None Shall Pass

I want to know what you think of the term 'Gatekeepers' for agents.  Personally, I don't like it.  It sounds elitist and condescending and as if they are bouncers that are supposed to keep people out.  In reality agents want to find good stories, they want people to be ready to publish.  For what it's worth I don't hear many agents using it, mostly writers who are maybe having a hard time. 

What do you think?  Is Gatekeeper appropriate or not?  How do you view it? 

Nuts and Bolts

I'm having someone help me with a final check through my MS before sending it to betas.  I'm shocked at how many things I've missed.  I know grammar isn't my strong point so I expected all the missed commas, but oh how many times I've misspelled a word.  Waive for wave.  Solder for soldier.  Thing for think. Sometimes I have words repeat repeat themselves. When it's a real word spell check doesn't get it and I, having read it all so many times before, see what I think is there rather than what is. Next time I'll print it out and read it out loud.    Or I can just give it to my mom and have her fix it again.  Thanks Mom!

What do you do to help find all those nitty gritty problems? And can we ever find them all?

Rewards

The other day The Engineer told me that when I become published he'll take me to Scotland, AND that we would leave the kids with Grandma (surprise mom!).  I can't think of better motivation. 

Is there anything you did or plan to do upon being published?  How will you/did you celebrate?

You need to be more....flexible.

My grandmother often said “it is the artful duty of a woman to adapt gracefully”.  I think that is true of a writer too.  Well, not the gracefully part.  Most writers I know are loathe to give up their stories, characters, or words if something isn’t working and have no problems with vocalizing their frustrations.  But, the best writers are those that are flexible. 

There are so many things that change when writing a story, even if you have an outline.  I assume anyway.  I’ve never tried writing with an outline.  An author needs the flexibility to know when a story or scene isn’t working and change it, even if it means giving up your favorite lines or scenes.  Also, the flexibility to adjust a writing schedule that isn’t quite working. Or maybe not being able to have a regular writing schedule and being flexible enough to be aware of your time and snatch what you can of it. 

Each author has a unique way of writing and so their needs will be different. We often hear the most important part of writing is getting yourself in that chair and doing it, and that’s true.  But we also need to be aware of how we can improve what we are doing, either making ourselves more time efficient, leaving ourselves room for real life, or changing with the flow of the story.  So, writers, get out there and be flexible and see if it helps at all.  

Bonus points to anyone who knows the quote I used for the title.

Firelight

Book Review:  Firelight by Kristen Callihan

Warning: This book contains mild language and intense adult situations. Really intense.

I don’t do a lot of book reviews but I really wanted to talk about this book.  It doesn’t actually come out until the end of this month but I was lucky enough to win an arc with an embarrassing, fan girl, teenage stalker email.  OK, I’m not embarrassed, I got the arc after all and it was well worth it. 

I fell in love with this book the first time I read a snip of it over at the Compuserve Literary website.  Funny enough that scene didn’t make it into the final book.  Here is the back cover

Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented.  Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities.  Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family’s fortune decimated and forced her to wed London’s most nefarious nobleman. 

Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man.  Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it’s selfish to take Miranda as his bride.  Yet he can’t help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn’t felt in a lifetime.  When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world.  But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied.  Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue.  For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask. 

At its essence this is a beauty and the beast story, but taking place in London in 1881 it’s not a traditional fairy tale.  The core of the story is a romance and the author handles that with great attention and detail. Yet woven into that is the story of gifts and curses, betrayal and trust and the possibility of immortality.  I know the book was much longer originally and that she had to cut it to meet her publishers requirements and the only thing I wish different about this book was that she could have left it a little longer, given us more time for Archer and Miranda to build their relationship. 

Kristen is an amazingly talented writer.  If you don’t want to take my word for it here is a post from her agent the amazing Kristin Nelson.

Back to Normal

I didn't think I'd ever say this sentence and I don't want you to take it the wrong way but, I LOVE NORMAL. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays.  I love having The Engineer around all the time and the fun things we can do. I even like the work projects.  At least once they're done.  Can I say our new wood floor is amazing and I'm loving the new storage cabinets.  But I am soooooo excited to get back to a normal schedule. I'm slowly catching up on everything that was left behind last week and my kids are starting to nap again (yay naps!) 

The thing with normal is that it doesn't work in a book.  Nobody wants a book solely about a housewife vacuuming and doing dishes.  Novels center around conflict and change, turmoil and tension.  That's what makes them interesting. I'm just happy that I can keep that in my novel and, for the moment, my life can be normal. 

I'm Back

Hello everyone!  I hope there's still someone here anyway.  Everyone have a fabulous New Years?  I'm excited for this year.  I think there will be some very good opportunities and fun times ahead.  At the very least it isn't last year and for that we are eternally grateful. 

Last year was pretty overwhelming.  If I didn't have all the emotional scars I would be able to tell just from the number of books read.  I didn't even reach 100.  I know, I know, it's horrible.  I hope to do better next year.  I also realized I read a lot less literary classics.  I was trying to get into one over christmas break and couldn't. I finally figured out it's because most of my reading time is for five minutes here, fifteen there, and that doesn't work so well on a lot of books.  So I have been going for things that are a little lighter and a little easier to read.  It's just the stage of life I'm in right now.  Someday I'll be able to get back to more classics. 

So just for fun, here's a list of the books I read this year.  There's a couple I didn't quite finish for various reasons such as I was listening to Angela's Ashes on audio book.  My CD player broke just as I started the last disc so I ended up having to return it to the library.  I did go online and get a synopsis of the ending so I know what happened though.  If I didn't get at least half way through a book I didn't put it on the list.  This list does not include scriptures or picture books I've read (or recited because I now have several of them memorized).

The Color Purple
The Wake of the Loralie Lee
Jellicoe Road (2)
A Christmas Story
Seal-Folk and Ocean Paddlers:  Sliochd Nan Ron
Heist Society
Three Cups of Tea
Finniken of the Rock
True Colors
Open Adoption Experience
Wicked Lovely
Great Expectations
The Theif
The Secret Year
Intersting Times
You
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Water for Elephants
Letter From Peking
Pillars of the Earth
An Echo in the Bone
Curse Dark as Gold
Alias Grace
Keturah and Lord Death  (2)
Second Eden
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Dear Daddy Longlegs
Farmer Boy
Time Enough for Drums
Second Duchess
Paranormalcy
I Am Number Four (2)
Divergent (2)
The Family Nobody Wanted
Tarzan
Lament
Speak
Bog Child
Return of Tarzan
Writing the Breakout Novel
Perfect Chemistry
Tarzan and His Beasts
Drums of Autumn
Making Money
The Host
Supernaturally
Elliot and the Goblin King
Heartless
Fairy Thorn
The Help
Waterfall
Cascade
Still Life with Murder
Murder in a Mill Town
Death on Beacon Hill
Murder on Black Friday
Murder in the North End
A Bucket of Ashes
The Queen of Atollia
King of ATollia
Conspiracy of Kings
Not My Type
Closed Circuit
Dancing in the Shadows of Love
Fiery Cross
Memories of My Future Life part 1
Taken by Storm
Out of the Water
Girl Parts
HMS Surprise
Angela's Ashes
The Distant Hours
The Maze Runner
Game of Kings
Monarch
Firelight
Next Door Boys (2)
Lord John and the Plague of Zombies (short story/novella)
The Lady's Fate
The Power of Six
By the Pale Moonlight
Grounding Quinn
Variant
Black Horses for the King
Jane
The Comrades
True Colors
Untraceable
Entwined