Stormy Weather

Tags

forces of nature, lightning, rain, storm, stormy weather, thunder, tornadoes, writing

For the last month, I’ve basically had all the time in the world to write. I needed to work back up to it, because I was not well the second half of April, and the repercussions extended into the early half of May. I’m still not fully recovered today, but I’m more or less functional to write.

With all the time to write, I’ve spent most of it outside. Even in the hottest days of summer – and hot is HOT in Texas – I’ll probably spend them outside. Last summer, my parents had the deck area renovated. Now it’s like an outdoor room, an extension of the house. There’s a roof over my head to keep the sun from obscuring the screen and bearing down on my skin, but I can feel the fresh air and hear the birds, and if it’s too still, I can turn on the overhead fans, which are surprisingly effective.

Even better, I can sit out and write when it rains. Even during the most massive storms, I move the all-weather furniture back against the wall and watch the opacity of the rainfall billow past and the wind toss the trees back and forth. I turn off the music and let the sound of the rain wash over me in a wonderfully non-literal way. I shudder with the rolls of thunder and watch the lightning from underneath the beams.

I have an odd relationship with storms. I live at the bottom of Tornado Alley, so there is fear associated with that. Also, I’ve had to walk the dog under too many lightning skies that made me wonder whether this is the end.

I also have a fear of apocalypse (which is probably why I write about it all the time), and storms are a part of that. The Big One. I have dreams about massive storms with tornadoes dropping from the multicolored clouds like living rope. Sometimes I’m inside of them. Sometimes the rain leads to a Noah-level flood. I’ve been hit by lightning in those dreams, nearly drowned, picked up by the wind…not fun.

I’m more or less not at risk even during the worst lightning storms I’ve walked in, but it’s hard to shake the association.

And yet I love storms. Distant thunder and the percussion of the rain soothes me. I enjoy the storm movies, Day After Tomorrow, Twister, and this late summer, I know I’m going to rope someone into seeing Into the Storm with me, no matter how bad the reviews are (I’m going for the tornadoes, not the dialogue).

The love and fear of apocalypse and storms is probably the biggest driver behind the writing of  elemental novel Forces of Nature last year, and I’m really looking forward to expanding that short novel into a series of short novels to explore the characters and their relationships better. There will be apocalypse. Between Ash, my Air elemental storm chaser, and Nathanial, my Water elemental ship hermit, there will be storms, all wrapped in a package of surprisingly enjoyable erotica.

We all deal with our fears in different ways. A horror writer makes them attractive, even when horror isn’t the prevailing genre in the end.

Our spring storms seem to be on their way out here in Texas. Now we just have to wait for the summer storms in July and August. Those can be a bitch.

Looking Back at 2013

Tags

cry wolf, end of year, erotic romance, erotica, forces of nature, gravedigger, novel, novella, published, schedule, short story, stone & chains, wolf girl, work in progress, writer, writing

It ended up a far more productive year than a successful one. I wrote Forces of Nature, my first short novel (which was subsequently advised to become a series instead of a short novel, leading to many headdesks in spite of being a good idea).

I wrote Arcanium, my first erotic horror novel and a bit of an experiment with supporting character interludes. It’ll probably end up being too dark for acceptance, but I guess I’ve got to try.

I also wrote most of Stone & Chains, and whenever I finish it this week, I’ll still count it as a completion for last year because of my health issues that came out of nowhere and interrupted my ironclad discipline.

In addition, I managed to write three short stories, one of which was accepted but not published yet, and the other more like a novella – “Gravedigger,” which was published in November.

Cry Wolf was self-edited and accepted by Totally Bound and is slated for release in February, but I haven’t done the official edits yet, and the size of the novel makes me nervous about the size of the edits. I remember Winter Howl was quite the undertaking. Still, most of the first quarter of 2014 will be open for editing projects unless I decide to take on Hallow’d Guests early, or at all.

Overall, I got a lot more nos than I expected. The only solace was that most of them were encouraging nos of the “this is good or has potential in this or that way, but it’s just not right for us.” Even so, that was kind of disappointing, especially with the success of 2012. Here’s hoping 2014 will hold more yeses. Maybe it would help if I wrote more marketable stuff. I wish I could convince myself to do that. I guess I figure I can fool around with the stuff I enjoy now and work more for money later (as much as I’d like to be financially successful now). Now’s the time to get the writing for strictly love out of the way, when I don’t have to pay rent.

If I sound discouraged, it’s because I am, but the truth is that’s okay. Rejection is a part of being a writer, and getting good rejections – non-form-letter rejections – it means I’m doing a lot of things right. It would be nice if I could figure out the equation on what I’m doing wrong, but still, I’ll be learning how to write the rest of my life.

Even for the novels and shorts that didn’t make it, I still like them just the way they are. I don’t send them out unless I love them. Forces of Nature will probably stay intact on my hard drive, even when I expand the concept into a series, and I’ll probably read it on my own a few more times in 2014, the way I read Wolf Girl. I’m still committed to self-publishing Wolf Girl, and I never stopped writing Arcanium just because I worried (and worry) it wasn’t going to pass muster in the publishing industry. Also, no matter how much my physical body got in the way (and continues to get in the way) of writing Stone & Chains, I continue to soldier through to finish.

In addition, I’m very proud of “Gravedigger,” the only thing I published this year. It’s not easy coming up with something new for the vampire genre.

Writing is sometimes the most frustrating vocation in the world. It drives you crazy, but it’s the kind of crazy I can’t live without.

On the schedule for 2014:

• TB edits for Cry Wolf
• Edit Arcanium and Stone & Chains, submit
• Write, edit, and submit Hallow’d Guests if I decide it’s worth the go
• Write the first few novellas or the whole of a possible vampire serial/series, as time allows
• Write Call for Blood, Sanctuary Book 3 for NaNoWriMo
• Edit and self-publish Wolf Girl
• At least three short story submissions would be nice

Nearly Done: Forces of Nature

Tags

editing, erotic romance, erotica, forces of nature, fun, sex, writing

I added two chapters, about 10.5k words, to the original story. Those two chapters didn’t come to me as easily as the first seven, but that’s mostly because all my writing energy for the story was finished. This is why I try to get everything done all at once, because once it’s written, writing any more is hard. I can edit and cut down and polish til kingdom come, but writing more than a few sentences on a project I’d already finished (in theory) is like pulling teeth. Also, I had a bad week while I was writing it, which I’m sure helped slow me down. But it’s written, and I think it’s good. I’m going to edit on Friday and resubmit some time this weekend.

There’s a lot of sex in this one. Winter Howl and particularly Wolf Girl had a good amount of sex, but those two were also very heavy on the plot. Forces of Nature, on the other hand, has a plot as flimsy as gift wrap. It’s more of a character study, really. And while I’m usually all about the plot, I’ve come to recognize the virtue of letting the plotty plot go a little.

For instance, I used to love the Lusty Month of May Lupin fanfic marathon every May back when I was fanficcing on the regular. Every day, you had to write and post at least 500 words of at least teen-rated fanfiction all through the month of May. So every chapter or section had to be a little smutty to a lot smutty. This meant that your plot basically had to be centered around sex. And there were a lot of really good stories that came out of it, sometimes about sex, sometimes about something else, but the plots weren’t always … there? Yet they were hella fun and I sometimes go back and read some of them, because stories about people are sometimes just as good as stories about people doing things.

It’s the reason that Forces of Nature is under 60k words instead of over 90k, which is my usual “serious” novel length. But that also means that it’ll be someone’s nice midnight snack for a week or so rather than a full meal. There’s a place for frothy fun just as much as there’s a place for a nutritious meal. And I think I like it. Maybe I’ll make a March habit out of it, a little bit of spring fever.

I’m still very happy with Forces of Nature, even more so now that I feel it’s properly complete. It’s a lot of sex, y’all, but it’s sex that really wanted to happen between characters I love hanging out with. I need to remind myself to listen to my characters and not my own impatience next time. It’s so much easier to cut than add scenes.

I decided not to add a bonus prequel scene, however. Instead, in a few years I think I’ll put out a free anthology of Sanctuary series and Forces of Nature shorts. There’s some serious magical overlap between these stories. And who knows? By then I may have more characters to add into the mix.

I did that thing…

Tags

editing, erotica, error, forces of nature, mistake, writing

… that thing you’re never supposed to do as a professional writer. I sent a query to my publisher thinking it was finished. In the days to follow, I realized it wasn’t. It no longer felt complete. There were at least two scenes that needed to be added, plus a possible bonus scene at the end.

I wibbled and wobbled but didn’t fall down, wondering whether I should just leave it and be content, whether I should ask my editor whether it was necessary, whether I should rescind the submission. I wondered whether it would still work as it was, and I realized that it would… but I would know it was incomplete, and that would bother me. I wouldn’t want to publish something that was unfinished. Since I haven’t even been asked for pages yet, I figured I was still within the safe zone, despite the unprofessional event.

So I’ve been busy this last week and I’ll continue being busy the next few days, furiously trying to really finish Forces of Nature. Then I am prepared to grovel and beg for forgiveness with a new word count, amended synopsis, and the finally completed manuscript.

I’m so ashamed. *ducks head* But at least I recognized the problem and am working to fix it before it became even more embarrassing. So, when I hear back from my editor, whether she asks for pages or not, I’ll have everything well in hand.

Forces of Nature Edits – Complete

Tags

complete, editing, elemental magic, erotica, forces of nature, four, foursome

Working Titles: The Four > The Human Element > Forces of Nature (Finally happy with that one, conveys the whole spirit of the story a lot better.)

Word counts: 46,620 upon writing completion, 46,933 upon editing completion

Favorite mistake: “Hikers taking out-of-the-way trails that edged on his property might have thought a mating mountain lion was mating.” (Oh, well, glad to know only the mating mountain lions are mating.)

Favorite line: Still “If we cast our bones and find out you haven’t boned, I’m going to have a bone to pick with your bones. Got it.”

I’d intended to start editing on Wednesday. I couldn’t wait and started on Monday and finished on Wednesday, instead.

In a few minutes, I’ll start working on the synopsis and query letter for Forces of Nature, which I don’t anticipate will give me too much trouble. The truth is, this whole story was just about the easiest thing I’ve ever worked. It was easy and fun to write and it was easier and even more fun to edit, because when I’m writing I don’t get to have the same stimulating experience as the reader. I’m too busy making sure the pacing and word choices are just right. My thoughts are very technical at that point. But when I’m editing, I’m in full “feel everything” mode. And every one of these characters had intense sexual chemistry together, even more than I’d originally intended before I started to write, which was just pure-d awesome.

But that’s not the only thing that made this experience incredibly enjoyable. The tone of the piece, in spite of taking place right before an apocalypse, is incredibly light-hearted, and my characters – Ash, in particular – have such a quality about their dialogue. They’re smart, witty, humorous (both dry and direct), self-effacing, self-referential, and they’re not above a few puns. The puns, oh my dog, the puns. I had no shame with those. Because when your life has the potential to be total hell and natural disaster, the only thing you can do is make light of it.

I wrote this thing in three weeks and edited it in only three days, because there wasn’t much to edit. I got most of it right the first time. I anticipate that an editor will have more things to say about some of my choices, but from where I’m sitting, this baby is done. I have done as much to it as I can do myself.

I’ve been down in the dumps for weeks, and I suspect a good portion of that is because the last story I was working on was very depressing. I feel my characters’ pain, y’all, and while empathy is a usual gift as a writer, it’s hard to deal with as a human being sometimes. But in this case, I also feel my characters’ perseverance and excitement, which pulled me up right when I needed it.

It’s my hope that everyone else will enjoy it as much as I do, because really, it’s a short novel (I call it a novella, but apparently in the e-book world, it’s a short novel), but it’s full of things to laugh at and gasp at and just in general these are good people to spend your time with. I’ve never written a proper foursome before. I’ve written an orgy, but I’ve never established an actual relationship between four people.

It was amazing. I cannot oversell this.

All the Little Things

Tags

editing, forces of nature, novel, novella, plans, sanctuary, schedule, short story, what's up, wolf girl, writing

I know there’s been a lot of radio silence from me. With any luck – and a lot of stress, I’m sure – I’ll have more to talk about in the second half of the 2013 year. I’ve submitted a lot of short stories and long short stories to various anthologies over the last two to three months – some new and some trunk stories. That’s why you have trunk stories, sometimes. You wait around until they fit somewhere. I will, of course, let everyone know if I’m officially accepted, and rejections will be revealed in the end-of-the-year recap post.

I’ve also had a number of new plots sprout in my head ready for the writing over the last few months, and me without time to write them at the moment. It’s a blessing and a curse, really. Some people are wandering the arid desert unable to find an idea, and here I am in the oasis with plenty of sustenance, but I’m damn full.

In the meantime, I’ve been going through the process of putting things in place to self-publish Wolf Girl and various shorter stories. The way things are going, it may not be out until Summer 2014, but at least I’ve decided it will be out eventually. I’ll take the consequences as they come, because there are consequences to keeping it to myself as well, such as supporting a system that shames harmless fantasy that has plenty of literary value, thank you very much.

After I finish this current ginormous project I’ve been working on lately, I’ll immediately tackle Forces of Nature (previously The Four and The Human Element) edits, which should be fun. If it gets accepted, I don’t envy the cover artists. Threesomes are hard enough, and FoN has a foursome. Then, after Forces of Nature, I’ll either work on some short stories for submission calls or tackle Cry Wolf edits.

I still haven’t decided whether to write the last of the Sanctuary trilogy novels this NaNoWriMo or whether to do something else. I suspect it’ll be something else this term, probably because I’ll be working on Cry Wolf edits from the company at that point, if not later, and it’s best to write the sequel when the previous novels are locked in. Also, I could use a break from the ‘verse, and some of my other ideas are quite tasty. Not a horror novel, sadly, as referenced in the last post. But tasty nonetheless.