Seriously. Even a writing one!

Did a lot of good brainstorming tonight (once I beat the headache into submission) and I think I have a lot of the backplot done for Last Rites. My goal for tomorrow is to turn said brainstorming into a workable plot outline, so I can start writing the damn thing. I think I may do a bit more brainstorming as well, but I've got the motivations for the four major characters and (finally!) an idea as to what my antag is doing and why. It's actually pretty cool, and I get to go back to a plot thread that I put into Book 1 (yay, continuity!) and use it. I'm pleased.

I'm also seeing how my process is changing for each book. I'm looking more into the worldbuilding and character aspects and using those to create the story. I think it's getting deeper, which is good. Maybe not so many rewrites this time?

As to whether or not I will actually make my deadline - that's still up in the air. We'll see how much outline I get done tomorrow. I think I'm keeping the beginning I have, though. I like Amy and Derek.

So thank you again, FM Chatters, for putting up with my blatherings again. You guys rock!

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Today, I'm at work. *sniff* However, it's Jeans Day! (Yay!) And I'm not on the phones! (Double Yay!) So not too bad, although I'd much rather be spending it with my family baking cookies.

This weekend is going to be a quiet one. I'm going to finally get those 4 stories back to my writers, and I'm contemplating cleaning my office a bit. And writing. I really want to write. Sunday, I'm going to the studio to work on Christmas presents.

AND THAT'S IT.

(Okay, probably some WoW too, but that really doesn't count.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to the holidays. For those who are waiting for my address, I'll be replying to those this weekend - I don't have access to personal email at work.

It's October 27th, and that means it's the paperback launch of JC Hutchin's novel 7th Son: Descent! As a special treat, I've invited Hutch by to answer a few questions...

Hey Val! Let's dive right in, shall we?

1. 7th Son: Descent comes out today, October 27th, but you've already released this book once, as a free podcast novel. Is this a path you'd suggest to new novelists? Why or why not?

I certainly suggest that storytellers embrace the Web, and create a website, as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts. I also suggest that they release some free content on their sites -- excerpts of their work, a few short stories, etc.

But I'm reluctant to tell novelists to release the full manuscripts of their work online (in text or audio form) unless they've thoroughly analyzed their goals and circumstances. If you're questing to simply share your tale, by all means share it. However, if your goal is print publication, carefully consider pursuing the "traditional" route of querying agents before you release the work online.

Creating a podcast novel is an extraordinary amount of work -- no newcomer can fully anticipate the workload, particularly if you wish to effectively promote the work as well -- and it provides no guarantee of publication. I released 7th Son in podcast form because the book had been rejected by dozens of industry pros in 2005, and I felt I'd exhausted my options. If I couldn't sell it, I'd share it.

2. Tell me more about 7th Son: Descent. Why should I buy this book?

Descent is a high-tech thriller set in present day. I think the book's jacket copy does a great job of encapsulating the book's concepts and plot. (And since I wrote the jacket copy, it's coming right from the horse's mouth!)

"As America reels from the bizarre presidential assassination committed by a child, seven men are abducted from their normal lives and delivered to a secret government facility. Each man has his own career, his own specialty. All are identical in appearance. The seven strangers were grown -- unwitting human clones -- as part of a project called 7th Son.

"The government now wants something from these "John Michael Smiths." They share the flesh and implanted memories of the psychopath responsible for the president's murder. The killer has bigger plans, and only these seven have the unique qualifications to track and stop him.

"But when their progenitor makes the battle personal, it becomes clear he knows the seven better than they know themselves..."

3. 7th Son: Descent is very different from your last novel that came out, Personal Effects: Dark Arts, which was more of a supernatural thriller. Which genre do you prefer and why?

I love both supernatural thrillers -- which is a fancy way of saying "horror" -- and technothrillers, and love writing in both sub-genres. I grew up reading lots of King and Crichton. I'd love to blur the two in a future work.

4. What was the best lesson that writing 7th Son: Descent taught you?

To persevere. 7th Son was my novel-length work of fiction, and I encountered all of the classic hardships all new authors face: self-consicousness, fear, self-perpetuated writer's block, procrastination, the works. I eventually realized that paying attention to those destructive elements didn't get the book any closer to being completed.

If it ain't moving the needle, it ain't worth your time.

5. What writing rituals do you have?

Very few. I like to write alone, with some music played low. That's about it.

6. You Twitter a lot - do you find that helps or hurts your writing? How about your promoting?

I don't see how it could possibly hurt my writing. It certainly is a key ingredient in my online outreach and promotion.

7. Nowadays, writers are expected to do a lot to promote their books, and you seem to be the king of promotions. How do you come up with ideas? Is there anything you draw the line at?

My ideas hail from watching what's happening in the space, and deducing what promotions work and don't, and then taking those good ideas and bending them into something innovative ... something I think would be fun to do. For me, it all starts with "wouldn't it be cool if...?", and if the idea sticks with me for more than five minutes, I begin to analyze the angles. How much will it cost in money, effort or time? Is it easy to manage? What's the benefit? Etc.

8. How do you plan a series?

I wouldn't know from experience, actually! The 7th Son trilogy as we know it was originally written as one long manuscript. It was an epic-length novel. Only when I chose to podcast it, did I chop the manuscript into thirds.

However, I'm certain that planning and writing a series is a lot like writing any other work of fiction: You plan it out, you plant the narrative seeds, you pay it off.

9. What's next for you?

I'll be promoting 7th Son until the end of the year. After that, I'll start cooking on some new fiction projects. One of them is a podcast fiction series called "The 33" that promises to be a lot of fun. I also have a few high-tech and supernatural thriller novel ideas to work on in 2010, as well.

Thanks for stopping by, Hutch! And as for me, I've already ordered my copy of 7th Son: Descent from Amazon. I highly recommend you do as well!

Really, I will start updating this blog with more writing/Dept V content soon, I promise. Right now, I've got a five things make a post....


1. Blog Interview!

I'm interviewing the fabulous J.C. Hutchins next week to promote the release of his book 7th Son: Descent. It's currently available as a free podcast through iTunes, or a free blog serial at BoingBoing. (Information on all this here). Got a question you want to ask Hutch? Let me know and I'll include it! (I'll need questions no later than tomorrow, so he has time to answer them!)

2. New Website!

The website will be going dark at some point in the next two months as I make the switch to Wordpress. No, I won't be abandoning this blog, but I'll be making it a mirror, at least for the present, to what's going to be on the website. And when it comes up, there'll be a bunch of new stuff, including new content for deptv!
Which brings me to...

3. deptv

This will be coming to life in the next few weeks as well, as I start ramping up for a killer year next year. Definitely take a look around Halloween - I can almost guarentee there will be some treats for my agents!

4. NaNoWriMo

Yes, I'm doing NaNo, right now with The Pirate Crown. However, I might switch up at the last minute and do Last Rites, especially if I scrap what I have (I might) and start over. That being said, I will be doing NaNo. I'm just not sure with what yet.

5. And from the realm of the bizarre...

My hometown has gone insane.

Basically, if you didn't click the link, one of the Town Selectmen from my hometown has put forth a motion to have the town secede from the State of New Hampshire. Seriously. This is a town that doesn't even have a high school, or anything bigger than a corner pizza shop/general store in it, and they're going to secede.

Best thing? THEY DIDN'T VOTE IT DOWN!!!! They're still considering it.

*sigh*

He patted my hand where it lay on the white fence between us. "Don't worry, it gets easier the longer you live here. Just don't think too hard about it."

Don't think too hard about it. Easy advice to give, when you weren't the one getting your entire worldview tipped on its ass.

Odin gave my hand a final squeeze and winked at me. "Besides, it gets fun here on the weekends."

"Oh?" I couldn't help the note of sarcasm.

He winked at me again. "Sure. After all, any Saturday night that ends in bar brawl is a good one, and who better to brawl with than gods?"

I shook my head. What had I gotten myself into?

Epagomenal Days - the five days "out of time" in the Egyptian calendar. Only matches the solar calendar onces every 1,460 years. Thought to be particularly ominous times.

This has potential. What could we do with 5 days out of time? Maybe the laws of physics are suspended, or vanish all together. Maybe that's when the gods come back. Maybe that's when the doors into Time open.

I can use this. I must investigate further.

I like this idea...

Oooh, this is the stuff of PLOTBUNNIES!!!! (and as an aside, I love the name Nephthys. No, I don't know why)

I think I really need a keyboard to write now. How pathetic is that?

I have a ton of ideas rattling around in my brain, and each time I start to work on one, eight more pop up and go, "No, me!" Sadly, none of them are the conclusion to the problem that I'm having with Last Rites (namely, how to get everyone together at the end without having the major villian look like an incompetant moron who should have seen all this coming) - that little voice is hiding right now, waiting for...I dunno. Christmas?

Which is why I'm blogging, because I'm hoping to jar some things loose. I have several ideas for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not wedded to any of them (TPC is on hold while I find a plot that doesn't sound like it came out of a night drinking with Mel Brooks and Stan Lee, and I STILL don't know why Oberon loses his mind in Underhill.) and I can't start writing any of them anyways. Blood is still calling to me (that's the one with the girl who heals herself but is mute, and the cop who doesn't believe in magic and then falls back in time), but again, I have no plot. Hell, I was reduced to trawling through TvTropes earlier today, hoping for inspiration. Alas, everything is stale right now.

I'm contemplating just starting Last Rites with what I have, and see what comes out. I know, shocking. No real outline, just a plot summary that may or may not work and see what shakes out. I'm a little afraid that I'll end up with a mess, but hey, it's better than a blank page, right? The Neo is going to start coming with me to work so I can do SOMETHING while I'm sitting here, waiting for the phone to ring. (Yes, I do love this shift, but I can see it getting mind-numbing if I don't bring in SOMETHING to do after 6:30 pm, when I'm pretty much alone. Not that I'm complaining. I can listen to music, which is a MAJOR win!)

I also am in the "I hate everything I've ever written, and I want to write something DIFFERENT!" mindset that I hit every so often. I think I haven't been reading enough fiction lately - I've been reading all nonfiction. I shall remedy that on Thursday, after paying my library fines, when I shall pick up (hopefully!) The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and who knows. Maybe I'll pick up American Gods too, because I thought I'd read it and I don't remember it. And since I can't afford any new books, I'll need to get my fix from the library for a while.

But going back to the mindset for a bit - the problem is that I LIKE writing what I write. I write dark. I write bloody. I write magic. And it's FUN. Or it is when I can decide what the heck story is coming out.

So in the next few weeks, you may see quite a few different metrics here. Some of them might not ever come back. Some of them might grow into novels. And some might be short stories or novellas. I'm getting back into playing with my writing, and I have no idea what might come of it. I might not make NaNo, because I might be deep into something else.

I SHOULD be deep into Last Rites. I need to get writing on that, which might be part of the problem. This is going to be Nikki and the gang's last book, and I'm a little sad about that. Then again, who knows? Maybe there will be other things down the road...

I'm also thinking of totally redesigning my website as a Wordpress site, so I can update it myself. I love my webmistress, but money is getting tight (and is likely to get tighter in the very, very near future) and I need to be able to do it myself.

And hell, since it's so long, I might as well continue on. You'll probably see a lot of meanderings on this blog in the next few weeks, as I try on some different ideas. Some might vanish if I decide to go with them. Some might die. Who knows.

Right now, I'm pondering a town, on the coast of New England. Probably in Maine, because New Hampshire has such a small coast that I can't hide a town there, but I could on the coast of Maine. And this town has to be hidden - perched on the edge of a bay, a lost bay, a bay with mermaids and selkies and tunnels into the Underworld. A town with magic walking through the town, blowing in the wind, falling with the rain and snow. A town of slightly odd folk, existing just that one degree off from the rest of the world. Hidden from the rest of the world by dark trees and darker knowledge, only one or two roads into it. Not cut off from the modern world, no, not completely, but partially. I don't have any real characters yet, and I don't have any plot, but I do have a town. I just don't know what to do with it yet, but I'll find something.

Sorry for the meanderings. Sad to say, I'm going to be doing a lot of them in the coming weeks. Maybe it's just the season? Dunno. Maybe.

Hmm, magical jack-o-lanterns....

Up at 5:30 am to go to the gym - second week in a row that we've gone 2 days! We're going Friday too - I WILL get into a rhythm. Did time on the elliptical, and then walked for 10 minutes to loosen my quads again. The elliptical is soo cool, but sooo hard! I'll just keep building up on it.

Oh, and for the record? Chocolate Fudge Poptarts are GROSS at 5:30 am. Bleah. Getting some breakfast sandwiches for Friday, because I need something to eat before I go, and it has to be portable.

Writing today - I want to start working on plot synopses for TPC and U (formerly Death's Deceit). I'm still not sure which one I'm working for NaNo. I guess I'll figure it out on November 1. Tonight, studio!

Now, off to work. Have a good day!

It's been a hell of a week. We'll just leave it at that and start new, okay? Good.

I'm working on comments. I'll have them all answered by tomorrow, I hope.

Work: Mondays and Tuesdays suck, but other than that, it's been good. I actually am pretty happy where I am. Mostly because my callers (although a little nutty) don't swear at me most of the time. I used to be in Health and Insurance - this is the season where I would be working 60+ hour weeks. And while the OT pay was nice - I don't miss it. At all.

Weight: Ugh. Fell off the wagon HARD after Pennsic, and am slowly recovering. Soda habit reactivated (and Mountain Dew, no less!), but we are slowly weaning off. Minus XP points to the grocery stores around me for discontinuing Jones Cola - we hates you all! Ah well. It's mulled cider season now, and I'm going to enjoy it. Also apple season. And apple crisp season. Mmmmm. Also starting my gym attendance again, and it looks like beard5 might be joining me. Yay, gym buddy!

SCA: I've started Argus' Christmas present and am contemplating documenting it over on my captain_hobbes livejournal. beard5 helped me draw the pattern for the embroidery, and I'm currently tracing it out. On Tuesday, I'll be putting the first patterns onto the black twill and starting the couching. Did I mention there will be pearls, now? beard5 is an evil influence.

Writing: Here's where Val hangs her head. Nope. Got nothing done this week. But I have ideas. And tonight, instead of playing WoW all night, I'm going to write. I need to get Last Rites started, and I want to finish Death's Deceit. Also, I'm hosting Writer's Group this weekend and will be horribly embarrassed if I don't have anything to crit. Bad Val is bad.

This has been a long way of me saying I need to get my ass in gear. Consider it kicked.

They breed plot bunnies. This one is all cbpotts' fault. (Well, one of the commenters, who talked about doing a co-op arts program, and now I have a character who is a wandering artist and ARGH! Well, maybe I can do a short story and sell it to someone.)

But yeah, no more plotbunny breeding reading blogs.

Firstly, if you aren't reading the blog Great Hites, you are missing out on some excellent writing.

Secondly, if you check it out today, you can read Silver Bullets by yours truly (along with 11 other great stories!) and vote for your favorite!

You can even listen to them via podcast!

(And the winner this week gets a candy bar - Jeff promised - so vote! Doesn't even have to be for me! Just vote!)

Know what? Go read Jeff's blog - vote - and then drop me a comment here. I'll draw a winner when I come back from vacation and send them an autographed printed copy of Silver Bullets. Because you guys are that cool.

I'm in early again - I've been really lucky with traffic, so despite waking up late (I really, really need to remember to either take the 24-hr allergy meds, or take another 12-hr med at night, because this waking up at 3 am unable to breathe because of snot in my nose is NOT cool), I'm still in with plenty of time to eat breakfast and finish waking up. AND I managed to hit the grocery store, so I could restock my bread, peanut butter and jam at work (Yes, I live on PBJ sandwiches sometimes. Welcome to my life).

Things I wish I could remember BEFORE I leave my house in the morning:

1. That I have microwavable steel-cut oats for oatmeal, so I could have a hot, fast breakfast. (I should leave the package on the counter the night before. With a bowl. Maybe then I'd remember.)

2. That tea from the coffeepot is damn hot and takes forever to cool.

3. That I need sneakers to exercise.

I'm heading to Craft Night tonight, so I might (if I'm remembering correctly and have sneakers in the car) stop at the Planet Fitness in Manchester and do some biking before I head to Deerfield. Yay black ticket membership!

I also have homework to do, and I really should get cracking on that packing list. I'm hoping woadchic will help me with my new pattern tonight - I'd like to get it cut out so I can hopefully start whipping up some new garb tomorrow night. Yay new garb! We'll see.

Had an odd dream last night, where I was a multitude of different people - but each person was the same thing: a demon hunter. I could tell when the demons were around because I'd get this awful pain in my chest. It's an interesting concept (nope, never actually SAW the demons, but I knew they were there!) and I might noodle with it a bit today. I'm in that kind of noodling phase.

Now, on to work! 13 days and counting to Pennsic!

Had a good meeting with my nutritionist yesterday - we talked a LOT about some of my emotional eating. I'd originally said that I didn't do emotional eating - but it was pointed out to me that boredom and procrastination are both emotions too... *sigh* So something to work on. And we also started to address my perfectionist nature, which I'm struggling with in other areas as well.

Today, the sun is shining again! Day FIVE! I'm so excited!

I got in wicked early to work, so I sat outside of our caf and wrote my morning pages while the birds sang to me. I also took advantage of VTO a bit to give me an hour lunch, as opposed to the 30 minutes I usually have, and went back outside to write. I got about 2 handwritten pages on the Shanna story I've decided to work on (I'm not abandoning Star, I just don't know what I want to do next with her, so I'm letting her sit for a bit) and enjoyed the sunshine. If it's still nice when I get out tonight, I might go for a wee little bike ride before class.

No gym today, but that's okay - I didn't wake up quite right, because my CPAP smelled funny last night, so I ended up not using it. I really need to get a new mask - mine is starting to shift. Waiting for that new cushion to come in!

Oh, and after all that last night? Argus ended up calling the mechanic after all. :p

Off to study now. I've got tea and it's still very bright in here, so I'm happy.

Starting count: 0
Ending count: 742

Starting line:
“My name is Allyrian. Today, at sunrise, I turned 16 years old. Tonight, at midnight, I will turn 21 years old.

Ending line:
“My mother can wait,” Star repeated, fastening the intricate clasp and feeling the cool power of the moonstone as it lay against the pulse point of her throat.

Darling:
The silk slipped over her body like Alec's kiss, a close-fitting gown that left one shoulder bare and showed tantalizing glimpses of her smooth, sleek belly. The right sleeve ended in a point on the back of her hand, conveniently covering the newest tattoo on her forearm. Her mother hadn't seen the elaborate rose vine yet, and Star wasn't convinced that there wouldn't be a screaming match over it. Then again, Briar Rose was one of the most elite cadres in the Continuum. She supposed she could always appeal to her mother's snobbish side.

***

Don't ask. I have no idea. I'll take what I can get right now.

I got sucked into the comments section on ABCNews.com on Pres. Obama's speech today and it literally took my whole afternoon (well, that and work, but you know..) so I got nothing done that I wanted to, except getting the recipes printed out that I needed from The Gode Cookery for Midsummers. I need to start some things this weekend, and buy some ingredients. Luckily, the only two really time intensive things are being done on Friday, when I'm off (the roast turkey and the marbled tea eggs).

I'm off to craft night tonight to see a man about a bicycle, and then I'm home to make pesto pasta and maybe, just maybe, write. I've been percolating scene ideas in my head, and I've got at least two supporting characters that have shown up. I really, really need Mom to finish DMS so I can start bouncing ideas off of her for LR, but oh well. Maybe I'll start entering that into yWriter as well, so I'm ready to go when she's ready.

Wow, writing. Who'd've thunk it?

(oh, and ABCNews.com? OMG, the NeoCons are out in force! Some of them are almost painfully funny. I didn't post, because most of them didn't want to hear actual history - they were having too much fun making up their own versions. Or parroting Rush/Sean Hannity and co.)

Gotta put this down here, so I don't forget anything!

- Mail books!
- Deposit Money in Bank Acct
- Return Library book
- Finish Laundry
- Finish Dishes
- Menu for the week
- Email crew re: Martini party at Midsummer's
- vacuum living room and dining room
- homework for Monday
- email authors for pirate antho
- send more queries
- Write more on Phoenix

Yes, I have a new project. Mom helped me work out some of the details. I really like it so far - going back to my urban fantasy roots. I haven't totally given up on VB yet, but I'm discovering that writing to a specific prompt is not something my muse likes at the moment. Especially if I've chosen a Romance prompt. Alas, I'm just not a romance writer, I guess.

That's okay. I do like the ideas in VB, and the characters. I will use them again - I'm just not sure how. So VB and Midsummerland are on hold until I re-imagine them as urban fantasy. That's what I write. That's what I love. Time to stop denying it.

Oh, I should send some more queries today too. (adds to list)

This is a bit of a mangled post, so forgive me in advance. We're heading out at noon tomorrow for Quest, so there will be no blogging until Monday nightish. But that doesn't mean I won't be around!

I'll be over at Magical Words tomorrow - if you don't follow this blog, you should! madkestrel interviews me about all sorts of stuff.

I've also signed up for the President's Activity Challenge, thanks to a post from madwriter. I've signed up for the Active Life challenge - 30 minutes of activity 5 days out of 7 for 5 weeks out of 8. I can do that! Who's with me?

Also, went to see the neurologist today. I went to see them at the beginning of the month and weighed 296 lbs, with blood pressure of 146/88. Today, I was 293 lbs and a blood pressure of 125/77! Go me! The CPAP is amazing, seriously. I also found out why they rushed it out to me - apparently, when I don't have it, my oxygen saturation level (which is supposed to be about 92%) dips to 72%. This is BAD. :D

I got nothin' else. How about you guys?

I love cons. I love going to them, because the interaction with all the writers, editors, artists and fans that congregate there really gets me fired up and ready to write again. RavenCon was a blast: I met some really fun people (madkestrel for one!), made some great contacts and decided to edit a new anthology for 2010.

I'm not the only one who finds cons stimulate ideas: davidbcoe did a great post on this over at Magical Words, which I highly recommend all writers read. (I recommend the blog in general, actually - it's a great resource.) As for me, I spent two hours in the Richmond Airport working on the plot summary for Velvet Box, which is coming along wonderfully. I should have the summary done by the end of the week, and quite possibly the outline as well, which means I can get cracking on the actual story. I'm still plugging away on Midsummerland as well - this weekend reminded me that no matter what else is happening, writing DOESN'T happen unless you set aside time to do it. I often joke that writing is my second full-time job: I need to start actually treating it like one.

This means I'll be online less - I love chatting with folks, but I need to concentrate on the writing, and that's hard to do in chat. So I won't be on as often - I need to wean myself away.

Onward and upward - I'm at work today but hopeful of VTO so I can sleep some more - cons are fun but EXHAUSTING!

Thanks to some things this weekend, including some really good sit-downs with some friends who let me talk some stuff out (they probably didn't realize they were doing it, but thanks!), I have a renewed idea of what I want to do this year, writing/editing-wise. Here we go:

Hard deadlines:

September 2009 - deadline for stories for the Pirates and Magic anthology I'm editing
December 2009 - deadline for Last Rites to publisher

Personal deadlines:

May 2009 - Finish outline for The Velvet Box
June 2009 - Finish outline for Blood and finish The Velvet Box
July 2009 - Finish Blood
September 2009 - Do outline for Christmas story
October 2009 - Writer Christmas story

I do not think I'm doing NaNo this year, but I will be doing some content for Dept V, so that's going to be sprinkled in as well.

Now, I'm off to buy a very cool pirate hat, and then host a workshop on blogging and writing. There will be a full writeup of RavenCon later this week.

Or afternoons, as the case may be. We're at Mom and Dad's, watching the Red Sox and enjoying the amazing smells that are coming out of the kitchen. Mom is such a good cook. And pound cake smells so yummy in the oven...

Writing this afternoon - I want to finish the plot summary and start the outline for VB, so I can get that going. Dad's getting me flower seeds (yay!) so Tuesday I can start digging the small flower bed in the yard. I'm getting pansies today too (we're stopping at Walmart so I can get stuff) and I cannot wait. Expect lots of pictures over the summer.

And my forsythia is blooming!

Happy Sunday!