Quite the character!

Ack! I completely forgot this was supposed to go up on Sunday. My apologies for the tardiness!

So this month’s topic is to blog about our favorite character. For me, this is both very easy and very hard — easy because my favorite character is whoever I’m writing about at the time. (Or if I’m writing one thing and planning another, both sets are my simultaneous favorites.)

Right now, I’m working on the second River Corners cozy mystery, and I love most of the characters — well, some I enjoy because they’re so awful. Fortunately, people like that are easier to tolerate when I’m writing than they are in real life! I love the interactions Isobel has with her mother, her cousin, and her friends, most of whom she’s grown up with. And her mother and aunt are marvelous fun in their attempts at one-upmanship. So that’s one set of favorites.

I’m also doing some brainstorming on a novel I started a few years ago but stopped because I got hung up on an issue of world-building (which I’ve figured out recently how to deal with). This one’s full of larger-than-life characters . . . and their everyday concerns. It deals with heroes and Heroes (the capital is important), with godkin and god-touched and gods. It’s also about family rivalries, jealousy, and first love. And that’s my other set of current favorite characters.

For the record, I do like characters others create, too. Ideally, I want great, believable characters and strong plots, whether I’m reading or watching. My favorite seasons of Buffy to rewatch, for example, are the ones where the villains are fun characters, too. (The mayor is my favorite.) I also really like the Tommy and Tuppence books by Agatha Christie — again, for their interactions with each other, more than for the plots.

What about you? Who are some of your favorite characters?


Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Your favorite character”– June’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check out the next posts in the series, by Sandra Barret and D. M. Bonanno.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on first stories, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!

Aiming high and making progress

I’ve got lots of thing in progress. Recently, in fact, I remembered a couple of series I started plotting out but hadn’t started writing. Things are moving along, not quite glacially, but certainly slower this year than in previous years.

So this month, I’m taking a break. Maybe it seems counter-intuitive: if I’m going slowly, won’t things be even worse if I turn my back on my current projects? Well, frankly, it won’t make a lot of difference to most of them. However, I think I need a change of pace, doing something different.

Forward Motion (the writing forum I’ve been hanging out at since 2003) runs a challenge every May called Story-A-Day, or SAD. I’ve never gotten more than ten stories in the month, and some years, I haven’t even gotten one. This year, though, I’m going for full-out insanity. I may not actually complete a story each day — on days that I do flash, I might finish two; other stories might take me a few days to draft. I would like to finish the month with 31 new stories, of whatever length. Some of those will go up as Friday flash, fresh and new and straight to you, my readers. Others will get spell-checked, read to make sure they make sense, edited if necessary, and submitted to varying markets.

I may not get all 31. I’d like to get between 25 and 31, but the truth is, even if I “only” finish the month with five new shorts plus the Friday flash pieces, I’ll be ahead of where I am now.

That’s my current project.

What are you up to this month?


Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Current projects”– May’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check out the next posts in the series, by Sandra Barret and D. M. Bonanno.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on first stories, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!

Same old, same old? Not so much

I’ve tried all the various routines, from writing in every spare moment to writing a specific number of words per day (mostly in the first couple of NaNoWriMos I participated in) to binge writing. I’ve written things straight through from beginning to end and gone back months or years later to pick up something that I set aside. Lately, I’ve been getting partway through the day on Friday and realizing I should write a flash to post.

I’ve written longhand in notebooks and on random index cards that are lying around. I have written in Word, in a plain text editor, and in Scrivener. I’ve written first thing in the morning when I sit down to the computer, and I have written late into the night (and on into the next morning) because I didn’t want to walk away from what I was doing.

I have also gone weeks without writing a word of fiction, instead spending time with my family, with books, with my crafts.

. . . so I don’t have a routine.

That’s okay. Although there are impassioned people who insist that if you don’t write every day, or if you don’t write first thing in the morning, or if you don’t outline first, or if you do outline, you’re not a real writer, I’ve never believed that. The bottom line is do I create stories that people want to read? As long as the answer is yes, I’m doing my job.

Even if it’s not routinely.


Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Writing routines”– April’s topic and theme in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check out the next posts in the series, by Sandra Barret and D. M. Bonanno.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on first stories, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!

Stacking up the blocks

I wasn’t sure at first that I had something to say about writer’s block. I’ve always got something to work on, and I tend to follow Asimov’s advice — if I get stuck on one project, just shift to another. On the other hand, anyone who’s looked at my blog over the past couple of months knows that I haven’t been writing as much here. I’ve been poking at my brain to figure out why. Continue reading

First, or not?

I’ve had a lot of firsts in my writing career: the first poem I wrote (on daffodils), the first book I started to write (it was supposed to be a Regency romance), the first serial I wrote (portal fantasy), the first short story I submitted (cliché-ridden SF), the first short story I sold (sword and sorcery with an assassin as the protagonist), the first novella I completed (Farwalker), the first book in a series (Christmas Tree Farm Murders), and so on. Continue reading

Looking forward

What projects lie ahead this year? Well, I posted recently about everything I’m working on, and all of it’s still in process (especially those items in the planning stages): the cozy mystery, the next paranormal romance, the middle-grades, the fantasy, the SF. What else is there to say?

Well, I’m playing around with planning another cozy mystery series, but it probably won’t see the light of day until 2014. I’m hoping to do the planning and start writing this year, creating a backlog so that I can publish the books at one-month intervals.

The fantasy — Sundered Sword — I’m hoping to use to apply to a writing workshop because although I’m reasonably comfortable considering myself at a pro level (well, okay, there are entire weeks I keep thinking someone’s going to realize I don’t belong doing this), I know I can still improve, and concentrated work for a week with half a dozen pros and a couple of dozen others at the beginning stages of their careers could be immensely helpful. (And if I don’t get in, I’ll publish the book and spend the week with a pile of writing books I’ve been meaning to get to.)

I’m also aiming to publish a couple more novellas in the Dreampunk line.

Other than that, I’m not really defining what I’m working on. I have a lot of ideas, a lot of possibility, and something new may turn up. I’m keeping myself open for the cool things to show up in my life.

The big news for 2013, though, is expansion of options. Print books are coming, and later in the year, audiobooks as well. My goal is to have everything longer than a short story available as e-book, print book, and audiobook.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “2013 Goals/Anticipation”– January’s topic and theme in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. The next post in the tour will be on the 3rd, by Sandra Barret. Be sure to check it out.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on crossing genre lines, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!

My favorite reads of 2012

Back at the beginning of the year, when the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour topics were picked, I thought this would be an excellent chance to point out the things I’d loved and get my ideas together for Hugo awards. Which is still true. However, the truth is that I’ve already talked about a lot of the books that came out this year that I’ve enjoyed. So my plan here is to list the ones I’ve talked with links to my earlier reviews, hit the ones I haven’t mentioned yet, touch on the ones in progress, and then list a few that have come out that I haven’t gotten to yet but that I recommend others check out. Continue reading

So much variety!

As everyone who has been paying attention knows, I’m truly grateful to have electricity and Internet back. However, for my weekly gratitude post, I want to talk about something else — and I’m cheating a bit by melding this with my monthly Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour post, which should have gone up last Friday.

I am grateful for all the books that are available to read now. With the industry in its current state of flux, it might seem scary to some. However, I’m finding books that I haven’t been able to read for years — books where I read one book in a series from a library but couldn’t find others at new or used books stores, let alone the library; books that went out of print before I discovered the authors; and omnibus editions of books I’ve loved for decades. I’m also finding new new books — books by authors whose vision won’t sell enough to meet the bottom line of a corporate accountant, books by tried and true authors that I love (maybe writing out of their usual niche but quite possibly doing more of what I fell in love with), and books by authors I’ve heard of but never tried before.

It’s an embarrassment of riches, and I love it.

That’s what the current state of the industry is, and what I’m grateful for today. Whatever I want to read, someone out there is publishing it. What’s not to love?

What are you grateful for this week?


Today’s post was inspired by the topic “The state of the industry (i.e., my take on what’s happening in publishing)”– November’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Be sure to check it out.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on crossing genre lines, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!

Defining ‘pro’ — again

I talked about various levels of defining a pro writer in my post On Being A Neopro, back toward the beginning of the year. I forgot to mention one definition then — someone who makes their living from writing. Yes, I’d like to get there, but I’m not there yet. For this post, I want to talk about behaviors, ways of acting professional, whatever external criteria one may or may not meet.

  • If you ask someone for feedback on something you’ve written, listen to it. Don’t just argue or do a knee-jerk, “Oh, you don’t understand what I was trying to do.” If, after thinking about it, you don’t agree with the comments, let it go. But think about it first.
  • If you don’t ask for feedback, but you find yourself receiving it — in the form of negative reviews, for example — don’t respond.
  • Be courteous to your readers but be firm about boundaries.
  • Know what you’re agreeing to when you sign a contract. Ask for changes if you don’t like something. If the other party doesn’t agree, know that signing means you’re agreeing to what it says on paper (or in the file, as the case may be).
  • Keep track of your expenses and income. Pay your taxes. File your paperwork. Conduct yourself as the business that the IRS (or governing body in your own country) will see you as.
  • Don’t bash other authors, either for what they’re writing or for the choices they’re making for publication.
  • Investigate all of your options.
  • Never assume you know everything. Learn. Learn more. Listen to others. Question. Think. And keep learning.
  • Try new things.
  • Improve your craft.
  • Write.
  • Learn the difference between a reason and an excuse.
  • Keep doing old things if you have an audience of appreciative readers.
  • Treat others with respect.
  • Oh, and if you’re at a con, shower and put on clean clothes each day. Seems obvious, I know.

In other words, act as if you expect to be taken seriously.


Today’s post was inspired by the topic “What ‘professional writer’ means to me”– October’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour — an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. The next post in the tour will be on the 4th, by D. M. Bonanno. Be sure to check it out.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on crossing genre lines, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!