The science in your fiction

Last night, I was reading up on NASA's upcoming spacecraft launch for the Orion, and while the article was interesting, what was more intriguing were the comments. It devolved into how science fiction really screwed up the space program because of layman expectations.

Now, I'll be the first to admit science is not one of my favorite subjects. I did well in it in school, but it's not something I pursued in my own free time. But I live in a house of scientists. My husband designs computer software and worked for Marconi before coming to the US in 1997. My fourteen-year-old daughter has been planning in going into some form of robotics since she was nine. My twelve-year-son has been all about how things work since he could put blocks together. And don't get me started on how this household appreciates what Neil deGrasse Tyson has done to try and inspire people with science. These are people who take their science very seriously. They are all invested in seeing organizations like NASA thrive, and yet, few in my regular circle were even aware that the Orion project was still alive. One friend even thought NASA had been closed down. That's how bad the current PR for them really is.

But is there some merit to the argument that science fiction has distorted what we expect in our space exploration? A little bit, yeah. There are legitimate problems that get overlooked when writing about space flight. It's worked the other way, of course. Gene Roddenberry and the world of Star Trek is an excellent example. Where do we draw the line in the sand? How creative can we actually be when we're telling our stories? Supposedly, genre fiction is all about the escape. Mundane details need not apply.

Or should they? If you're reading sci-fi romance, it has to be for a legitimate reason. Isn't science a part of that? Realism gives genre the verisimilitude it needs. Where's the balance?

Not Doing Nano

A lot of my friends are flying out the gate with their Nano projects. I'm cheering them on, but they don't have to worry about me. I don't do Nano. It's a rare month I don't get 50k written, so using that as a goal doesn't incentivize me.

Sticking to schedules incentivizes me.

I thrive on lists and consistency. The more consistent things are, the better I feel. Though I don't pay attention to a lot of reading books, there is one I always come back to. Stephen King's On Writing. And you know what one of his rules is?

Write every day.

So even though my life is chaotic with my kids, that's what I do. I work it in around their schedules, taking my laptop with me while I wait for them on school runs or at softball practices, making sure I take advantage of the hours they're out of the house for peace and quiet to get things done. Even on days where I seemingly have no free time or I'm exhausted, I sneak onto my computer and eke out a few hundred words.

Some words are better than no words. And it's amazing how those pile up.

So this month is like every other month for me, in all honesty. I'll add the words up and then start panicking about time management the closer we get to Thanksgiving. This month, I'm finishing up a cat shifter novel and a novella for a future pax collection, as well as working on stuff that's just for me. Am I going to hit that 50k? Oh yeah. That's my job, you see. Writing is what I do. If I didn't get the words out, they'd probably pile up inside of me until I exploded.

That wouldn't be pretty. Trust me.

Poetry inspiration

I'll admit, I turn to poetry for inspiration when I find myself stuck on titles. Well, my favorite poets, anyway. Audre Lorde gave me Colliding in Free Fall, for instance.

So when Pepper and I were having problems titling our recent pax story, I turned to another favorite. Pablo Neruda.

The poem is Sonnet XVII, and it's one of those love poems that just make me ache. Neruda was such a wordsmith. The phrasing he comes up with always makes me wish I could be half as good, taking my breath away more often than not. If you haven't read Neruda, I highly recommend him.

Self-publishing

Yesterday, I mentioned how I was going to try self-publishing stories that I'd got back the rights to. It makes the most sense. Most of them are shorter, part of anthologies that got broken up or from a publisher I don't work with anymore, and it seems silly to resubmit them elsewhere.

Only one of them is novel-length, and that is one I always wanted to rewrite anyway. It's called A Sentry's Touch and was originally published by Linden Bay. When I say it's going to be rewritten, I mean quite extensively. It was published as a het shapeshifter romance, but I always wanted it to be menage. The thing was, it was never going to happen organically in just one book. By rewriting and publishing it myself, I can make it a series to develop it and the world that really needed more one story to bring to life. I can go back to my original title for it, too, or at least a variation of it: The Shape of Yesterday.

The others are all shorter, however, so they'll come out much more quickly. It's just a matter of finding the time to sit down and do all the work before I send it off to Michael over at Booknibbles for cover art and formatting.

Ha. Time. Isn't that what we're all looking for more of? :)

Branding guilt

There's a lot of advice for authors out there that says, "Create an author brand." That's so readers can know what to expect when they buy one of your books. It's great advice, frankly. But I'll be the first person to admit I don't follow it.

Writing has been my only creative outlet for fifteen years. Prior to that, I was involved in film and theater as my primary source, experiences I loved and cherished and still often miss. Moving to the UK and then having kids changed all that, though, so I started seeking out other means. That's where writing came in. I needed to get out the creative energy in me before I had a meltdown. I loved my babies, but being at home full-time for the first time ever as an adult, without a job and outside adult interactions to engage me, was hard.

From the start, I never really cared about how substantial my audience was. Would it be nice if it was big? Absolutely. But it wasn't what drove me, and it never felt healthy for me to try and seek it out. It was a lesson taught to me in college, when I was acting. Most actors never get consistent work. Rejection is a huge part of the game. To expect big breaks is inviting disaster most of the time, because the reality is a lot harsher than that.

So creating an author brand never seemed as important to me as loving what I do. And frankly, I write the way I read or watch TV. I am not a single genre gal. I'm not even a single mood gal. I love horror as much as I love romantic comedy, and shows like Sons of Anarchy are just as much must watch TV as Modern Family is. I get bored with the same thing over and over, which is why I go from writing light to dark to contemporary to paranormal, and all the orientations in between. It's what keeps me sane and happy.

On the flipside of that, however, is guilt. Because I totally get why author branding is important. I understand readers want to know what they're getting. I do what I can to make it easier for them by putting labels on my stories on my website, but that doesn't really do much to help the readers who never shop anywhere but Amazon. All I can do is hope that the blurbs make it clear what they're buying, and pray that readers will understand my need to do what I do.

If I didn't switch it up, I wouldn't be able to continue at all, and brains leaking out my ears because I don't have anywhere to shuttle creative urges isn't attractive to anyone.

My writing world

I've had to set aside my menage right now for projects that have deadlines. First up is my story for the silver foxes pax that's coming up later this year. My story is tentatively titled The Mansions By the Seashore, and it's about a successful Manhattan caterer who returns to the posh island where he lived until he was 12 to prove to himself he's moved on from it. I don't have much so far, but this is the opening:

*_*_*

The thing about memories...you always find out too late when they're based on lies. See, the brain is a beautiful construction. It knows we humans need those roots to cling to. So if it decides we are in short supply of happy memories about our parents for instance, it makes them up to fill in the gaps. It's like psychic spackle. Leave it long enough and it looks like it was always there.

Until we come face to face with its deception and realize there are holes in our lives that memories can't patch up.

Cardinal Island was my hole, the rift I'd come back to confront only to discover it was actually an abyss.

With my hands curled around the latte I'd got from the Flour Garden--no Starbucks for Cardinal Island, no siree bob, too commercial for these pompous locals--I gazed around the central square of downtown, watching people go about their daily business. It was them as much as the architecture that left me dazed. In my head, Cardinal residents never did their own shopping, and yet, I counted three different mother and offspring sets doing just that. More bizarrely, nearly everyone who walked by greeted me with a smile.

Do you remember me? I'd think as each one passed me.

If they did, they gave no indication beyond their cordial welcome of waggled fingers or the curl of their mouths. I was a mystery, the unknown in their midst. Perhaps locals confronted their enigmas head on these days rather than in the whispers and closed doors of yore.

10 Movies I Wished I'd Written

Yesterday on Facebook, I got tagged to list the fifteen authors who have influenced my writing by two author friends. In the comments of one, they got to talking about a writing exercise where you list the ten movies or books you wish you'd written, and analyze why. I kind of loved that idea, so I'm trying it out here so I can talk about them a little bit more.

1. Dead Again.
2. Parenthood
3. The Philadelphia Story
4. Fargo
5. Sunset Boulevard
6. Memento
7. The Usual Suspects
8. When Harry Met Sally...
9. Breaking Away
10. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

These aren't in any particular order, though I can say that Dead Again is always the first movie I think of when I consider work I wish I'd done. When I saw it in the theater in 1991, I walked out thinking exactly that. That this, to me, managed to incorporate so many elements I wish I could and it had done so in such a way that I was enthralled for the entire ride. My love for noir, my fascination with reincarnation, the romance...it all tied into this wonderful package. And really makes me want to dig it out again and watch it for the umpteenth time.

I think it's an eclectic list, to say the least, but quite common amongst a lot of these is how much I admire smart movies. More than a few have brilliant twists or structure, and most of them have amazing dialogue. The quieter movies, like Breaking Away, are on the list because of how remarkably perceptive I find them, and yet, still thrilling in their own ways.

And I'll admit that Butch Cassidy is on the list because it has one of my favorite movie lines of all time in it. It's when Butch says to Sundance, "Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals." It's funny, it's insightful, and it's completely sold by Paul Newman's performance.

Any other commonalities you see? I'm curious what your list might be, too.

Tips across the spectrum

Lifehacker had an excellent article yesterday on how to start exercising when you're already overweight. It has the added benefit of having a lot of really useful comments as well as being an insightful article. I'd recommend it to anyone who is struggling with losing weight or getting motivated to move.

But reading over the highlights of the tips, and really, they can be applied to almost anything. Like writing. I mean, look at them:

1. Cut yourself some slack. I have friends who never finish anything they start. That's because they spend all their time trying to polish what they've already written and ignoring commentary that a first draft is almost never, ever the final draft. Expect that it's not going to be perfect the first time through, and it's a lot easier to get the words out.
2. It's a skill you improve at, not a thing you just "do." Nobody knows all the rules when they start. This goes hand in hand with cutting yourself some slack. Expect to learn along the way.
3. Find something you enjoy and start from there. Frankly, I don't really understand why people write for the market and not for themselves, and yet I know writers who do. If you don't love what you're writing, that's going to come through, and really, why waste the time and effort? Life's too short.
4. Focus on what you can do right now, not the finish line. This reminds me of performing in college. One of the hardest things I ever had to get a grip on when I was acting was perform for the moment you're in, not for the ones coming up. If you're always looking forward, you don't see where you are. Plus, you end up judging yourself by other people when we're all so different. Just because Joe can write three thousand words in a day doesn't mean you can. Don't place other people's standards on yourself.
5. Don't do it alone. Getting feedback on your work prior to publication can give you necessary distance to see problems or questions. It can bolster you when you're feeling down. It can celebrate with you when you succeed.

Writing frustrations

Some days, I really wonder why I'm a writer.

It's like any job. Good days. Bad days. But because I essentially work for myself, it's up to me to set the discipline of actually doing it. Scheduling is impossible. I have two kids, 12 and 14, with active lives. I have to do all the typical mom stuff, and because I rely on carpooling with someone who can't tell me until very shortly before a time whether or not she can do it, I have to be able to change my plans at a moment's notice.

So I give myself simple goals. One thousand words on this story. Five hundred words on a different story. Answer xxx emails. That kind of thing. Most of the time, it works for me.

But there are days - or weeks, as this has been - where even those goals elude me. Any number of factors might be the culprit. Impromptu doctor/dentist appointments. School activities that only happen every once in a while. Feeling under the weather. When this happens, it's easy to start losing track of what keeps me motivated, or losing the flavor of a story. Sometimes, it even means losing enthusiasm for the story altogether. It's up to me to find it again, because I'm my boss.

It makes me wonder why my boss self hasn't fired my writer self for being so unpredictable. :P

Peeking out of the Cave

Last night, I sat in our dining room working on a puzzle while my husband worked in his office just a few feet away. He's in software, the head of his department, and his company was in the midst of international releases last night, so he was on chat and conference calls with his team. I couldn't help but hear everything as they worked, the joking around, the questions back and forth, and I'm going to admit...I got jealous.

Writing is so incredibly solitary. When we're in our zone, we don't even hear our own stomachs growl, let alone other people. Hours can slip by where we never utter a single word to another human being. For many of this, this is the norm.

But when I'm not writing...it's hard not to miss that camaraderie of working with people you like and respect. The inside jokes. Friends. I'm not a hugely outgoing person in the first place, but the sense that you belong somewhere is something I think most people crave and need. Multiple somewheres in a lot of cases. Because I definitely have my place in my family, but I can't help but think that it would be nice to have other circles I could slip into with the same kind of ease.

I think it's one reason why conventions like RT are so loved. For a week, we are surrounded by like-minded individuals, who speak the same language we do, who love many of the same heroes and tropes and books, who struggle with many of the same issues. It's a belonging we're rarely allowed, because of the nature of our professional beast.

That's not to say it can't be a relief to be able to retreat back into the writing cave again. I get overloaded on social stimuli fairly quickly. The thought of being surrounded by a ton of people all the time just makes me tired.

But sometimes? Or one-on-ones with people who understand you?

Oh, yeah. Wouldn't that be great?

WIPs going on the shelf

Damn it. Yesterday, I realized that my WIP was going to be way too long for the Viva la Difference pax collection. I get that problem a lot. So I did the hard thing and shelved it so I could start brainstorming other ideas.

The plus? I got an idea that makes me chuckle every time I think about it. And I ripped out the first thousand words in absolutely no time last night, which is always a good sign that the story is working.

The minus? Another WIP I wonder if I'll ever get back to. I hate that. I've got far too many, ideas I just didn't have the time to sit and work on because other deadlines got in the way.

That WIP virtual drawer is filling up too fast. Where is that computer program that lets me mentally dictate the story while I sleep?

Authenticity in our stories

Yesterday, an article appeared on NPR featuring UCLA professor, David Saltzberg. Don't know who he is? That's okay, most people won't. He's the science advisor for the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. It's his job to make sure the formulas on all the whiteboards make sense, as well as review the scripts to make sure the science is accurate. The vast majority of the TV viewing public wouldn't know if the show got it wrong, but that does nothing to lessen just how important his job really is. Because it's his responsibility to make sure the science and by extension these people are as authentic as possible.

This isn't any different to writers putting in the effort of research on their stories. Most of the time, readers will never even notice the details we put in, but rest assured, the one time we get it wrong, someone will spot it. But it's this minutiae that adds to the verisimilitude of the worlds we create. I've spent hours researching radio models, reading census and tax reports, even studying current technology on how to make glass, all in the interest of authenticity. Because that one detail we might get wrong? Can turn around and bite you in the butt.

When they turn to the first page of a book, readers put their trust in the author. They hand over their imaginations and feelings in exchange for the promise of a satisfying conclusion. If we fail on any part of our promise, we have to fight to get that reader's trust back. And failure can totally mean getting a detail wrong. It's not just about continuity errors, though those rank pretty high for me. It's little things, too. Like the formulas on the whiteboards for TBBT, road names in areas I'm familiar with, or historical facts that are easily checked.

There are criticisms out there that historical readers are the worst of the lot, picking out anachronisms and inaccuracies from otherwise perfectly fine stories. While I've certainly been on the receiving end of that, I can see their point, too. People who read historicals often want to be immersed in these other worlds. The history matters. Get that wrong, and why should they bother continuing when they can't guarantee they'll get what they want?

The same holds true for every reader. Someone, somewhere, will know if you get a detail wrong in your story. It sucks when they point it out. But at the end of the day, that pushes me to strive to take even more care in the next story I tell. It makes me better.

Really, isn't that what we all want?

Writing crutches

I discovered a new writing crutch of mine yesterday when I was working on finishing a story. No, I'm not going to tell you what it is because that would be showing my weaknesses and there's enough people out there willing to look for flaws in others without me helping the matter by pointing them out ahead of time.

(As an aside, I've had to completely redo the end of this story because the thought of getting caught out on this crutch leaves me terrified.)

But it got me to thinking about all the things we do that we don't even realize we do until somebody points them out to us. Habits we get into. Tropes we keep coming back to. When Pepper and I were writing together, she read enough of my stuff to be able to point out my idiosyncrasies. Like, for some reason, I am loathe to use a character's name at the start of a paragraph. I often will start with the pronoun, then throw the name in later. It often leads to confusion, which means I have to be careful about when I do it. And the thing is, I hadn't even realized I did that until she told me about it.

Discovering yesterday's crutch completely threw me off my game. Wednesdays are killer for me in terms of running around with the kids, so I took a notepad with me to write longhand during my daughter's softball game. We weren't there for ten minutes before I realized what I'd done, and I literally sat there for the next ninety minutes flummoxed and upset. I didn't write another word. In fact, I didn't write another word until ten o'clock last night when I deleted everything I couldn't use (one of my worst nightmares) and tried to segue into something fresher. Today, I have to finish this story so I can get it into my editor on time, and it's difficult because I'm now in questioning mode, doubting everything I'm doing.

We all do it. It's how a lot of us read, too, drawn to specific tropes and themes time and time again. So I just need to figure out why finding this particular one is bothering me so much.

I guess I hate being predictable.

Which is funny considering romance is one of the most predictable genres out there.

TGIF

I finished that vampire motel story yesterday, though now I'm considering changing the title on it. I'm torn, so I'm going to let it stew over the weekend, give it another readthrough and edit next week, and decide then. I think right now I'm too close to it.

Today is a reorganization kind of day. I usually allow myself one of these after I finish a project as it helps me regroup and focus for the next one. I especially don't want to start anything today because I have company coming this weekend and I really don't plan on being on the computer for long. There's nothing worse than losing momentum on a brand new story, so I'll make it easier on myself and just start it on Monday.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The state of my writing world

I haven't been completely slacking off in the time away I've been away from my blog. My productivity might not be anywhere near where it was when Pepper and I were working together, but I still try to get a little bit done every day.

So what's in the pipeline...

On September 22, The Hearts of Yesteryear, my novella about an aging actor who returns to the home of his youth for the relaunch of the movie palace that changed his life, comes out at Amber Allure. No cover yet, though I'm hoping to see that soon.

I'm in the throes of finishing up a vampire m/m novella called Threshold. It's about a vampire who crashes at a motel for the day after barely surviving an attack and the ex-Marine who finds him and refuses to let him die.

Once that's done (which should be by the end of the week), I have a short story to finish that's due by the end of the month. That one doesn't have a title yet. I had a longer idea I was going to do for that particular collection (stories set on trains), but I don't have time to do it justice.

And finally, I wrote a het paranormal short story called One More Bloom for a charity anthology created by Kallysten. The anthology is called Shades of Pink and will benefit breast cancer research. That comes out in October, and I will definitely be sharing more details about that as the date gets closer.

Older heroes in m/m romance

So I'm currently working on my short novella for the upcoming entertainment pax at Amber Allure, and something about it has me thinking.

See, my MC is 77. A spry, active, handsome 77, but an AARP member nonetheless.

And I've decided to make him sexually active. Because hell, he's older but he's not dead. And seriously, he deserves a romance just as much as any 20-year-old.

But I'm not blind. I know that stories about older heroes aren't what a lot of romance readers are looking for. What it boils down to, however, is this:

I love this guy. I want him to have this love affair. So I'm going to write it, even if that means only one other person reads it.

What are your thoughts on older heroes in m/m romance?

Putting it together

When I decided to write a noir story, I wanted to embrace everything I knew about the genre in its written form. Incorporating visual elements is easy enough - the moody settings, the chiaroscuro imagery - but it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Part of the problem is that classic noir is the opposite of everything romance should be. It's meant to be doomed. You're not supposed to have anyone to root for. The people in it are supposed to be greedy and corrupt, and ultimately, condemned to failure.

So I opted to pull back from some of the harder elements and more closely follow what's consider classic noir film. Those tend to lean more toward what's considered "hard-boiled" stories, with endings that aren't quite as bleak and redeemable characters. It was easy to harden characters, both secondary and primary. People are often motivated by superficial things, especially when crime is involved. For instance, I had Carlo, my struggling actor, willing to not think about the moral implications of getting involved in what's obviously a shady deal by having him focus on what he hopes to gain from it - his big break. But I could counter that with his involvement with Joe, a good man who's been hardened over the years by loss. I could even get my HFN for them.

I still had a problem, though. I still wanted to pay tribute to classic noir fiction. The best way I could see how was to mimic that writing style.

Gone was a lot of my longer, winding sentence structure. In its place were shorter, terser sentences. More of them are simple and declarative rather than complex. Vocabulary is tighter. Action tries to take center stage. I don't think it reads like much of my other work, but I also don't believe that's a bad thing. It's my love for the genre found form.

I'm proud of the story, but my reasons are so entwined that I can't pinpoint a specific reason. I do know that when I re-read my galley before it came out, I ended it as wrapped up in and in love with Joe and Carlo as I'd been while writing. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes, it takes some distance from a story to rekindle that first blush of love because the work that's gone into momentarily eclipses the emotion.

Not so in this case. Not so at all.

Don't forget! Comment for a chance to win the DVD set I'm giving away. :)

Joss speaks out

I've decided I am never going to recover from that session with that trainer. All my aching muscles seem to be affecting my brain, because I was struggling with writing all day.

The perfect day to read Joss Whedon's 10 tips on writing, then. Sure, he's talking about screenplays, but a lot of what he says holds true for other media, too. Go take a look at it. It's totally worth it.

And I don't just say that because Joss is my god, lol.

Next Big Thing Meme

So Elin Gregory did this meme at her blog a couple days ago, and though she didn't tag me, she challenged those who liked it to have a go. Which I am.

What is the title of the book you’re currently working on?
"Iron Eyes"

Where did the idea come from for the book?
It started as a writing exercise, actually. I do them occasionally where I'll brainstorm on three unrelated words, just to keep the creative juices flowing. In this case, the three words were pilot, doctor, and kidnap. It sounds like a romance already, doesn't it, lol?

What genre does your book fall under?
It's m/m steampunk erotic romance.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I just blogged about this when I started the story! In cast you missed it, though, my heroes would be played by Jeremy Renner and David Zepeda. I have no idea if Zepeda is a decent actor, but he's where I started when I was envisioning the character.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?
Captain Terrence Kaufman does the unthinkable and kidnaps the one man he believes can assuage his guilty conscience, only to rediscover his humanity in the process.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It'll come out in early 2013 at Amber Allure as part of their steampunk pax, "Days of Future's Past."

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
This presumes it's done, which it's not, lol. However, at the rate I'm going, it'll be done by the end of the month, which means it'll be about three weeks for 35,000 words.

What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?
I wouldn't. The genre is too young to have a ton of reading material yet. Besides, I think it's kind of egotistical to compare yourself to anyone.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I've wanted to try my hand at steampunk for a while now, so when this opportunity came up, I jumped at it. I've found it difficult to find much steampunk that really satisfies me. Most of the time, there's too much focus on world-building and not enough on the story. I wanted to see if I could get the right balance.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Haha, I don't know. I try to not write the usual most of the time, and I don't think this is any exception to that. It's not set in a usual setting, instead on a remote Canadian island, and doesn't employ the typical gadgets I think are most common in the genre. Instead, my engineer has a career in the budding film industry in Los Angeles that proves vital for my other hero. I'd like to think readers would be piqued by its unique angles.


 I'm not tagging anyone to do this, but if you want to have a go, I say go for it!

Looking the part...at least at first

Yesterday, I started my next project, an m/m steampunk erotic romance that I haven't titled yet. One of the things I always do before I start anything is get mental pictures of all the characters. I need the visual of them before I can put a single word to paper, otherwise, they're not real to me. Most often, I go combing through photos I've found online or I pick an actor-type to model the character on. These physical similarities often change as the story progresses (or there's a physical characteristic I know is necessary for the hero/heroine that isn't present on the model), but there is always a starting point.

With this particular story, there are two heroes. One is an ex-military pilot with a guilt-ridden conscience who sets out to do the right thing the wrong way. He's the center of all my angst in this, so I wanted someone intense, not too big but buff and dangerous anyway. This is how he's starting off:

I've adored Jeremy Renner since he played Penn on Angel, so seeing him finally getting recognition the last five years or so has been great.

The other hero is my engineer. He didn't start out that way, so I wanted to play against physical type by having my brainiac look like he should be beating up the bad guys instead. I also knew his family is originally from Belize, so that helped me pick out...

...David Zepeda. My guy is a little rougher around the edges than this, less clean-cut, definitely dirtier, but he's my springboard for where I start.

I think they're going to be hot together. I can't wait to get into the meat of this story.