Author: lleachie

I am an associate professor of human services at a regional Midwestern university. I am also a writer of fantasy and romance, hoping to get traditionally published. I have one husband and am owned by four cats.

Quick question — please answer!

A quick question for you:

If I can’t get published, what is a good reason for me to write?

You can post anonymously in the comments (see comment button)

Or non-anonymously by email: lleachie@gmail.com

I’m likely not going to win Kindle Scout this time either, and rather than wallowing, I want to find purpose from this.

Another excerpt

An excerpt from the work-in progress, Prodigies:

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Feeling constrained by the beautiful, fussy bedroom, I slipped out of the bed I shared with Ayana, put on a pair of tights and a baggy tunic top and stepped out into the living room. Greg was already there, his lanky legs sprawled over the arm of the couch. 

“Hey,” he whispered roughly, and I swore I saw streaks from tears on his homely face. “You might as well know the truth.”

I sat on the floor in front of the couch. “About?”

“About why I can’t see you in a romantic way.”

“Because I’m black?” I asked, beating him to the punch.

“No. Because you remind me of my little sister, Liliana.”

Of course. “I was afraid of that. Haven’t I told you I’m not a kid anymore?”

“That’s not it. Liliana was my favorite sister. And now she’s … gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?” I asked, trying to read his face. 

I sat close enough to see the color of his eyes, an elusive hazel. A tear trickled from the corner of his eye. “Liliana and my other brothers and sisters and my parents were killed in an explosion. It was during the Street Wars in Poland, when the old guard communists fought the self-styled oligarchs with the workers and the educated classes in the middle, and they in turn fought for their lives. My family were in the theater — everything from plays to vaudeville revival. Because we were so well-known in Warsawa, we were thought by many to be spies for the workers. We were sympathetic, sure, and we even sometimes housed a refugee, but we were never spies. I was out of the street busking — I used to sing and play guitar — and I came back with  my take of a handful of zloty to find our townhouse bombed and my family, my whole damn family dead in the rubble of the still-smoking ruins. And the worst part is that I didn’t know I could have brought them back, so they’re lost forever.” Greg closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

“Don’t think I’m trying to kiss you,” I said as I stroked his hair. “Why do I remind you of your sister?”

“She was the most alive person I’d ever known. She pulled no punches — she had a talent for saying what needed to be said. Frankly, she could be an unholy terror at times. We despaired that she would ever get a husband, even at age 10, which was how old she was when she was killed.”

“Yup,” I shrugged. “I doubt I’ll find a husband either.” 

“You shouldn’t worry about that, Gracie,” Greg grinned.

Serious re-edit

On the seventh day of writing, my true love gave me —

An axe on my book…

Ok, that is doggerel. But, in actually, I am editing out a large portion of the work in progress. Remember that digression from the plot I wrote and was so happy about? I discovered that I had introduced about 11 new characters two thirds into the book and the mood of the book had abruptly changed, from isolation and slim odds to “We’re all in this together!” I got seduced by one of my favorite constructs, the secret society.

No more. The good news is that I don’t lose any words for camp because I had already counted them. And until I get caught up, I can count my work by hours and not words (because it’s hard counting words when you’re rewriting.) I’m one-third through the rewriting process, and I’m back to the claustrophobic adventures of four very unusual people on the run. As this book is young adult (and thus a coming of age novel), the coming of age stuff is pretty important.

Editing out material is really difficult, because it’s more than words — it’s sweat and blood. But there’s a saying: “Never fall so much in love with something that you can’t walk away from it.” (For those who think I’ve given up my romantic card, I’m all about romance. I’m also all about getting out from abusive relationships.) That rule is very important if one wants to improve as a writer. Didn’t Andy Warhol say “Murder your darlings?” (He was talking about manuscripts.)

So that’s the progress on the book. The progress on Kindle Scout? I have no idea. I don’t think anyone can vote on the books anymore, and I think the curators are going to grade on their own opinions. I don’t feel good about that, because my books don’t please agents. If I don’t get published through Kindle Scout, I have to figure out what my next step is — do I just sacrifice a book to uncurated, un-announced self-publishing where nobody will find it, do I go back to the agents and get rejected, or do I just quit and find another all-consuming hobby?

Venting

I need to vent.

Something is really hinky with Amazon Kindle Scout, and I don’t know what or why.

It started on April 2nd, which was the day after my book was released on Kindle Scout. It was the same day that they announced that they wouldn’t be accepting any submissions after April 3rd because they were stopping the Kindle Scout program.

It was that next day that my data stopped.

I don’t know anyone else in the Kindle Scout process, so I don’t know how they’re faring with data. But I know that April 3 was the day that my data quit updating. In other words, on the first day, I had 254 visitors, on the second another 254, and no data (not zero, NO DATA) from then onward. which is suspicious in and of itself, because how could I have exactly 254 hits two days in a row?

If you voted for me, I don’t know if your vote counted. I don’t know if I’m getting any more votes. I don’t know if Amazon shut down the Kindle Scout program early, making us last entrants look like we’re being considered when we aren’t.

This looks, in a word, hinky.

This is what I received when I wrote them about the malfunctioning site:

Hello Lauren,

Thanks for you for letting us know about the issue. We are looking into the matter and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Rest assured that this will not affect your book’s chances of getting reviewed by the Kindle Scout team and potentially selected for publication. If your book has been shortlisted, you’ll receive a personalized manuscript feedback report from us when your campaign has ended, and once the publishing decision has been made.

There’s some interesting things implied/not implied in this email:

  1. “We are looking into the matter and will get back to you as soon as possible.” I sent this note twice; I got this same exact copy twice. 
  2. Related to this, this is AMAZON we’re speaking about. Amazon didn’t get where it is by losing data.
  3. If it’s only my book that’s getting data silence, are the votes out there somewhere or have they disappeared? Will I get penalized for those lost votes?
  4. “…will not affect your book’s chances of getting reviewed…” Does this mean they’ll review it without votes? Does it mean they’re not counting votes for anyone anymore?
  5. If they’re not counting/showing data counts purposely, is this a breach of contract?
Needless to say, I am not happy. Somewhere inside me is a grouchy little kid whose slightly older sister got all the nice things while she got the exasperated shrug from mom. That grouchy little kid believes that life is out to screw her over. So I’m fighting the good fight here — but I’m really grouchy.
And what do I do now that this route to publishing is closed to me?

Odds and Ends

I just submitted an empty post. OOPS. Let’s fix this.

I’m here again thinking of the NaNoWriMo method of writing — let the words flow freely; take time later to edit. I’ll be honest, I don’t know any other way to write. I try to wordsmith on the run, and that is largely a function of being a person who likes colorful words. For editing, I tend to have to make two passthroughs in the hope of being thorough enough; when I’m very familiar with something, it’s hard for me to see flaws in plot or characterization.

I sometimes wonder what will make me feel like a real writer, short of being published. I have to seriously consider that again, now that I am getting agent rejections on Voyageurs. I need to feel some sense of accomplishment, and “I wrote a book” isn’t enough. I’m thinking about how I can write just for me and feel that sense of accomplishment.

I literally do not know what’s happening with my Kindle Scout campaign. I have seen two days of data. I am missing the last four days. I wrote a letter to them twice, and they assure that this will not affect my eligibility if I get enough nominations, but what if the missing data includes the magic 48 hours of hot and trending? If they can’t get it back, it will certainly affect my eligibility, unless they want to automatically slot me in. That would be nice.

For what it’s worth, my Kindle Scout campaign can be found here:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1KM8I0ZK97R9J/

If you’re so inclined, nominate it in case Amazon isn’t losing the data here…

Day 6 Camp NaNo — and a frustrating mystery

Day 6 Camp NaNo: I’ve made 10,000 works thus far, and hope to get another 2000 today. I’m pacing myself the way I would a regular NaNo, which is a 50,000-word month. Do I worry about writing too fast? Not really — the first draft is there to get the ideas down on paper, and then there’s editing. Lots of editing. Sometimes you realize that no amount of editing will save your book, such as when I finally gave up on Gaia’s Hands after the Kindle Scout campaign. Maybe I’ll write that whole book over from scratch some day. 

The mystery has to do with the fact that my Kindle Scout stats haven’t updated in three days. So last time I saw stats, I had 524 hits and no hours in hot and trending. That’s what I have now, because three days’ data is not showing up. Someone answered my email and said, “Thank you for reporting the problem, we will look into it.”
So I’m a little annoyed and a little paranoid (see what I did there?) If the data didn’t transfer is one thing, but if the data went missing entirely, I may have made the hot and trending list and never known it, in which case I would not win to the next step and I would not get published under their plan when I rightfully deserved it. 
So Dear Universe, cut me a break. 

Tiny thought

In my heaven, we would all understand there are different types of love, and we would define ourselves in terms of how much we could love. We would understand different types of love enough that we wouldn’t try to make everything romantic, and we would not get jealous because we would respect boundaries. But love would be there, and we would be allowed it.

Update: Day 5 Nano — and a little talk about the weather

First, the weather. Today will be 60 degrees. Tomorrow it’s supposed to snow — about an inch. Saturday — about an inch. Sunday — 1-3 inches. In April. I have planted peas and lettuce, and they’re sleeping in their plant beds. The daffodils will pop up in the snow and shiver. WHO ORDERED THIS WEATHER?!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
but the fire is so delightful
It’s the middle of April, so
No to snow, no to snow, no to snow!

A friend pointed out that this snow precludes Missourians’ favorite (heavily ironic) seasonal weather — tornadoes. I commented that there’s nothing keeping us from having a Snownado.

********

I’m keeping up with my personal pace of 2000 words, which would get me done with Camp NaNo in half the time. I’m doing it because camp cuts into finals week, and I get really busy then.

My favorite description so far: When Grace describes a well-renowned American hotel’s color scheme as “Crayola factory, garden party version”. Honestly, I used to want to be able to afford this hotel until I saw the pictures. I’ll just buy the travel trailer when I get rich.

*********
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Kindle Scout campaign. I don’t know how well I’m doing, because I haven’t had a refresh on stats since yesterday morning. But I still welcome you to nominate me and spread the word:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1KM8I0ZK97R9J/

Day 4 Camp NaNo — and musings

In Day 4 of NaNo, I will be writing more of the logistical stuff — Ok, you’ve just now planned to take on the bad guys, how are you going to do this? Who will work with you? Who’s going to derail your plan? And will the bickering couple end up in bed again?

I’m about 30,000 words away from the end game, so I need to make this good and not just rush to the finish line. I have to make good use of the Prodigy family who so far have only existed to make Ichirou and Grace question whether to confront Greg and Ayana’s rather overprotective stance (this is YA*, after all).  They have a world to save — almost literally; a plot at the United Nations promises to destabilize the world order.

In a way, however, I don’t have to solve all these problems now. I can write in my 2000-word stretches, put together a book, and then edit it. My dream is to (as I’ve said before) hire a professional developmental editor — largely because it’s really hard to edit my own work. The sentences’ pattern gets stuck in my head like the sounds of the train clattering down the track while you’re half-asleep in a sleeper car. (Note to self: Win the lottery, build a greenhouse, visit somewhere with real train service and sleeper cars.)
*******
My Kindle Scout book has had more hits in the past two days than the previous one had after 30 days. Thanks!

Again, my Kindle Scout campaign is still running until May 1 here:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1KM8I0ZK97R9J

And remember I love you.

*YA = Young Adult, which is booksellers’ slang for the genre where the protagonist is somewhere between 16 and 19.