Progress On My Books

Lots of changes in a novel

I got my second beta reader’s comments for Gaia’s Hands, and she was very thorough and insightful. This means I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Gaia’s Hands has gone through so many changes before, having started as a claustrophobic novel with an anticlimactic ending, then developing into the reader-ready, tense but beautiful journey.

Now it’s getting brushed up, and closer to reality.

The updated schedule of releases

My Kringle story of the year, Kringle in the Night, will be released first, on October 1, which I’ve been told is optimal for Christmas releases. That’s the one about the well-traveled Sunshine Rogers, who has found her dream town in Denver, and professor Brent Oberhauser, who’s convinced he needs to move away for his career. Their mutual stubbornness threatens the ruin of their relationship, and it will take love and Santa Magic for them to see the right decision.

Gaia’s Hands will not be released until March 2022. It is not as much fantasy romance but romantic fantasy. Or maybe it’s still fantasy romance. It’s an intense book, the opposite of the Kringle Series In it, Jeanne Beaumont keeps secrets about her “green thumb” which threatens to sabotage her botany experiments. Josh Young wants to share his belief in spirits, which he fears will destroy his budding relationship with Jeanne. When Jeanne faces a worsening set of events geared to drive her from her research, the two join forces with their gifts to face an inferno.

So remember this: Kringle in the Night in October; Gaia’s Hands in March. Both on Amazon Kindle. Just search for my name.

Writing Lull

I need to get back into writing.

I think the current novel is scaring me because I have to write sex scenes and I so want them not to be cliche.

I could start writing another novel and go back to Walk Through Green Fire. Or I could just buckle down and write it.

I don’t have as much time now that the semester has started, but that may be a good thing — I am sometimes at my most productive when other things compete for my time.

I wish I could put a poster of my novel cover in my office, but that would probably be considered a conflict of interest. I’m okay with that; I need to be as focused on the job as possible, not daydreaming about my other job.

At any rate, I have to get the two parts of my life into balance soon.

Comfort Zone

On my way out of my comfort zone

I have to come to realize that, if I am going to do my book justice, I am going to have to include a more explicit sex scene than I’m used to writing. And this is way out of my comfort zone.

Usually, I write on a two chili-pepper heat, according to this source. That means closed-door sex. But given the book I’m writing, which is a romance between a 40-something librarian and a prince of the fae. There’s going to be sex, especially as his lack of humanness is going to manifest as “live for today” and a certain amount of hedonism. Closed door will not work here.

Get over it.

I’m scared, because I’ve never written a sex scene before. And I want a sex scene that is neither “tab a into slot b” or over the top hilarious. Which is why I have always written closed door scenes. Now that I have to, I think I’m going to have to find that sex thesaurus someone recommended to me.

What I think I’m going to need to do is take myself seriously and be foolish at the same time. That’s the mood I want, a dalliance with lots of satisfaction; the feeling like it’s a one-night stand, and then — he’s back. And what will she do now?

So, time to get over the comfort zone and write.

Shameless plug

If you haven’t found my Vella serial novel yet:

It can be found here.

The Shortest Hiatus

Twenty minutes

That’s how long it took for me to get back into writing yesterday.

So much for my “I think I’m going to take a break from writing” spell. I guess I’ve become a writer after all.

A strange hobby

Writing is a strange hobby. It doesn’t cost much at first, only the cost of paper and writing implements, or the cost of a computer. It’s not as expensive as woodworking or sewing, and one can get results with very little practice. The writer can even show the results to friends, neighbors, or the entire Internet,

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Then, the writer gets the notion in their head that they’re going to get published. After failing at that, there’s one of two places to go: give up on being published, or hone one’s craft. Writing is addictive, however, and the writer gets drunk on possibility. The writer gets pulled down the path of honing one’s craft.

Honing one’s craft is not cheap. Workshops on structuring the story, software that helps edit, developmental editors — all cost money, and quite a bit of money. But the writer gets better, and tries to publish again, because it’s become part of the hobby. A lot of rejections follow. Sometimes the writer decides to self-publish, but sharpening one’s skills and improving one’s writing still takes priority because writers want to be recognized for their best work.

However, writing intoxicates — an elixir of possibility bubbles up whenever one takes up the pen. Writing mesmerizes its practitioners — they feel the quality of the words, the patterns they make as the words are read. Writing tantalizes — visions of the pinnacle of their art as they finish the last word of a document.

It’s a hell of a hobby.

Starting with a Character Sheet:

Prince Dain
? • Faerie/Oneonta
Role in Story: Male Main Character/Love Interest

Goal: To woo Nina — but then what?

Physical Description: alabaster skin with a bit of a gold tint. Red-gold, wavy hair. No beard or body hair.

Personality: Playful, highly focused but ephemeral. To be in his focus is to be the only person in his life, but he has other things to focus on and he’s just as intense. He seems to be always in the present; commitment isn’t in his vocabulary because it’s not a fae thing. But he keeps coming back to Nina.

Occupation: Prince. What else?

Habits/Mannerisms: He gestures in the air as he talks, as if he’s trying to shape his stories from mist.

Background: a Prince of Faerie. Nowhere near to the throne; considered an eccentric dilettante as he works with craftsmen and creates beautiful wood and metalwork. He also spends a certain amount of time flirting with the border between Faerie and Earth,

Internal Conflicts: The pull toward Nina

External Conflicts: With the woman who wants him back.

Notes:

Brainstorming Characters

Oh, did I mention? I’m working on something new …

I’m working on a new novel, based on an idea I had in graduate school.

In it, librarian Nina meets a Prince of Faerie while he is slipping through her backyard naked. A Fae scorned casts a shadow across their dalliance, and Nina must brave the Faerie realms to rescue Prince Dain. If the landscape of Faerie doesn’t tear her apart, her adversary will. It will take all of Nina’s wits and all of her heart to save her lover.

I have the bare bones of plot; now what?

Now all I have to do is everything, starting with developing the characters. That to me is the place to start because I’m very character and relationship oriented. This is going to be today’s task and it’s going to require off-computer time.

Let me explain — I draft and edit on my computer using Scrivener and I proofread using Pro Writing Aid (now that I have it). I use Atticus for formatting and design covers using Photoshop and Canva.

But when it comes to character design, I’m in a different mode. I write and I write until I have the character developed. I interrogate my characters to find out what my subconscious tells me about the character and what I need to work out.

What do I need to know about Prince Dain?

A character sheet for writing tends to center on basic questions:

Role in story
Appearance
Motivation
Likes and dislikes
Internal and external conflict
Habits and gestures
Background

Which is necessary but not sufficient when writing a supernatural, alien, or other “other” (sentient dogs, etc.) Other things about the character must include how the character interacts with the other (i.e. our) world, which means figuring out the differences between us and them. Thus, character gets intertwined with worldbuilding.

In this case, there is a large body of folklore and stories, and it’s up to me to design this world borrowing from the stories. I know that I will include the traditional trickery/honesty of the fair folk, so: Irish legend, yes; Laurell K Hamilton, no.

From there, who is Prince Dain? This is what I have to find out. I only know at this time that he’s one of the fair folk, he has some sense of royalty, yet is a dilettante who crafts exquisite things and wanders through the crack between worlds, which is in Nina’s back yard. He is somewhat arrogant but charming, and at the beginning of the story very romantic but a bit fatuous. (I want my audience to question romance vs love.) He’s gorgeous, of course (and a ginger, which is one of my weaknesses when I am looking at pure male beauty). Ahhhh…

I’m back now. I need to have some conversations with my characters now.

P.S.

I looked at depositphotos for a male faerie picture. I saw none. So the realm of Faerie is all female like the Amazons, only with flowing robes?

In Case You Forgot …

The story can be found here

Impostor Syndrome (again?)

I didn’t write yesterday

I didn’t write yesterday because I didn’t have a lot to say and I had a lot to do. I broke my 80-day writing streak, but it turned out I didn’t feel that bad about it.

The real reason I didn’t write

I’m suffering from a serious case of impostor syndrome. I feel like I’m doing everything wrong in writing, editing, and promoting my books. Ironically, I think this is happening because of a group of other writers that I’m hanging out with on the Internet.

They seem so motivated. They write 10 books in a year, they post regularly on Tik Tok. They participate in anthologies. They know which genres they fit into easily. I can’t keep up with them; I’m still trying to figure things out despite having written seven books.

I don’t want to be like them — I want to be like me, but I wonder if that’s good enough.

Impostor syndrome

Impostor syndrome is that feeling that, if someone knew who I really was, they would decide I was a fraud.

I hear that impostor syndrome is entirely too common. Ubiquitous, even. That everyone has the same dialogue in their head that says that they’re not good enough. That everyone who looks like they’ve got it all together feels the same way.

I don’t know the cure for impostor syndrome. I don’t know that anyone does, or else we wouldn’t be suffering it. I think even my fellow writers with all their enthusiasm feel it.

I may just have to live with it and do all the things anyhow.