It took me quite awhile to get into this book. I was probably about one third of the way through before I really wanted to continue reading. There are a couple inherent drawbacks to reading Phantom. First, it’s from an entirely different time. When this was written, books had a different flavor, a different format. So many things that would be considered mistakes making a manuscript un-publishable (head hopping, lots and lots of exclamation points) were common. Also, this is a translation. The book was written in French, originally, and I’ve found that there are always a few issues when reading a translated work.

So when I read this book, I tried to take those two things into account. I have to admit, the head hopping got to me. From paragraph to paragraph sometimes we were in different people’s heads. As a reader of mostly modern books, this is something that isn’t common anymore. We tend to usually have a point of view character. I admit that this issue was something that really kept tripping me up.

As far as the story itself, this really didn’t strike me as horror. Perhaps I’m jaded, but I found myself more interested in it as a mystery than horrified at it as a monster tale. I’ve never seen the musical based on the book, so I really went into it with fresh eyes and no pre-conceptions. I only had the vaguest notion of the story itself. But I was an avid reader of Stephen King (of course), Clive Barker, Dean Koontz and various other prolific and scary dudes who wrote in the 80s and 90s. So I think my sense of what horror is is very much based on those books I read as a young adult. And Phantom just doesn’t make the cut for me as horror.

I did get drawn into the story because I wanted to know what the actual deal was. I wanted to know just how crazy Eric was. I was a little disappointed in his virtue at the end and how he released Christine, but it really just compounded my confusion about who and what he was. It seemed as though Leroux wanted him to be this horrible bad guy, but then didn’t want him to be this horrible bad guy. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to like him or hate him. Subsequently, I did neither.

I think Phantom would do well as a modern re-telling. I suppose there are a number of books which pay homage to this story, but I think a close re-telling with modern writing styles would make it a really interesting and attention-riveting book. So overall, I was a bit disappointed in the horror element of this one and once I suspended my issues with the writing style, I did like following the mystery of who the O.G. was and how it all got resolved. I probably wouldn’t read it again though.

Spoiler alert: The ending is revealed in this blog post.

I’m a horror reader. I spent my teens and twenties devouring horror books like a dragon devours little men with tiny swords. I couldn’t get enough of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, Brian Lumley, et al. But one glaring hole in my horror reading is the lack of Lovecraft on my shelf. I don’t know why, but I just never got around to reading the “classics” of horror. So when I found out we would be reading Lovecraft for my Horror Genre Reading class, I was excited.

Our first Lovecraft short story is “Pickman’s Model.” It’s a framed story in that the first person narrator is telling the story to the audience (really to a person named Eliot). He’s explaining why he stopped visiting with a particularly gifted artist prior to the artist’s disappearance. Though the artist was gifted, he had a habit of painting increasingly disturbing canvases featuring dark subjects such as demons and changelings.

In his last interaction with the artist, the narrator is led to a dark part of town and down into a basement which Pickman is using for his alternate studio. In this studio, he paints even more grotesque and frightening paintings. And eventually our narrator, after being scared out of his wits there, returns home to discover that Pickman’s most recent painting – of a huge, frightening demon gnawing on the head of a human – which he saw at the studio wasn’t developed from Pickman’s imagination, but was a real thing, a real model. This is the twist ending (obviously Lovecraft does it much better).

Modern audience are jaded. After all, we’re used to twist endings, a surprise plot twist that we’d never expect. So for a modern reader, the ending is a bit anti-climactic and I imagine some will find it disappointing. After all, so many stories end in this manner. But what the modern reader has to remember is that this story was written in 1926. This was before the “I see dead people” and “Who is Kaiser Soze?” stories of today. Now people expect a twist and are sometimes disappointed if there isn’t one.

So is there nothing for the modern audience? The ending isn’t entirely unexpected, but the vividness of the tale itself is something worth experiencing, as well. The framed story concept makes this even more interesting, because it seems as if we, the readers, are in a conversation with the narrator. He even addresses Eliot as if answering questions within the conversation itself, though we never see Eliot’s inquiries. We are Eliot.

This style leads to an atmosphere of excited dread. The narrator is conveying all of these terrible things he’s seen with specific details but also with the horrified enthusiasm of someone who has been fully and truly freaked out. A reader can’t help but keep reading faster in an effort to rush to the end to see what happens. I think this is a brilliant example of how to build tension in a first person narrative.

Of course, Lovecraft is renowned for his graphic descriptions of all manner of beastie. And “Pickman’s Model” is no slouch in this area either. But what I found is that Lovecraft is very sneaky. As the narrator is being shown the paintings in the personal gallery on the way down to the studio, the descriptions of the scenes are vivid and very detailed. Each room he goes through has more and more disturbing images and Lovecraft describes one or two pieces from each as we go along with the narrator. And they are very graphic. Yet when we get to the final room, the studio, and the final, horrible painting . . . there’s not much detail. It is a giant thing with red eyes, bony, scaly claws, a dog face, flat nose and curling lips. Oh and the body is caked with mold and the feet are half-hooved. And it’s gnawing on a human body, head first. But the description is almost skirted in favor of a ranting about the part that made it most gruesome – the painter’s technique. So the most horrible parts, the things that make it truly terrifying to the reader are left to the reader’s imagination. I find that brilliant, as well.

We have, I think, one or two more Lovecraft works to read later in the term. I’m looking forward to seeing how they compare to “Pickman’s Model” particularly stylistically.

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!

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!

I'm going to do a blog series on story elements beginning today with Character. Please feel free to comment, add anything you think I may have missed and make any suggestions you think might be worthwhile for others to hear!

Character

In today's modern novel, it's not farfetched to say that character is king. Readers want to connect with characters, sympathize with them, especially your protagonist. To catch your reader and, more importantly, keep her, you must make her care about your characters. If we don't care, we won't read on.

Characters provide a moral compass for your story. Your protagonist (the character whom your story is about) is the anchor which keeps your tale on track, the lens through which you're showing the reader your story. Your reader wants to see all sorts of terrible things happen to him but, in most cases (but not all), wants him to prevail in the end. So how do you make your readers care? Make your characters believable and sympathetic.

Making characters believable

Know thy character. The more you know about your character, the easier it is to make him believable. Of course, you need to know the basics about him: body type, hair color, eye color, occupation, family, etc. But don't stop there! What hobbies does he have? What does he do when he gets angry? Does he stop for directions when he's lost? What charities does he donate money to? What's his dream car/job/vacation? What's his biggest regret in life? His biggest joy? What were the circumstances of his first kiss? Does he wish he had a brother/sister/none at all? Know your character's strengths and weaknesses, know what he wants and know what's preventing him from getting it (this goes a wee bit more to plot, but it's applicable here as well). Know what motivates him and know which character traits he has which will keep him from his goal. Give him a secret.

As you're fleshing out your character, you should understand that most of what you figure out about him, your reader will never know. But your reader will know that you know, because you will understand your character enough to know how he will react in each situation he enters. And it will be believable.

Making characters sympathetic

First, I should say, characters don't always have to be sympathetic. There are certainly genres which have unsympathetic characters as main characters. However, in order for your reader to connect with your character, to want to root for him, to care about what happens to him, she has to be able to relate to him in some way.

There are universal situations in life that most of us go through at some point: the awkwardness of adolescence, dating, loss of a loved one, learning how to drive, good relationships, bad relationships, our first traffic ticket or car accident, moving out on our own, college life, work promotions, getting fired/laid off, renting an apartment or buying a house. While you don't have to include these situations in your story (unless they are important to the plot), they flesh out your character and they can be alluded to in your manuscript. They make your character more real, more human. And that, in turn, makes readers more sympathetic.

Before closing, I also want to point out that your protagonist--the character your reader is rooting for--does not have to be your point of view character. Probably one of the more famous examples is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Tales of Sherlock Holmes. The point of view character is Dr. Watson, while the protagonist is, of course, Sherlock Holmes. Don't be afraid to play with point of view this way. Sometimes an outside voice can make the reader appreciate and care for the protagonist more. Please let me know if you found this post useful. The next Story Elements installment will be Situation. Best of luck with the writing!

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