Like my little word play up there? Yeah, me too.

So you didn’t hear from me in November, I know. I was busy with the nose-to-the-grindstone thing, belting out a very (ugly) rough draft of a middle grade paranormal story. I did win Nano though, with 53k words! Go me! I’m very pleased with myself, as this is the first time I’ve actually won Nano. Most years I wasn’t even able to participate because I was working on my MA, but this year I was determined! And, you know, it’s really amazing the number of words I can write if I stop putzing around and actually put fingers to keyboard.

On Monday, 14 December, I had the privilege of seeing Neil Gaiman speak here in Decatur, GA. The Little Shop of Stories (a fantastic indy kids’ bookstore) won the Graveyard Book Halloween Party Contest, along with a store up in Winnipeg, Canada. So the prize was Neil coming to speak and sign. I arrived at about 5:15pm and Neil was going to begin speaking at 6. I wasn’t able to get a ticket for the main room where he actually was, so I was in the overflow room with a couple hundred other folks. When Neil began, he actually did a shout out to those of us in the overflow room, which was really wonderful! He paused and asked where the camera was (we were watched on closed circuit tv) and he waved to us and thanked us for coming. He also assured us that we would be real people soon. ;)

He read from Odd and the Frost Giant, then took some questions which had been submitted prior to the evening. One question dealt with Nanowrimo. It asked whether he thought it was a waste of time, or a good idea. And I really loved his answer. He said that he thought anything that moved an aspiring writing from the “aspiring” tag to the “writer” tag was a good thing. And he also said that for some people it was a good tool to discover that they shouldn’t be a writer. That cracked me up!

At any rate, he was a real trouper! I finally got to him with my two books at 12:30am. I got home at 1am and Neil tweeted that he was finished at 1:30am. Talk about an author dedicated to his fans! He said he signed for 1050 people! No wonder it took so long. This was my first time seeing Neil in person, though I’ve been a fan for a long time. He really did go above and beyond expectations. I have even more respect for him than I did before, if that’s possible!

And for the final “N”… I’m at the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport right now, waiting to get on a jet plane headed for Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (Granted, when I get a chance to post this, I’ll already be there because I’m not paying Hartsfield five bucks just to get on the internet for two hours.

Now I’m en route, up in the air some few thousand feet. I guess I’m about three and a half hours from arrival and can’t really sleep. These little seats are not particularly comfortable.

Anyway, the trip is a family thing and also a very, very, very late honeymoon. Like eight years late. But better late than never, right? We’re flying into Amsterdam, then driving with family down to the Italian Alps. A week there, then back to Amsterdam for another week. Then to London for another week, then home. I’ll post as often as I can, but I have no idea what my access will be. I’m hoping to get some revisions done since I won’t have the internet distracting me. Ha! :)

Good writing to all!

For all you folks who like to organize your writing (or want to start!), check out Liquid Story Binder XE from Black Obelisk Software they’re having a 50% off sale! That brings the price down to $22.95. If you like to storyboard, or outline or just dump all your ideas into one place, check this software out. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but there’s a downloadable .pdf manual available with some good tutorials.

I’m mainly a pantser – I don’t do a lot of outlining or pre-planning – but I’ve found it a really useful way to keep a lot of information for one project in one place and easily accessible. It’s also fun to find pics online of characters or places and then upload them into the program, so you’ll always have a visual cue to refer to. The character templates are pretty detailed and customizable.

I’m currently using it for Nano, but also for putting together my synopsis for Soul Cavern. There’s a document type called Builder, where you can put in a header like you would an outline, then write longer text beneath it. When you choose to merge, you select the headers you want and it will merge the longer text of those headers together in the order you have them in. So I’ve put the major plot points as the headers, then written a sentence or two about each and when I merge, I get a decent rough draft for my synopsis. I still have to go back through and make transitions and such, but this seems to really be working for me! I suppose you could do that with the entire book, using the Builder, but there’s also a separate doc type for Chapters.

There’s a 30 day free trial, so you can check it out before you buy.

And for the record, I’m not affiliated with them in any way nor am I being compensated for the plug. I just think it’s good software for a really great discount!

So Publisher’s Weekly has announced their Top Titles of 2009 and I can’t help but notice that there isn’t one female author on the list. Not one.

In their press release, they say, “We wanted to pick the best 10 and we came ready to mix it up, and although we were surprised that, when the dust settled, it wasn’t the most politically correct list – there are no women authors, for example – the balance of our top 100 reflects a remarkable diversity.”

Now, I admit I haven’t read most of these, but with names like Richard Holmes, Blake Bailey, Neil Sheehan, Geoff Dyer, David Grann, Matthew B. Crawford and David Small, I’m having trouble seeing the diversity here. I’m sure these are all amazing books – they’ve been picked from tens of thousands published this year – but diverse? There’s one African American and one Pakistani. The others are all, essentially, white American or European men.

Now I’m certainly not saying that a lesser book by anyone, regardless of gender or national origin, should be in a top ten if it doesn’t belong, but I have a lot of trouble swallowing the idea that Euro-centric men are the most exceptional writers.

I’d be interested to see a gender/nationality breakdown of the PW starred reviews for the year. I would lay odds that a large percentage were written by women, yet 0% of the top ten are by female authors.

PW’s Top 100 comes out on November 2.

I was tooling down I-285 yesterday and passed a car with a license plate that read: NOVLIST. Of course, I looked to see who was driving. He was a 40-something guy with a receding hairline. I don’t know whether I should have recognized him or not.

But it got me to thinking. Do you tell people you’re a writer? I’ve found that people always seem to perk up and act all interested until you get to one of two questions:

1. What do you write?
2. Have you been published?

The first question, in my case, always leads to having to explain what I write. I classify it as urban fantasy, but I think most Jane Q. Publics that I run into don’t know this term. Hell, some writers don’t know this term. So I have to give them tv examples: Supernatural, Heroes, True Blood. If I still get blank stares I resort to the old stand-by: Buffy. For older folks, I’ve found I can use I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and My Favorite Martian.

Once I’ve clarified what urban fantasy is, I usually get one of two responses.

“Oh, I love that!” or

“Oh.” <--- this usually translates to “I only read real liter-ah-chur.” I shrug and move on.

The answer to the second question always drains the interest right out of their eyes. When I say I’m not yet published (never mind that I edit for a living), it’s as if they just realized the pedestal they’d just hiked me up onto only has two legs. And that’s usually the end of the conversation.

So, in general, I’m somewhat circumspect in sharing. I’ve heard from popular novelists who also don’t share that they’re writers. They have the opposite problem, I think. They get all sorts of questions about it.

I suppose once I’m published, I’ll probably go through a frenzy of wanting everyone to know I’m published. But then, will I prefer to keep it quiet, unless actually publicizing? I don’t know.

Are you a writer? If so, do you share that with people who ask what you do?

I just returned from the SCWW 2009 Writers' Conference in Myrtle Beach, SC. The full conference is somewhat pricey, but well worth it, especially if you're just starting out or in the middle stages, as far as classes. There were several agents and editors in attendence for those with finished works to pitch.

Keynote speaker was thriller writer Steve Berry. He was very entertaining and personable, as well as inspirational for all of us who are still slogging away, trying to get published. I was also able to attend a class he taught on suspense, which I found interesting. He shared his approach to writing and his style in creating suspense within a ms. If you get an opportunity to see him speak, I'd recommend it!

Two agents are interested in seeing partials of my manuscript so that's fantastic! I got to hang out with Joanna Stampfel-Volpe again, which is always awesomeness personified.I met her last June at a conference and totally got to schmooze with her. I was excited to see she was coming to the SCWW con. She was very busy all weekend, unfortunately, and we didn't get to goof off together as much as at the other, but it was great seeing her again.

I was also able to meet and speak with Holly Root, of the Waxman Agency, and Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. Both of these agents are personable and fun to speak with, as well as being very passionate about what they do. The conference had what they called "slushfests." These were group sessions where folks would bring in a 2-page transparency which was either a synopsis or the first two pages of their novels. So I was part of the SF/Fantasy slushfest and offered the first two pages of my novel. Unfortunately, somehow the decision was made to only do the first page of them. A few of the issues they had with the first page would have been addressed had the second page been read. However, there were a couple things they identified that will really help strengthen that scene, so I'm very grateful! Afterwards, I went up to each and asked if they'd be interested in seeing a partial. Both said yes (yay!) and Holly even asked for a few more pages than she normally requests (she made a point of this). As I said, they're both pretty damn cool! (And not just because they asked for my pages! ;) )

There were a number of other agents there, but those are the ones I actually interacted with.

I also want to toss a shout-out to Echelon Press. I hung out a lot with one of their editors and an author and man, are they great people! 

I took not one, but two classes on synopsis writing! So expect a WIL post soon!

Okay, so bear with me as I get my footing on the blogging again! 

Something new! :)

Write a scene where one of your characters (from any story you've written) meets a well-known historical figure. Use the time period current for your character. Shoot for 500 words.

Let me know how it goes!

For those who don't know, the magazine Realms of Fantasy, which has been in print for fourteen years, announced a couple months ago that the last issue would be April's, due to rising cost and less income. They just couldn't afford to keep the doors open.

The SF/F community rose to the occasion. "Save Realms of Fantasy" petitions, Yahoo groups and Facebook groups popped up all over the net. Folks raised money and wrote friends to spread the word.

And now, that hard work has paid off! Realms of Fantasy has been bought by Tir Na Nog Press and will continue to provide the fantasy and literary community with fabulous stories and artwork under the editorial direction of Shawna McCarthy.

For more information, see the post on SFScope. Happy day!

As you can see, I've got a brand new, great-looking website! I have to thank my husband for that. He's been working the last month or two converting everything over from WordPress to BlogEngine.net and trying to convert my weird demands into a useable website. I think he's succeeded! There will still be things that we're working on, but overall, I think the design rocks! What do you think?

So watch for new updates in the coming weeks and some interesting and exciting news from me!

So I recently came across Word Hustler in my web-wanderings. It's something of a novelty, I think. There are dozens of sites which give you submission information for various publishers, agents and magazines. This is the first site I've seen that will actually send your work for you. That's right. Word Hustler is a mailing service for writers.

I should be clear: it isn't just a mailing service. There's thousands of markets and contests listed that you can use for free. That's right. You can actually get all the market info for free! I was really astounded at that little perk. I've trolled through some of the listings and they're pretty complete, along with links to web sites when applicable. Agents aren't left out either. If you search through agents, you not only get all the regular contact info and what they're looking for, you also get their client list, which isn't always readily available at other information aggregate sites.

The unique thing that Word Hustler does is send out your submissions. For a price, they'll print your Great American (or any other cultural group) Novel (or short story, or non-fiction book proposal), include your cover letter, a return post card, if you wish and package it all up nice and professional-like. Then they'll send it to the markets/agents of your choice from their database or you can specify any address you wish (including your own).

So what's the cost, you ask? It ranges from $.99 (under 4 pages) to $8.99 (50 pages) and .10/page after 50. It includes postage, tracking and SASEs. This can get pretty steep when you're talking about 350 page books going out to a dozen editors. But for short stories, queries and even contests, this may be economical if you've got more money than time and you don't want to mess with the hassle of getting everything formatted correctly. Check out the price list.

Oh, and when I signed up, I got a code for a free submission, so I'll give it a try and see what happens. At the very least, that 3000 market database is going to get some good use!

So what do you think? Is it worthwhile to pay a service to send your ms? Making the assumption a service is trustworthy, are there reasons why you wouldn't use it?

From the website:

Presenting a new short fiction contest for unpublished writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

For its third edition of Spectra Pulse, Bantam Spectra is allowing unpublished writers to get their work featured alongside some of the most well-respected names in science fiction and fantasy.

One lucky winner will receive $100 and have his/her story published in the Summer 2009 issue of Spectra Pulse, Bantam Spectra’s exclusive magazine distributed at Comic-Con San Diego and select conventions and bookstores (available July 2009).

~~~

So here's the skinny: You have until January 31, 2009  to submit a spec-fic story under 2000 words. It can be submitted electronically! They'll notify the winner in March and announce officially in April.

Want more details? Go to the contest website!

Good luck!