Worlds to Dream In

My November Rose. This picture was taken today November 6th!

I was delighted to see my roses survived last night’s frost, and it got me thinking about roses and writers.

Roses are like writers in many ways. The ones which thrive can triumph over adversity. Roses have frost. Writers have rejection.

Rejection can kill a writer just as quickly as frost can kill a rose.  But frost and rejection are inevitable, even the lucky few who get published with their first manuscript will eventually have to face rejection.  If not, there are always bad reviews and changing markets. Publishing is a tough business.

And the world is a tough place for a rose. How did mine survive? They’re in pots up against the base of my wooden deck, which provides several feet of added warmth and a windbreak.

Our chapter mates and colleagues are our warmth and windbreakers. They help to shelter us and keep us going when the publishing world gets cold.

However, there is one way writers are very different from roses. Roses need fertilizer to flourish.  In other words, roses need bullsh*t.  

Writers don’t. We need friends and chapter mates who will (kindly) tell us how they see it. That doesn’t mean we change our work to make everyone happy, (an impossible feat anyway) it just means making sure we aren’t walking around with rose-colored glasses.

So, I hope you all persevere through the inescapable frost, and when you see me, please, mind the thorns.*g*

“…therefore  is winged cupid painted blind.”  A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream (I,i,234)

with apologies to the readers and writers who are tired of beautiful heroines and handsome heroes.  I respectfully argue that Shakespeare had it right.

The quote above is spoke by Helena whose love, Demetrius, is in love with Hermia.

Though Helena says earlier to Hermia, ‘teach me how you look.” and wishes Hermia’s looks were contagious, implying Hermia is prettier, she also says, “Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.  But Demetrius thinks not so; He will not know what all but he do know.” (AMSND I,i, 227-228)

Shakespeare uses her monologue to give us Helena’s pov.  As a writer, I use third person, but I also want my reader to enter the skin of my characters, to feel what he or she is feeling, to see what he or she is seeing.

My heroes and heroines are stunningly attractive because they are seen through the lens of someone falling in love.

That’s my take.  What’s yours?

Frederick Douglass

“It’s all been done before” is a common complaint of writers.

I say seeds of the plots have been done, but the fruit produced depends on the writer, and each one of us is a unique creation of genetics and background that can never be copied.

I was born and grew up in Rochester, New York, so during my formative years I heard a lot about Frederick Douglass, the famous abolitionist.

According to some historians, Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland between Hillsboro and Cordova.  He escaped at the age of twenty by impersonating a sailor.  Having taught himself to read while a slave, he began to make a name for himself as an accomplished orator against slavery.

Impressed with the abolitionists in New York State, he went to live in Rochester and began his anti-slavery newspaper, The North Star.

Hearing about him and other well-known abolitionists who lived in New York in the 19^th century, I began to think about what it would be like to be a slave.  To have no rights over your own person, no say in where you go or what you do.  To be denied even the privilege of learning to read.  These imaginings sparked my first manuscript, a Sci-Fi Romance about a slave on a distant planet who intends to assassinate her captor.

Then I began to wonder what I would have done if I had lived in the 19^th century.  As an inveterate rule follower, I have the sinking feeling I would have relied on the rule of law rather than moral principle, but I hope I would’ve stood against slavery.  Maybe even put my life and liberty on the line and become a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad.

Many of these courageous people lived double lives, hiding their heroic actions in order to rescue hundreds of men, women, and children from one of the most degrading institutions in history.

That idea generated my second book.

Tia, the heroine in Starjacked, is a space pirate with a strict (if twisted) moral code.  She accepts slavery as a reality in her world, but works underground to free children who have been enslaved.  Rork, the hero, is an undercover operative for the Union of Planets.  All he sees is the hardened pirate she shows to the world, and he plans to bring her to justice.

Though the story I’ve written finds its basis in history, the setting and characters make it different; just as every writer is different.

Characters I’ve written about in various manuscripts range from a crippled Valayan Wanderer (modeled on gypsies) to imprisoned shape shifters who don’t know they’re shifters, but no matter how diverse the settings and plots, they all derive from history.

I have a non-writer/non-reader friend who says, “How do you come up with this stuff?”  I take it as a compliment, but deep inside I know exactly where I come up with this stuff—history.

It’s all been done before.  Hallelujah!

Let me know what influences you, or visit the Samhellion for more research related articles!

This isn't the worst thing that's happened to me, but it's not the best...

I received a couple of requests from pitch sessions at the RWA National Conference, so I hurried home and did a read through of my material, a paranormal romance manuscript that I was very happy with.  I expected to clear up any typos or missing words and submit.  What I found were three scenes which were only doing half of what they should.

At the most basic level, a scene should move the plot along.  As I’m a pantser, I use the second draft to ensure each scene is accomplishing that task.  But there’s a deeper question to ask when reviewing your scenes.  Did I take this scene as far as I could?

Whether a scene advances the internal plot or the external plot, a genre writer needs to take her scenes to the extreme.  If there’s a physical fight, and the hero loses, the consequences have to be the highest possible within the context of your plot and its place in the manuscript .  If it’s a contemporary romance, and near the beginning, he might have his eye swell shut.  At the end, he might wind up in the hospital.  If we’re talking vampires,  a fight in the beginning might make him desperate to feed, at the end he might be taken to the very edge of existence.

As I was reading my manuscript, I realized that I had let my main characters off far too easily.  I had trapped them in an area being flooded with poison gas, but the hero immediately saw a way out and took it.  I went back and had them try several other things and had him find the solution only after the gas had begun to affect them.

Now how about you?  How have you revved up your scenes?

I’m not up for an award at the Golden Heart/Rita’s on Saturday night, but I still want to dress up.  Should I wear the salwar kameez I wore for the DH’s cousin’s wedding.  Or go with a traditional evening gown?

Let me know what you think.

Should I wear this or an evening gown?

I'll wear this, but I'm not pitching for you and you can't make me!

I’m counting the days until the RWA National conference.  I go almost every year.  I learn a ton from the workshops, have a great time with friends, discover new authors at the booksignings, and generally recharge my writing juices.

Then of course, there’s the event which we all sweat — the pitch session.

Can you hear the low murmur in the air?  That’s authors practicing their elevator pitches.  Three magical lines that will open the door to the “requested material ticket.”  I actually got published as a result of a pitch session (though it was at my local conference.  Go Central Ohio Fiction Writers!)

I have yet to work on my pitch for national — though I assure you I will<g>.

If you’re a novice pitcher, let me say first, relax.  Editors and agents are just people.  He or she probably got up in the morning in the same hotel you did and went through the dressing ritual same as you.  She (though probably not he) worried about the run in her stocking and the chip in her toenail polish, or that she grabbed the navy shoes instead of the black.

If you fumble around it’s ok.  You’re not being graded on your public speaking.  The editor or agent will probably lead you though it if you need it,  and if they are not understanding and helpful — you probably don’t want to work with him or her anyway.

Second, remember the basics: Goal, Motivation and Conflict.  Popular fiction is not about two people struggling to love themselves and accept love.   (Most of my books have this theme at their core, but that isn’t what sells a book.)

The pitch for STARJACKED IS:  After the murders of his wife and unborn child, (M) an undecover operative burns to erradicate every piece of pirate scum in the galaxy, (G) but when his life is saved by a beautiful space pirate, he finds himself falling for the very person he’s sworn to destroy. (C)

Look at your pitch.  If you can’t indentify the GMC neither can the editor or agent.

Third, relax.  Editors and agents will usually request at least a partial.  That’s why they’re there after all.

Fourth, smile.  It will relax you.

So all you pitchers out there, got some advice or want to share your short pitch? I’d love to hear them!

And please feel free to suggest captions or send pet pix to the non-humanoid support crew page!

See you in DC!

Karin