Productive weekend is productive!

I’m hard at work on Book 3 still (STILL!) and felt like I made some big progress this weekend, so that was nice. I’m in the midst of a big, important scene and my brain is starting to shut down, which means that it’s time to let it go for the evening. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the rest of the scene again when my brain is a little fresher and feels less like beef jerky.

Where is my little counter thingie? I haven’t used it in a few days. Here we go:

I’ve increased the word count for the book a little more because I do think it’s going to run longer. I’m at the point in the book where I bullet-point out each plot point/scene that is left and assign an approximate word count so I can see how much more I have to write. My conservative outline shows I still have 26k left, but that will probably run a little long. We’ll see!

Tiny snippet from tonight (ignore any punctuation foobars):

As if on cue, the far end of the rubble surged. Like a massive, bronzed pillar, Ethan arose from the garbage, all hulking shoulders and messy dark hair. His shirt had torn and clung to his waist in mere strips, leaving his heaving torso bare.

Clinging to his leg like a damsel in some sort of Conan movie was my friend, Remy.

“Remy,” I yelled, circling around the ruins to run back to her side. I dropped to my knees near her, relieved at the sight of her alive and in one piece. “Are you okay?”

She stared at me, uncomprehending, then stared up at Ethan in a daze. “Big.”

I touched her cheek, turning her face to me. “We were so worried about you!”

She blinked, then looked up at Ethan again, and caressed his muscular leg. “So…biiiiiig.” Her voice trailed off in a breathy sigh.

Erm. Now was not the time.

Two steps forward, one step back

(Side note – the other day I quoted a Lady Gaga song in my blog post and have gotten all kinds of weird hits from fans looking for info on Lady Gaga. Sorry people! This here’s a writing blog. And now I’m wondering if this title will bring forth legions of Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat fans.)

I intended to get 10k this three-day weekend on my book. Yeah. That’s not going to happen. I wrote 1500 on Friday, and got stuck. Wrote another 1000 last night and got really, really stuck. A one line, flyaway summary in my synopsis had turned into a monster that was going to require about 15k of building into the story – 15k that I hadn’t allowed in my outline or even knew where to begin. Oy. I was feeling a little desperate, and I kept writing but it wasn’t…well, good.

Cue my husband, my hero. He said, “I can help with your plot.” So I rambled at him about my plot and tried to summarize. And he immediately came back with the perfect plot fix.

Husbands are good like that.

So this morning I’m reading back through the last 100 pages of the manuscript and tweaking what I have to make it line up with the new vision. Instead of setting up a big, elaborate hunt for a missing character, I’m setting a trap for the character instead. No Scooby-Doo-ish mystery, and I can skip that 15k of bloat that I was worried about.

Today is going to be a good day. Even if I don’t make up the wordcount, I’ve already saved myself 15k, more or less.

Oh, and one more thing – I have not heard back from either winner of my contest here on my blog! Sadness! Don’t you want signed copies? Sniff. I’ll give you guys two more days to respond, and if I don’t hear anything by 12:01 AM on Tuesday, I’ll re-draw.

Another quickie update

Starting to get over the hump! Just write through it. Just write through it.

Might get a bit more today, but I’m at a good stopping point. Next scene should be easy-peasy to do. Here’s a teeny tiny snippet from My Fair Succubi to get you through the day. It’s very rough draft, so please be kind.

The set-up: Jackie & a friend (Ethan) are cleaning up someone’s trashed house. Ethan is…well, he’s the male equivalent of a nun. A monk, if you will. Raised behind monastery walls and all that. He’s…innocent. I lovingly refer to him as my Napoleon Dynamite.

Snippet!
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“Thank you, Ethan,” I said, dumping my backpack of clothing on the corner of the couch and glancing around the room. “I really appreciate it, and I’m sure Remy would too if she were here.”

He said nothing, but I caught the gleam of his eyes again as he grabbed the garbage bag and began to stuff it full of shredded paper. “You are welcome, succubus.”

Oh brother. Again with the ‘succubus’ thing. “Can you please just call me Jackie, for once and for all? Jeez.”

“Calling you by your first name would imply an improper relationship,” he said in a stiff voice. “And I have no wish to imply such a thing.”

Well, at least he was honest about it. “Can you call me by something else? A pet name of some sort?”

He straightened and looked at me with a perfectly grave expression. “Like…Fluffy?”

#

Writing and kites

I haven’t written in about three weeks, maybe longer. As soon as December 1st hit, my brain kind of exploded,  my schedule at work exploded, and with Christmas coming…I’ve been a mess.

But Christmas is over! And I think I’m over the worst of some of the other stuff (though I still anticipate next week to be brutal) so it’s time to poke at Book 3 again. Just a little poking – I left off at a nice rounded spot, so it was hard to get back into the story. I know where I’m going, it’s just a matter of picking up the threads again.

I always mentally picture writing a book as kite flying. And each plot-line itself is another kite I’m launching into the air. If I keep on top of it, and I pay attention, I can keep multiple kites up in the air at once, no problem. And it’s great fun and I look like a kite-flying badass. But when I stop paying attention, one kite crashes to the ground, then another, and another. And when I open my document after sitting on it for a few weeks…I have no clue what I was working with. Heh. So I’m slowly launching my kites back into the air again, but it’s going to take a few days and a few writing sessions to get them all flying again. Baby steps.

It happens

I’m working on a little piece of a story for a project. Nothing that will ever see the light of day, mind you. But the idea comes from two halves being squished together to make one crazy whole.

But the trick is, if I’m meshing two stories, I need to make sure that one half does not overwhelm the other. And I realized as I was writing that my story was 90% of one flavor, and not the other. Balance needed to be set again. So I deleted a few pages and started over again, and the story is back on track.

And here I thought writing was about words and stories, not balancing. Learn something new every day.

Pushing the envelope

Yes, I’m still talking about Lady Gaga. It occurs to me that as writers, we can learn from her.

Consider the evidence. Here’s a short clip talking about some of her more wackadoo outfits:

And here’s another one of her videos. This one features her in a weird Hello Kitty get-up (toward the end), and some sort of cyborg paraplegic outfit. Seriously.

You might be watching that and thinking “Dang. Bitch is crazy.” And she totally, totally is. And I (and nine bajillion other fans) absolutely love that about her. She is not afraid to be strange, and absolutely, completely unafraid to take people out of their comfort zone. She loves making her audience wonder what she is going to do next.

I love that about her.

I mean, sure. There are always people that do not get it. That’s the same for any kind of artistic form, whether it be music or books or watercolors. And we’re not going to talk about that today, because that’s totally another blog post. What we’re going to talk about here is pushing the envelope.

Do you push the envelope in your writing?

See, I think that aspiring writers don’t push the envelope. When you are seeking publication, I’ve noticed that there’s a big focus to find that “new” thing that has never been done before. Frog-changelings! Never been done! Let’s run with that! Were-turtles!

I’ve been there, done that. You see, I wrote a book about a valkyrie heroine back in 2004. Back when the urban fantasy craze was really just beginning. Vampires were ‘over’ (yes, even back then) and everyone was scrambling to find the ‘next’ vampire. So I wrote about valkyries (since I’m a Norse mythology geek) and sent it out, proud that I’d come up with something ‘so original’. And I sent it out, and sent it out. Half the agents I sent it to didn’t know what a valkyrie was and weren’t interested.

When that book didn’t sell, I was stumped as to what to do next. I mean, here I had this great idea and nobody knew what to do with it or how to market it, right? One agent flat out told me that “We need something easily marketable, and a valkyrie isn’t it.” (at least, at that time)

And then I got an idea for a new novel. And discarded it. It was a little too ‘out there’. It was about a female vampire, but instead of blood, she fed on…sex. I thought it was completely and totally ridiculous. It was crazypants. No one was going to want this! But I started writing it anyhow…and I just threw in whatever. Sex in a confessional? Sure! Historical figure turned evil nemesis? Why the heck not? Speedboat chases and fallen angels? Who cares at this point? There was no mental filter to tell me ‘No’ when I wrote that book. Anything I wanted to put in there, I put in there.

I wrote it. And as I wrote it, I realized…this one was marketable. It wasn’t the concept itself (immortals that feed on blood, yawn). It was that I’d pushed the concept of vampire into a different territory. I’d made it into a succubus, but kept the same basic concept as a vampire – feed or die. Except it wasn’t like all the other vampire stories out there. Not quite.

And it sold, along with a sequel.

I recently sold another book, about a dating agency that deals exclusively with paranormal clients. Again, a basic concept, neatly twisted into something different. Pushed outside of the regular envelope. It’s the same old thing…except, not.

This is why vampire books continue to sell. And Twilight clones. And Regency romances starring dukes and bluestockings continue to sell. This is why Navy Seals continue to sell. People love to read what’s familiar and comfortable. Why re-invent the wheel? There’s nothing more basic or versatile other than the wheel (except for maybe a stick!) and the reason why we keep using the wheel is because IT WORKS.

You can come up with wacky, mythical creatures known only in the most obscure of mythologies (lamias! catoblepas!) but you’re also going to run into a lot of head-scratching and puzzlement. Whereas if you take the established and put a twist on it and push it outside of the ordinary, it’s…clever.

After all, if you take away the wacky videos and the strange outfits (and the odd name), Lady Gaga is just a young, blonde pop singer. Nothing special about that. But she packaged herself in a unique way to stand out, and continues to push the envelope and surprise her audience. And they keep coming back for more.

So what are you going to put in your book to push the envelope?

Final Nano Count

My ending Nano tally:

The widget isn’t 100% accurate – I’m at 35230 for the month. Not what I wanted, but I’m still pleased with it. Hitting the halfway mark with the book – my total count is around 47k for the full novel, I think.

The trick is momentum – I had well over a week in which I moped and whined about not getting wordcount. But I’ve noticed that if you get wordcount one night, it’s easy to get wordcount the next night. It’s tricky to climb back into a scene after leaving it for a week.

Anyone else have good Nano results?

Vacation Over

So I’m sad to report that tomorrow morning, my bright and shiny face will be returning to the dayjob after a little over a week off. It was really nice to have the time to mentally unwind and get some writing in. I sort of slacked mid-month and have just crossed 30k in my Nano. No success for me! Still, 30k is not bad and it gives me a jump start. I’m going to try and hit 33k today (if possible) and maybe another 2k tomorrow night. If I hit 35k for the month, I’ll be pleased with myself.

And I am sooo not ready for Christmas. I say that even as I drag out the ornaments and decorations. Thing is, my book comes out 4 days after Christmas. 29 days from today! AAAAAH! My brain is a little caught up in that. Will it do well? Has anyone looked at my book trailer? Should I blog more often? What’s my print run? How can I promote? Blah blah blah.

Reviews are also starting to trickle in. I got a lovely one at this site and got a mention on another site. Since this is the first book that is hitting, I get a weird, vicarious little thrill whenever my book is mentioned – for so long, I have kind of felt like my book has existed in a vacuum. Anyhow, I hope the thrill doesn’t go away anytime soon (though I suspect it might the first time I see a really bad review, and I’m sure there will be one).

That’s all I’ve got! I’d offer a snippet of the new book that I’m working on but…it’s really, really rough (my first drafts are mockable) and I’m currently at the OMG-I-HATE-IT on the sliding scale of book writing. Maybe next weekend! My goal is to finish as much of Book 3 as I can before Release Day, because I’m pretty sure my brain is going to be fried in all of January, and the book is due March 1.

Hope everyone else had a lovely holiday. Onward to the next one!

Happy November

My favorite time of year is nearly upon us! Next week, I have a birthday and Thanksgiving, which is pretty cool on its own, but I also have a week of vacation!

Throw in Nano and a book release in about 4 and a half weeks, and I will either emerge from the holidays as a testimony to fortitude, or a weeping, bitter wreck.

(Place your money on B, kids)

Oh! GENTLEMEN PREFER SUCCUBI had a really nice review in the Romantic Times Magazine that just released. They gave it 4 stars and said: Myles brings a great new voice to urban fantasy. Her first-person voice is funny and engaging, with clever, crisp dialogue.
(Pretty cool, huh? It’s shelved in romance because it’s a light tone and there is some hot sexxors, but the plot could easily be urban fantasy, so I’m oddly pleased to see them label it so. If you want a comparison, the closest thing I can think of is Katie Macalister’s Aisling Grey series.)

Also, if you subscribe, I have been told there is a big full page ad on page 98 of the magazine (woot) and an author spotlight on me on the webpage (but you have to have access to the bonus content to see it). Good stuff!

/promotional neeping

I have sorely neglected my Nano this week – I think I’m still only at 21k. Luckily I have the next 8 or so days off, so it will not be ludicrous to think about getting 3k a day, which will almost bring me up to speed. It can happen! No one dissuade me!

But because of the holidays and time off, I cannot guarantee that I will blog like regular for the next week, because my writing cojones will be saving themselves for the book itself. Or something.

And if you don’t check the Odd Shots blog, have you seen my pretty book trailer yet? So pretty, so pretty. My husband drew it and I love it. Because the books are kind of light and fun, I asked for something equally light and fun for the book trailer, and this is what my husband came up with. Best Birthday Present Ever!

I didn’t forget about Nano!

I bet you thought I did! But I am sad to report that I am far behind. See, here’s my Nano bar:

Yeah. I am mostly a weekend writer, and between hurting my arm and being lazy all week, I’m barely scraping by for Nano. If this continues, I’ll only hit something like 40k. Which, you know, is not shabby, but it’s also not Nano. And I’m crazily competitive. So even though I’m not doing this all official-like…I WANT THAT 50K.

I hit 2k and some change today. Only 1k yesterday. And I admit that once Left 4 Dead 2 comes out, I’m going to be a big loser and play it for hours on end. But I’m still determined to beat Nano. I have Thanksgiving week off of work like usual, so I’m hoping to crank out some INSANE (at least for me) word counts on that week. Husband thinks we’ll be doing housecleaning, but I think he does not know me very well…
Other than that, not much going on. I read a book the other day that was stunningly awesome, and it’s ruined me for other reads at the moment. I’m even trying to read another book by the same author and it’s paling in comparison. Oh well. Such is life.

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend and getting lots of word count!

(And did you notice? Only 45 days or so until my first book comes out! whee!)