Guest Post: Evoking emotions in writing

 

Evoking emotions in writing (aka – why Val doesn't write poetry)

Today, I turn my blog over to fellow writer and all-around lovely human, Val Griswold-Ford. I first met Val online at Forward Motion for Writers. Then we realized we lived about an hour and change from one another. We've become friends and critique buddies over the years. I've enjoyed her Carter's Cove stories from the first time I read her advent serials. And yes, I want to move there.

Take it away, Val!

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First, Lisa, thank you for letting me come over and talk! For those who follow Lisa, you know she writes lovely poetry, [thank you, Val!] a talent which I am insanely jealous of, because I love poetry, but the honest truth is that I suck at it. I can write paragraphs that can flow and be lyrical, that can jump off the page, but my poetry just lies there, limp and uncaring and flat, like a fish gone far too long to be salvaged. [Hey, Val, that's a pretty vivid metaphor - you know, as in poetry. . ..] But I love poetry, and I think that anyone who can write it has magic.

Good poetry evokes emotions, not just in the reader, but in the poet as well, and to be a successful writer of anything, you have to feel it. Otherwise, you're a typewriter or word processor – you're throwing words on a page that lie as flat as the long-dead fish I referenced earlier. Emotions mean life, and life is what brings readers into a story.

I hate writing rules, so I'm not going to be giving you a bunch of technical tips and tricks on how to get emotions into your writing. The only two rules that mean anything is BICFOK (Butt In Chair, Fingers On Keyboard), and care about what you're writing about, as far as I'm concerned. You have to love your story, your world, your characters. If you don't, it shows. The readers can tell.

I adore Carter's Cove, the setting for my newest series that starts with Winter's Secrets. I really, really want to make it real and move into it, even though I hate winter and loathe snow, and it's set on the coast of Maine. Why? Because the town is a living, breathing character, as much as Molly and Schrodinger are. It's been a bit of a challenge to write, because I don't see pictures in my mind, so I have spacial issues. But it's something I've been able to work around, and it's very important to me that my readers can see who and what I'm talking about, while still being able to connect with the characters on their own.

For me (and remember, I hate rules, so this is for me only, YMMV), the key to evoking emotions is to engage my senses. [Yup. That's one of the major parts of writing poetry, too.] And not just the ones we always remember (sight and sound). What does the air feel like against your character's skin? What does he or she smell? Taste? These little things build upon one another, until your reader is standing there beside your character, the cold winter wind bringing the scents of tea and salt water to their noses, the sounds of horses' hooves on the cobblestones as they pull a sleigh full of singing children behind them. If you're really good, your reader will now be reaching for a blanket, because they're cold, even though they're reading your book on the hottest afternoon in June so far. That's a master stroke, right there.

To find more about Molly, Schrodinger, and Carter's Cove, check out Winter's Secrets on Amazon. You can also see their adventures on my blog, www.vg-ford.com, and follow me on Patreon, where I'm offering stories under Valerie Ford. Thank you again, Lisa!

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Motivation Station

To be a working writer means finding a way to motivate yourself to keep working. A complete novel can require you to string together 60,000 to 80,000 words, organized into cohesive storylines that are comprised of chapters. The chapters are built from scenes, which in turn rely on paragraphs which are put together one sentence at a time.

It's an incredible amount of work and more than a little daunting to consider.

I've often said if I knew how much work putting together a novel was going to be, I would never have attempted it.

So here I am, eight novels later, with an opening to a story, along with a loose outline/plot plan, looking ahead to hours and hours of work to achieve a viable draft. It's enough to make a writer throw in the towel and decide to surf Facebook instead. (No, it never does get any easier. . . )

What keeps me motivated?

First, I'm more than a little bit compulsive and having my word processor track my word count keeps me writing. Watching that number climb is as addictive as watching the score go up in a video game.

Second, this is my job. I'm a writer. And as my friend and editor, Rebecca Blain says, 'writers write'.  Frankly, I'm too stubborn to give up.

Third, my family believes in me. They have given me the space and time to write. My work is a promise I've made to them and they deserve my best words.

Most importantly, as difficult as parts of the process can be, just getting words on the page is the greatest reward I can imagine. I can leaf through a manuscript and know that the universe depicted in its pages would not have come to being without my effort. And when I get frustrated or stymied, I look at all my bookshelves and feel an instant kinship to any writer who has ever forced pen to paper. The rows and rows of books lining the walls of my living room and office are both reminder and motivation to keep working.

Today's post is part of the FM Writers Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour where dozens of writers put their own spin on a common monthly topic. This month's topic was motivation.

Community Ties

This morning, I completed a whole novel critique for one of the members of a small writing/support group I belong to on Facebook (shoutout to the lovely ladies of the #SFWG!) and it occurred to me what a wonderful opportunity the internet has given me.

I'm currently part of several writing communities, some virtual, some physical, and all important to my development as a writer.

For many, many years, I was an active moderator at Wild Poetry Forum. I found WPF when I was the young mother of 2, working full time, and trying to write something--anything--in the margins of my life. I had no flexibility to look for a local writing group and having access to a community of poets from across the globe and a place to post work for review meant I could participate in the time I could carve from my crazy life.

When I started to work on novel-length fiction, I stumbled into Forward Motion for Writers and quickly found a critique group there. It lasted for several years and I am still in contact with many of the members of the group. In fact, the artist (Jade Zivanovic) who designed and created the cover for THE BETWEEN was originally a member of that writing group. She is from Australia. I live in the US. Without FMWriters, I would never have had the great good fortune to work with her.

Another one of my communities emerged from a local workshop I took about 6 years ago. The Ultimate Science Fiction Writing Workshop introduced me to a group of local writers and after the formal workshop was over, we've stayed in touch using a combination of real-life meetups and an internet message board. In fact, it is from that group that the PEN-ULTIMATE anthology emerged from.

The #SFWG is a small community of writers--most of whom write historical fiction, though they let me play in their sandbox. :) #SFWG (and what it stands for is a secret!) is as much a private space to gripe, a place to share sorrows and triumphs, as it is a critique group. The wonderful ladies who make up this group know how much I appreciate their support this past year.

Another kind of community is what I call my 'water cooler': Google Plus. Over the past 2 years, I have grown to really appreciate the ability to hang out and talk 'shop' with a community of writers and artists there. When you work from home, alone, but for the company of two shelter dogs, it becomes crucial to have other folks to talk to.

I feel extremely fortunate to very literally have the world at my fingertips. Writing can be a very lonely endeavor. My myriad communities make my life so much more vibrant.

Today's blogpost is part of FMWriter's Merry-Go-Round Blog tour. To see what dozens of other writers from one of my communities have to say about their communities, this month's topic, check out the blog tour hub. 

My Favorite Character

Chocolate Chip ice cream, photo by deflam, used with attrib under cc license

For the record, I loathe questions about favorites. They feel like too much pressure. If I commit to a favorite (ice cream flavor, musician, book, vacation spot) will I be stuck with that answer for all time? My answers might change depending on the day the question is asked, or what is happening in my life. Then again, there are certain favorites that have remained since childhood. (Chocolate chip, with Moose Tracks a close second.)

If you'd asked me who my favorite character was when I was 4 or 5, I would have said Speed Racer. Don't ask me why, but my family tells me I was convinced that Speed Racer and Elvis Presley were the same person.

A little later in childhood and I latched onto Steve Austin, the 'Six Million Dollar Man' as my favorite character. I was a huge fan of the tv show and watched it week in and week out. I then transferred my loyalty to Jaimie Sommers, The Bionic Woman.  I always thought she got cheated, with a much smaller series run.

Around the same time--early 1970s, I stumbled onto a strange British TV serial about a man in blue phone box who traveled through space and time with a variety of side kicks. That's when I discovered Sarah Jane Smith. She and Doctor Who became staples of my childhood and early adulthood and whenever I could, I would try to catch old re-runs to see my heroine again.

As much as I loved Jon Pertwee's and later Tom Baker's Doctors, it was Sarah Jane I admired. She was plucky, self-sufficient, adventurous, defiant, and funny. For a long time, I wanted to grow up and be just like her.

Sadly, the TARDIS never landed in my backyard, so I never had the chance to run amok through time and space, but my love of Sarah Jane and Doctor Who was likely a driving force for my imagination and the reason I write speculative fiction today.

I think there may be a little of Sarah Jane somewhere in many of my main characters. As for which of my own characters is my favorite? I plead the fifth and will say that I love them all, even the antagonists.

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. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. 

What's the Happy Haps?

Playing with clay when I'm not playing with words

I don't know why, but I love the expression "happy haps". It's fun to say and it has a nice little rhythm to it. It's something I heard my teenagers say and have stolen, much to their chagrin. If Mom uses it, it can no longer be cool/hip/boss or whatever the current slang is for something interesting.

So what's going on in my writing life right now?

Actually, not a lot.

I finished the revision of DERELICT and sent it off to my agent 2 weeks ago. If she signs off on it, the manuscript will be on its way to a wonderful editor I had the pleasure of meeting at Boskone a few months ago. (And hopefully several other editors as well!)

While that's in process, I've been serializing a 'renovation' of an older novel called OATHBREAKER'S PRICE, an alternate-world fantasy story. (Links to the serialization on the right hand sidebar.)

I feel like I've spent the past 3 months in revision/edit mode. Shifting gears to new writing feels awkward. Partly that's because we've just been through a very stressful time in the life of our family, partly it's because I don't do change very gracefully, partly because I am not sure what I'll be writing next, novel-wise.

And you know what? That's okay. The creative mind needs fallow time to recharge. While I'm waiting for my next story to claim me, I'll be working in the ceramics studio and watching the garden grow.

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. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site.

Same old, same old

PB&J, photo by spcbrass cc license: CC BY-SA 2.0

I'm not a person who likes change very much. My mother used to tell a family story about my routines and habits centered around my lunches: She would make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day during my elementary school years. One night at dinner, my father commented that maybe she should make me more varied food and for the next week, she made something different (that I generally enjoyed and would eat) for me to take.

After several days of this (to my mind maddening) variety, I broke down and cried at the dinner table. "Why can I have PB&J anymore? Don't you love me?"

Needless to say, we returned to the lunch routine.

With a history like that, you might think I wake up at the crack of dawn and sit down to write two hours a day between 7 and 9, like clockwork.

You'd be wrong.

I like predictability but not rigid structure. Do I write everyday? Yes and no. I am always thinking about some aspect of my job as a writer. Some days its a matter of studying a point of craft. Other days, it's cranking my 1K new word goals on a new story. Still others, it's editing or providing critique for a colleague. Part of my work as a writer is reading and creating blog posts, so all that counts, too.

But I don't organize my day according to a specific routine.

Part of that is because of my temperament, part is because I also have other hats I wear, including parent, which makes mock of any attempt at a perfect routine.

I think there is sometimes an unfair conflation of discipline with routine. As if one can't be disciplined without following a specific schedule. To my way of thinking, finding the way that works for you that gets you to 'the end' means you have discipline.

Does this mean I NEVER follow a routine or a schedule? Of course not. I just have a more loose interpretation of routine. I'm also willing to try new structures if something isn't working well.

And lest you think I am incapable of flexibility, I'll have you know that I left PB&J's for lunch behind with my childhood. In college I ate a sesame seed bagel with tuna salad and swiss cheese. Every day. For four years.

Today’s post was inspired by Forward Motion’s Merry-Go-Round topic,  ”Writing Routines”.  If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and read about their ideas, then check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour.

Writer's Block: You Shall Not Pass

"You Shall Not Pass"
Photo cropped from original by somegeekintn, under cc license

Every couple of months, I see a blog post or a conversation on FB or G+ on writer's block and what to do about it.

To be honest, I'm not sure I believe in it as an individual entity. To believe in writer's block is to believe that we are akin to factories, with a scheduled amount of creativity and that if we don't produce to that standard, we must be blocked.

I think there are essentially two circumstances that underlie what we think of as writer's block: Exhaustion of one kind or another or a flaw in the work at hand that makes the subconcious stumble. The first is a general issue and will interfere with a broad range of creative expression. The second is a specific issue and may respond to shifting gears to a new project.

The WIP (work in progress)-specific problem is the simpler of the two to handle and it's where so many of the common 'cures' for writers block focus: morning pages, exercise, change of scenery, shift in genre, shift in mode of expression, writing prompts and exercises, etc. The trick here is to shake up your subconscious a bit in the hopes that what is stuck will become clear and the work can continue. 

The more general problem of creative exhaustion is probably more common than we admit. In order to create, we must care for ourselves: body, mind, and soul. Our full self is the well we draw on when we create art, and as a dear friend reminds me from time to time, if we are to harvest the tree, we need to water the roots.

When I run up against a roadblock in my own work, I first look to shift to a different project. If I'm writing a novel, I read and write poetry or work on a short story. I step away from the piece that has been problematic for a day or two. If nothing changes and if I'm not able to feel any spark in the other kinds of creativity, then I need to look inside and make sure I haven't neglected to care for myself in some way.

Sometimes it's simple self care: getting more sleep or eating more balanced meals, for example. Sometimes it's about the stress of fulfilling other life roles and responsibilities. I've just finished an intensive few weeks of revisions for DERELICT, the SF novel whose first draft I serialized earlier in the year. While I was immersed in it, I let some of my basic household organization fall by the wayside. While I have other deadlines to manage, my anxiety over my real life responsibilities will make it impossible to find the writing zone. If I plowed ahead, I'd feel stuck and frustrated. But I wouldn't call it writer's block.

It's more of an internal tension or wrongness.

When I've stopped to listen to that resistance instead of fighting it, I find that I'm able to return to balance and creativity much, much sooner. There is also a natural ebb and flow to our creativity that I find better to honor at the outset than attempt to override it in a pure effort of will.

If this sounds like I'm all 'loosey goosey' in my approach to writing, that is not the case. While I honor my internal rhythms and seek to find balance and support for my creativity, I also believe in approaching the writing with a discipline. I write nearly every day. I also believe that following a daily discipline of writing helps you train for the work, just as running every day helps you train for a marathon.

Writing is my job and I treat it as such. Before I shifted to writing full time, I had a 23+ year career as a physical therapist. There were days when I didn't feel sharp or particularly thrilled to be at work, but I would never have described it as 'physical therapist's block'. And while there is a difference between working as a therapist ( or a plumber or a lawyer or a computer programmer) and being an artist, I believe there is an element of creativity in all jobs.

So don't let the concept of writer's block be your personal Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm moment. (I bet you've been wondering when I'd relate the photo to the post.) It doesn't have to be an epic battle--it's your own creativity you're fighting, not a Balrog of Morgoth.




Today’s post was inspired by Forward Motion’s Merry-Go-Round topic, “Writer’s Block”. If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and read about their ideas, then check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour.

A Year in the Life

2012: A Review

I find it extremely useful to look back at the year that has just passed as a way to move forward in setting goals for the upcoming year.

I've written these year-in-review posts for as long as I've been blogging and I find a curious thing: while I almost never actually meet my yearly goals, I accomplish an enormous number of things. They're just not necessarily the items I had anticipated.

Perhaps this is not quite the problem or failure it might seem to be. Life throws curve balls. If there's one thing I have learned in the past several years, it's to be flexible in the face of the unexpected. (Now, stop laughing, I didn't say I enjoyed it, or even did it gracefully. . . )

So in that spirit, I offer this restatement of the goals I set this year for 2012:

In 2012, I intended to:  

1. Shepherd THE BETWEEN to its ideal readers

My first major goal for 2012 was to get THE BETWEEN in the hands of its readers. I spent a lot of time in the beginning months of 2012 working on obtaining reviews, doing guest blog posts and giveaways, and crafting a marketing plan that felt authentic and not sleazy. I think I accomplished that and made authentic connections with readers and potential readers.

2. Generate enough support and interest to write and release its sequel.

In terms of working on the sequel, I have a bare bones structure for when I return to that world. But I realized that raising awareness for one novel while trying to kickstart another was a way to burn out.

3. Finish the first draft of the "YAGSIP"

Goal number 3? I was all over that. I *owned* that goal. It was an excellent writing year, actually. Now if only I could find a name for the %$#!! novel.

4. Return to my poetry roots

Poetry. I filled several small notebooks with lines, stanzas, and drafts of poems. I also participated in the annual August Poetry Postcard fest, where I wrote 31 original postcard poems and sent them all over the world to 31 different poets.I also got to attend the 2012 Dodge Poetry Festival, which always fires up my soul with the sheer beauty of language.

5. Focus on my physical wellness

Well being? Well, that was a major fail. I know this has been on my list of goals for several years now and I need to do something about it. I'm healthy, but in poor physical shape. I could berate myself for laziness, but it's also that I've had to cope with some significant personal and family stressors in the past year, including the death of my mother and my father's multiple hospitalizations. 

So, what DID I accomplish in 2012?

• In addition to completing the first draft of the Ghost Story, I also started and am set to finish a Science Fiction novel (DERELICT) that I project to come in at 100,000 words. (As of last night, it's at 92K) That represents 1 1/2 novels written in 2012. 
• I revised FUTURE TENSE with feedback from both my agent and some wonderful beta readers (shout out to the lovely gals of the #SWFG and Rebecca Blain from G+)
• Approximately 100 new blogposts, the majority of them here at the Once in a Blue Muse Blog, but also as part of several blog tours, including the Merry-Go-Round Blog tour and the Black Ink White Paper group blog.
• Speaking of DERELICT, I decided to do something different with my work and serialize it as a novel in progress. I've been slowly garnering a wonderful community of interested readers and have really enjoyed the process of being accountable to them during the process.
• At Readercon last July, I had dinner with my fellow graduates of Jeffrey A. Carver's and Craig Shaw Gardner's Ultimate SF&F Workshop. Sitting around the table, it struck me that I was in company with an enormously talented pool of writers and suggested we put together an anthology. I'm thrilled to say that this project is moving forward and my co-editor and I will be meeting to review our submissions over the next few weeks with a plan to have the anthology ready in time for 2013 Readercon.
• I released a slew of new short stories to subscribers of BlueMusings, my newsletter.
• I got to meet my agent, the lovely Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency, for the first time during a recent trip to L.A. We are working towards the same goals and in the same direction, weathering the vagaries of the publishing industry.
• I applied for, and was invited to run a panel with the estimable Tamora Pierce at 2012 ConBust, a small SF&F con run at Smith College in Northampton, MA. It was a wonderful experience, one I will treasure (especially since I got to meet and stay with the utterly wonderful Jane Yolen!!)

In 2013, I Intend to Accomplish:

• Revise/edit the ghost story (which really, really needs a title) and DERELICT
• Brainstorm with Nephele regarding what to write next/continue to align goals with the aim of publication
• Complete and publish the Ultimate SF&F Workshop Anthology
• Write 4-6 new short stories

To my reader and writer friends: May the New Year bring you joy and peace.

Professional Is as Professional Does

The topic of being professional is one that I return to again and again. Not because I'm some great sage able to impart my wisdom to writers far and wide, but because in writing about it, I continue to refine my own thoughts about what it means to be professional.

In my prior life as a Physical Therapist, being professional meant holding to ethical practice, advocating for patients and their goals, contributing as a member of a health care team, and seeking out opportunities for assessment and continued learning.

For over 20 years, I practiced as a professional PT, learning and growing as a clinician, performing my job to the best of my abilities.

When I made my career shift from clinician to writer, many aspects of my life changed. Certainly, my commute got easier, if you don't count the traffic jam of two dogs trying to trip me up on my walk across the living room. Particularly hazardous when holding coffee! I can go to work these days in sweats or even PJ's. Hooray for writers working at home without dress codes! Everyday is casual Friday!

But my commute and my standards of dress are not what create professionalism.

Much of that, in my job as a writer, is my work ethic.

When I had a schedule of patients and meetings in my therapy work, I never had to find the motivation to get up and do the work. The work, in no small part, demanded I do it. If I don't sit down to write for a day, there are no irate characters phoning me about missed appointments. (Wow--maybe that's a new marketing opportunity! LOL) Because my deadlines are self-imposed, the only one keeping me honest is me.

There is no external licensing agency mandating continuing education credits. If I want to improve in my craft, I must seek out those opportunities on my own as well.

In my job as a writer, I also have no colleagues physically present in my office. One of the aspects of my work as a clinician that I loved was the opportunity to work collaboratively with other health professionals. Fortunately, the internet has provided a way to easily network and connect with other writers.

Perhaps the biggest difference between my work as a clinician and my work as a writer, is that being a Physical Therapist earned me a living. At this point, my fiction does not. However, that doesn't mean I don't consider my writing to be my profession. And I have no doubt that given work, time, and a professional attitude, it will.

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. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. 

Deadlines, To Do Lists, and Expectations, Oh My

I'm a compulsive list maker and setter-up of organizational systems to keep track of them that I ultimately don't or can't use.

I fact, I'm probably the most organized disorganized person you'll ever meet.

This is not something I'm proud of and something I've struggled with for my entire life. I was a terribly disorganized student and blew through deadlines (or at least left things for the last minute) more times than I want to admit. It wasn't until I hit graduate school and my student physical therapy placements that I had to learn to deal with deadlines, schedules, and time management.

It was a hard lesson, but ultimately, I developed a system using a Daytimer paper calendar that I ended up keeping for nearly 2 decades. If I didn't always make my deadlines, at least I knew they existed.

Now that I'm no longer in clinical practice and most of my deadlines are self-imposed, it's definitely more difficult for me to stay on task. At any given time, I'll have a scrap paper to do list floating around my office or the kitchen, another one on a white board in my office, still another one on my PDA, synced to my computer.

It's a little crazy making, quite honestly, but it's the best I can do right now.

I've come to terms with the chaos that is my life currently, juggling writing time, managing the promotion of my debut novel, family responsibilities (life with teens is crazy at the best of times), and my elderly parents' health issues. It means that deadlines come in a lot of different flavors.  Some of them are want-to's: revision of an older novel so I can get it on my agent's TBR pile, brainstorming time for a sequel to THE BETWEEN. Some of them are have-to's: upcoming trip to Cleveland with Dad for a medical consultation. Others are routine tasks that seem as if they never quite finish: bills, laundry, returning phone calls.


Because my brain is almost always spinning in too many directions at once, I write down what I need to do and when I need to complete it where ever I happen to be.  Hence the multiplicity of to-do lists.

Ultimately, things get done. Lists get completed, crossed off, thrown out.

It's just not a pretty process.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “Deadlines: Love’em or hate’em?”– 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. 

Magpie Scribblings (oooh, shiny)

Magpie photo by Mundo, used under a cc license

According to Wikipedia, the Magpie is an "opportunistic omnivore".  That's how I see myself as a writer and a reader.  I'm a collector of interesting facts, information, and stories.  Like the Magpie, if it's 'shiny', then I want it.

When it comes to my writing, I can't point out any one influence that has informed me.  I find inspiration everywhere.  In poetry, songs, news stories, and novels. In landscapes and conversations.  In old, abandoned places and photographs. I read something and I look for what I can take back to my 'nest.'  Sometimes it's the sheer beauty of the language from a variety of sources from Shakespeare to Rumi to Patricia McKillip.  Sometimes it's the character and singular voice from Tamora Pierce's Terrier books, or Mira Grant's Newsflesh series.  Still others draw me to the lush and intricate world building found in Tolkien.

Travel has been a huge influence on my work.  Having access to other cultures and vistas opens me up to different stories, new narratives, fresh ways of combining what I know to what I am learning.  Our family's trip to central Asia several years ago continues to percolate in my imagination and I know that somewhere, it will push my work into new horizons.

That's one of the most exciting aspects of being a writer. 

Ultimately, I am the sum of all that I have read and heard and experienced. 

There is no way for me to look at my body of work and sort out each influence.  Nor do I think that's necessary.  Creativity cannot exist in a vacuum and we build on the work of those that have come before us.  It is my hope that future writers may count me amongst their influences and create magic for the readers and writers who come after us.



Today’s post is my contribution to the Merry-Go-Round from Forward Motion for Writers. This month’s shared topic is “My influences” prompt 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. 

Get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their answers to each monthly prompt. 

There's No Place Like Home

My office, during the post-fire demolition, winter 2011

When my kids were rug-rats, this narrow, little room off our living room was their playroom. It was a hodgepodge of books, toys, games, and art supplies for about 12 years of our life in this house we've lived in for the past 19 years. When the kids got old enough that their 'toys' became gaming systems instead of matchbox cars, they took over the finished side of the basement.  I refer to it as 'the man pit.'  I claimed the room they no longer used as my office.

In the space that spans the windows, sat my enormous desk, bought 20 years ago at a furniture closeout sale where it fit a specific room in our former rented house.  Since this room is only 7 feet wide and the desk is over 3 feet wide, it make the long narrow space even narrower, but I've never minded.  I love being able to spread out the piles of papers and reference books I use when I'm writing.  And it's the only horizontal space in the house that belongs completely to me.

On the morning of our fire, the desk was there, my laptop open on top of it, doing its nightly automatic backup. When the firefighters answered the emergency call, they smashed all the windows with fire axes, sprinkling glass over every surface in the room.  Including my laptop.  When the house was safe to enter, the firefighters carefully closed my laptop and brought it to me.  While there was no direct fire damage in the office, they had closed the laptop with the glass inside it, grinding glass shards between screen and keyboard. Even if that had been the only damage, the fan had sucked in the oily smoke, killing the hard drive.

Fortunately, all I lost was my usual writing space and not all my writing.  (Dropbox is your friend, people.  Really.) Once we got a new laptop, I was back in business.

But it was a hard year, being displaced from home in into a cramped apartment with my family and no designated personal space. I still managed to fill notebooks with scribblings, found places to lug my laptop to and write, but when we moved back into our home and I was able to put my restored desk in its rightful place, well, then all was right with the world again.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “My favorite writing place”– March’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. 

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!

Q & A with LJ

Well, I've done it again.  Realized a day late that *yesterday* was my Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour posting day.  Sigh.

This month's topic is a self-interview.  So here's my go at a Q & A of things about me you might want to know.  I wanted to do something pithy and ironic, but I don't have that sense of comic timing nor do I do irony well.  I figured I'd just go with my typical earnest, serious self.

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
A: I've always loved words.  Reading them as well as writing them.  For years and years, my dad had something I wrote in 1st grade folded up in his wallet.  It was a story using homonyms and I remember it had something to do with a new gnu.  I've been keeping a journal since childhood and putting my thoughts to paper (or now screen) has always come naturally to me.  Writing as a career wasn't something I really considered until I hit my 40s.

Q: Plotter or Pantser?
A:  Well, I'm about the least spontaneous person I know, so you might think I must love to outline every last detail of my work.  But the truth is, I think that dichotomy is somewhat of a false one.  While I don't think I could sit down and put pen to paper without any sort of road map, I also couldn't see writing the story once it was fully planned.  In reality, there is a balance in the writing between forcing the story to fit a plan and grabbing the tiger by the tail and riding it wherever it goes.  I believe both elements--planning and serendipity--are needed for the magic that is story. 

Q: Coffee or tea?
A: Both.  I never drank coffee until graduate school.  I was always a tea drinker.  Coffee was kind of a rite of passage to adulthood in my household and I got quite a lot of flack for not liking it.  Now I have to have my morning coffee.  It's as much a ritual as the need for caffeine.  But I still love my tea and that's what fuels my late afternoons, especially now as the weather is getting cooler.  I'm lucky enough to have a small tea shop in my home town that sells a wide variety of loose teas.

Q: Have you unpacked all your boxes yet?
A: No. Quit pestering me.   (We moved back home in August after a house fire that displaced us for nearly the whole year.  Yes, there are still sealed boxes in my office.)

Q: Do you write to music?  If so, what's on your writing playlist?
A: Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  Lately, I've been obsessing over Florence + the Machine and The National.  Placebo is good writing music too.  In order to listen to music as I write, I need to be so familiar with the song that I don't get caught up in the lyrics. That's why I can't write to new music.

Q: What's up with your new dog?
A: Sigh.  Dustin is a work in progress.  I had hoped Tigger would be a good influence on him.  Sadly, it's been the other way around.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm splitting my time between developing a marketing plan for my first indi release (The Between, coming in January!) and continuing with novel number 7 ("YAGSIP"=YA ghost story in progress).  The past month has been a blur of learning about eBook formatting and typography for a print book.  One of the things I want to do is a long blogpost on the steps from finished manuscript to indi release.

If you have any other questions for me, just leave them in the comments.

To see what other Forward Motion writers on the tour have to say, return to the Merry-Go-Round page.

What Books are on Your Nightstand?

If you're a writer, chances are you were a reader first.  I know that's true for me.  I actually can't remember a time when I didn't know how to read.  My mother remembers me pulling books out of her hand when I was still a toddler and pretending to read them rather than letting her read to me.

I do know that I entered Kindergarten already reading.  And when I got to first grade, I was reading fluently, which got me in trouble with my 1st grade teacher.  As my mother used to tell the story, the teacher had no idea I was a reader.  She was busy up in front of the room teaching beginning decoding skills and I was bored out of my gourd. So I would fidget.  Then tap my pencil on the desk.  Then hum to myself.

You get the picture.

Teacher calls my mom to tell her I must be 'hyperkinetic' (what they used to call disruptive kids before ADHD. Ahh, labels . . .) and didn't belong in her class.

My mother, G-d bless her, politely gave her a dressing down.  Then told her to sit me in the back of a room with a pile of books and she'd never be irritated again.

Thus began my reading career.

So what's on my nightstand?  (Sorry, I digress a lot.  Bad habit.)

Surprisingly, given my love of books, not that much.  But there's a reason for that:  we had a house fire on December 1 and we've been living in temporary (and small) quarters for almost 7 months now.  Whenever I pass a bookstore or hear a review of a book I want to buy, I'm painfully aware that anything I buy I will have to pack and move.

Yes, I have a kindle.  Yes, I buy ebooks, but I'm still a luddite when it comes to my love of tangible in-paper books and have missed buying them.  So, back to what's on my nightstand (not even really mine, as all our furniture is rented along with the apartment, but I digress, again).  I suppose listing everything that's on my Kindle doesn't count.  LOL.  I'll just reinterpret that questions and answer what I'm currently reading.

Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks
      --Technically, I've already read this one, but since I'm working on edits to a manuscript, I keep this book open so I can flip through it to study certain concepts or review where I am in the process.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin
--I had never heard of this author, but picked up a copy for the kindle during a promo by the publisher.  It's been sitting on my kindle for months and I am so glad I started to read it.  I'm about 25% through and am enjoying the writing style very much.  This is a breath of fresh air, considering I've abandoned 2 of the 3 books I've started recently. I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying the book since it's told in flashback in a first person POV with several stops and starts where the narrator, in effect, breaks the forth wall and talks to the reader. Normally that kind of gimmick would really bug my need for narrative flow, but it seems to fit the story.

It's a fantasy, set in an alternate earth, where gods have been vanquished and imprisoned in human bodies, under the command of a ruling class. Into this political theatre, Yeine, granddaughter of the ruler is thrust when she is unexpectedly named one of three heirs to a kingdom she would rather not even know about. And the imprisoned gods start to take an interest in her.

So what's on your nightstand?

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Today's post was inspired by the topic What Books Are on Your Nightstand? the opening question in the inaugural cycle of 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.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out what's on their nightstand, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour.

Tomorrow's Blog Tour participant is: D. Anthony Brown.