Best Laid Plans and Magical News!

I had Plans for today’s blog post here at the SFF Seven. But we know what the poet said about best-laid plans…

Yes, my day has gang agley.

All in a good way, though. I got a lot done. Important stuff, just not quite the several steps required to post what I hoped to post today. So the short and dirty update is:

  • TWISTED MAGIC will have a release date and preorder link soon!! (Though you can already preorder it on my website.)
  • Of my new book that I’ve been writing, the one I wasn’t supposed to be writing, but that insisted on being written, which I’ve been calling ONEIRA, Agent Sarah said: “You’ve crafted your very own fairytale, Jeffe and it’s magic.”
  • We strategized today, so look for more news on ONEIRA soon! And on TWISTED MAGIC!

 

 

First Cup of Coffee – August 7, 2023

My bizarre story about mistaken identity and the revelation it gave me on how we talk to each other and – most importantly – how writers communicate with agents. Also, highly recommend the Willamette Writers Conference!



Writing What I Read

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re asking: “Do you read in the genre you write?”

What’s funny is that my answer is absolutely yes – but that I didn’t always write in the genre I read. Does that make sense?

I have always read Fantasy and Science Fiction, since I was a little kid, and I’ve been reading Romance since I was old enough to walk to the used bookstore to buy my own books, as my mom wouldn’t let me read “that trash.” (Because she thought Romance was low-brow and anti-feminist, not because of the sex.) But when I started out as a writer, I wrote Creative Nonfiction.

Some of this was timing and coincidence. When I decided I wanted to be a writer instead of a scientist, one of the first classes I took was “Essays on Self and Place,” from a visiting writer at the university. I fell easily into writing essays and had success with them. My first book was an essay collection. And, sure, I read some essays. I read a lot of essay collections and memoir. But I was always reading them as research and reciprocity.

All that time, what I read for pure enjoyment? Anything with a paranormal/SFF element and plenty of Romance.

It was only after my first book came out that a friend – a bookseller who knew my tastes and sold me hardcover releases of JD Robb, Laurell K. Hamilton, Stephenie Meyer, and Jaqueline Carey – asked me why I wasn’t writing in the genres I so clearly loved to read.

Funny that. It simply hadn’t occurred to me. But then I started to, I wrote this Fantasy Romance* (not a genre then, but what did I know??) that was SO MUCH FREAKING FUN TO WRITE. I couldn’t believe how much more fun I had writing my crazy tale about a scientist who falls into Faerie, becomes a sorceress, and ends up in a bargain with a fae lord to bear his child. I even got a really nice rejection on the book from Stephenie Meyer’s agent! (Though it took a long time for me to sell it, which is another tale.)

The rest is history. ~ Waves at catalogue of Epic Fantasy Romances ~ I haven’t looked back. Writing what I love to read has absolutely been a great decision.

*The book that became ROGUE’S PAWN

Contemplating Failure

Know what this is?? It’s a teaser for the cover of TWISTED MAGIC, Book #3 in Renegades of Magic!!

Yes, I have the cover – and have had for a while – but I’ve been hanging onto it until I could set up a release date and preorder link. I’m a bit on tenterhooks at the moment, waiting on feedback from Agent Sarah on the book I wrote that fell on me from out of the sky and insisted on being written: ONEIRA. Once I know whether she wants to take it on submission to traditional publishing or if I’ll self-publish it (in August!), then I’ll be able to set a date for the TWISTED MAGIC release. Meanwhile, you can preorder the book via my website store!

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re talking about failure. Ostensibly, the topic is reassuring ourselves that we are not failures and offering wise words to that effect. I say “ostensibly” because I don’t think it’s possible to say that we are not failures. We are all failures, at some point, in some way, on the large or small scale. Failing at something is a natural part of life. Everything, everywhere, fails to do something or another, usually multiple times, probably more often than they succeed.

I’m being persnickety about this because I think the concept of failure gets a bad rap. As if it’s something we’re supposed to avoid at all costs. I can’t be honest and tell you you’re not a failure. I can’t be honest with myself and say that. I’ve failed at all kinds of things I’ve tried to do. I wrestle daily with facing that I’ve failed to reached certain goals. But the answer isn’t some pep talk where I pat myself on the head and console myself with the comforting words that I haven’t actually failed. That doesn’t benefit me. Instead I have to look at why I haven’t succeeded at what I set out to do. A lot of it may not be within my control. A great deal of publishing isn’t. And it’s good for me to look at that and cut away those things I can’t control – and then focus on what I can control. What can I do better? How can I change my strategy? What can I learn from this failure?

Let me emphasize: failure is okay! We learn from failure.

I’m not going to tell you that you’re not a failure because you are one, just like every other living creature. Life is about the attempt; failure and success are only metrics by which to measure the result. Learn, and live.

 

First Cup of Coffee – July 21, 2023

Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Oppenheimer – I’m talking story structure, breaking the gridlock of chronology (which both of these do), the difference between backstory and flashbacks, and how a climactic beat CAN happen in a flashback!