50% sleepy, 50% bored

I want to do absolutely nothing today!

I don’t like doing nothing. I think I’ve told you this before. Doing nothing means watching Netflix (which I rarely do well), going to a movie (very few movies are enticing enough for me to go, and none of them are Mamma Mia 2), sleeping (I’m all caught up), reading (I have to find a good book!), or meditating all day (which is impossible unless I’m sick).

Who am I fooling? I want to do something, even if I want to do nothing.

I would love to send queries on Prodigies today, but my betas are still reading and I’d rather have them be slow and careful than speed up on it. If I could knit or crochet or tat I would, but my hand-eye coordination is abysmal.

I could write — but I’m having trouble getting back into my work in progress. Maybe more coffee. I’m 50% sleepy and 50% bored. I’m working on it.

Interrogating the Hacker

One of my favorite characters in Prodigies (they’re all my favorite characters, honestly) is the notorious hacker Weissrogue. An idealist who feels the end justifies his illegal means, he’s the character you’re glad is on your side:

“You need to know that ‘Weissrogue’ translates just as you may think — to “White Rogue”. I was only about 15 when I named myself, and I look at it now and think it’s appropriate not because I was a white hat hacker but because I was a pasty white kid.” He was indeed, I thought, a pasty white kid still.

“That whole thing I did when I was fifteen — I can’t stand violence in any form. I suppose I would use it in self-defense if I had to, but even then, I wonder. I just wanted to get the government to think differently about weapons of mass destruction —”

**************

At age 15, as this passage hints, Weissrogue hacked several world powers and took their missile programs off-line. Realizing he was too talented to kill, the US government took him in and made him their pet hacker.

Now 39 years old, the suspected Prodigy tracks suspected Prodigies in the US — but not necessarily for the benefit of the US government:

“I’m not a double agent,” the stocky man corrected. “I’m the Prodigies’ agent; I’m not a double agent because I’m not letting out anything to help Renaissance Theory or Homeland; in fact, I’m misguiding them. But when it comes to Prodigies, my allegiance will always be to them. Something my employers don’t need to know.”

“So you’re hiding the existence of Prodigies?”

“Prodigies, yes. Organizations that deal with Prodigies, no. That’s why I signed up with the government — on this new project, anyhow. I don’t like anyone ‘managing’ a minority for any reasons, and governments — no matter how benign — want to use Prodigies.”

I wondered if the US was among the benign or not.

*****************

I’ll take a moment to interrogate Weissrogue, so you can get to learn about him a little more:

Me: So, what’s your real name, Weissrogue?

W: For all intents and purposes, it’s Weissrogue. My birthname was changed by the US Government when they took me in after the missile failure, and I’ve gone by so many names that the only name that has stayed with me throughout is Weissrogue. I have a presence in the real world as Arthur Schmidt, locksmith and cryptologist, but I don’t want people associating Weissrogue with Schmidt. I have to keep that name clean to keep trust with the government, who don’t realize they have a big government contract for security with Weissrogue.

Me: Why Weissrogue?

W: Easy. I was fifteen, and I wanted to make a name for myself as a black hat hacker for humanitarian reasons. “Weiss” means “white” and “rogue”, of course, means “rogue”.

Me: Do you ever hack for non-humanitarian reasons?

W: It’s a waste of time to hack for pizza, or for money for that matter — unless you’re slowly draining some despot’s bank account and giving the money to charity.

Me: Not taking the money yourself?

W: I have enough money. I have a lucrative security contract with the government, remember?

Me: So what turned you into such a humanitarian?

W: I spent my life in military schools as a ward of the US government. I don’t know if I never had any parents, or if they surrendered me. This is a pattern you see with a lot of Prodigies. I was subjected to endless discipline, especially as I was a naturally rebellious person. It got to the point where they modeled me into exactly the opposite of who they were: Instead of conforming, rebellious; instead of hierarchical, egalitarian; instead of military, pacifist. I tried to relate to the people around me instead of their roles, and they punished me until I didn’t care anymore. And I took their hatred and used it to hack into the security software for the missiles.

Me: What did they do?

W: First off, they kept me a secret even after they found me. I can’t blame them — however, it wasn’t entirely successful; the news media was lucky enough to find my leaks. When the government finally caught me, they didn’t know what to do because I was their ward — and they were hoping I would show my talent. We arranged for my death, and I became their top secret government worker. So, in effect, I’m dead.

Me: But you don’t always do what the government tells you to.

W: Shhhh. That’s a secret.

Feeling a little outspoken today

My God speaks to me in birdsong,
In waves of grass,
Rustling leaves,
And a feather falling to ground.
You speak for your God
In booming voices,
Condemning your lost children,
The ones you yourselves have cast out.
You say your God will love me
If I do what you say –
But what does God say?
I cannot hear him from your yawping.

revamping Mythos

Richard (my husband) and I are sitting down and discussing what to keep and what to get rid of in Mythos. Here’s what we’ve come up with so far:

Get rid of: The creepy prologue, The B plot with James as her dangerously possessive husband,  first person point of view (with two different parts and two different protagonists!), all those jumpy scene cuts, the word “engendered”.

Keep: The A plot — Lilly’s identity, the A+ plot — the importance of Lilly’s identity, the now B plot — Lilly’s and Adan’s relationship, the Nephilim (half-Archetype cannon fodder), Adan and Lilly’s daughter Angel and the Archetype cats.

I think I’m going to write it from scratch with only an outline. Or maybe not. I don’t know when I’m going to write it — probably NaNo in November. Wish me luck!

Dealing with the Problem Child

I think I’m going to rewrite Mythos from scratch. Ok, from near-scratch.

Mythos is the book I just put through querying that is currently gathering even more rejections than before. Even I think the book is a problem child at this point, and I’m just patiently waiting for more rejections.

I don’t blame the agents for rejecting it.

I don’t want to abandon Mythos completely, because as far as worldbuilding is concerned, It’s beautiful worldbuilding. It’s just that — well, my beta-readers can’t get through it. It has some convolutions that aren’t adding to the plot, as if it was two books smushed together. It is two books smushed together, actually. It was my second book, and the first book is even more problematic.

So what I’m going to do when it’s time to write again is take the outline and rewrite the whole damn* thing. In third person. Without some of the convolutions. Without my tendency to put in too many scene breaks and without the word “engender”** and maybe a few other words that drive my readers crazy …

* “Darn” will not work here.
** Sheri, this one’s for you!

What am I going to write about next?

I know it’s a little early to think about this, as I am about to send Voyageurs to the developmental editor and my beta-readers have a hold of Prodigies, but I don’t know what to write about next!

The problem is that most of my new ideas are based on either Voyageurs or Mythos (the book that will go to developmental edit after Prodigies, because my betas get lost in the middle of it)  and I don’t want to make the mistake I made before of basing 3 other books off a first book that I can’t publish.

No, I still don’t have an agent  yet, but I remain optimistic.

Anyone have any ideas?

There’s plenty of margaritas for all of us.

Dear Beta-readers:

I love hanging out with you, you know that?

I picture one of these all-female gatherings* where we’re drinking margaritas and talking about something we’ve read, except it’s the thing that I wrote and you’re telling me what needs work on it. 
It doesn’t bother me that you’re telling me that page 72 confused you or that my words are too big (hi, Sheri! You’re right!) It doesn’t bother me because you’re in the spirit of helping me, and because I get to show off something that’s important to me.
You go, girls, and I owe you all dinner. 
* All my beta-readers are female. Whose fault is that, men? Where are my male beta-readers? There’s plenty of margaritas for all of us. 

From Prodigies:

“Sadness, I think. People say I’m happy all the time, and I guess I am. It’s a lot simpler that way. So I’ll challenge you to make me feel sad …”
I knew the song, then. An old spiritual, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” a little lower-pitched than Marian Anderson’s version and less jazzy than Lena Horne’s, to suit my contralto voice. “… nobody knows my sorrow …” I sang, pulling out all the sadness wrapped around my bones like sinew and muscle. I sang to the G-d I didn’t know if I believed in anymore, the one I gave up on when my parents, the last of my family, died.
When I finished, I faced silence. I looked back at the tall, slender Ichirou supporting the shorter, stockier Weissrogue, who slumped with his head bowed. I heard a sniff from the other side of the counter — Ayana and Greg stood there, with Greg’s face streaked with tears and Ayana’s hand in his.
“I haven’t had a cry that good since I was seven,” Weissrogue said shakily. “How long before this wears off?” He wandered, dazed, back into the secluded booth; we all followed him.