she ends up with one of the seven guys I had FELT was right for her. I like the draws of her fighting against what seems like destiny in the end. Of having very clear ideas of what she SHOULD want. I won’t give anything else away, but no other guy could have pulled her out of her emotional state at the end of the book than the one who ended up being the hero.

 

And she does this all while carrying amazing sub-plots and secondary characters through out the book without causing them to be a distraction

 

Another book to be studied. Buy it. Mark it up. See if you can layer half as well and hope for the best!

 

If you want to know who to cross into another world, to create and layer and be honest,

Summer Reads: MOON-SPINNERS by Mary Stewart July 1, 2008

Mary Stewart is one of my all time favorite writers. An agent asked me to pick one and I picked three (the other two were Austen and Hardy) – one seemed so unfair.

 

My love affair with Ms. Stewart began when I was six. I grew up in the middle of no where and there wasn’t any cable or near by video rental (I hear you gasping) but every summer I was guaranteed of a couple of movies on the second dial channels (Hey, if you know what I mean, you know my age now lol) — The Beach Blanket movies (I said I was 6), Creature Double Feature and most of the 60’s Disney’s movies getting that “It’s been YEARS so we can show these for free” movies.

 

One of those Disney movies was Moon-spinners – and I watched for it every year. A young British girl in Greece, a handsome adventurer, a nasty bad buy and a hidden treasure. Really, need I say more?

 

Years later I picked up Ms. Stewart’s Merlin series (first book: The Crystal Cave) and searched frantically for more by her. When I found out she wrote my favorite childhood movie, it began a reading binge seldom seen in non-senior-year-finals-cram sessions.

 

Ms. Stewart inspires and impresses me with her timeless characters and amazing twists (which are often replciatated to the point of cliche now.) I highly recommend trying her out. She wrote my number one favorite Untrustworthy Narrator (If I told you which book, it would ruin it), some of my favorite plot twists, plays with the idea of never knowing who is truly the bad guy, and brings the ordinary into the extraordinary. Not only that, but she paints lavish word pictures in an amazingly short word count.

 

Ms. Stewart is an author worthy, not only of reading, but of studying.

 

This site isn’t by her, but two amazing fans. It’s worth checking out HERE.