“If You’re Bored, Your Readers Will Be Too”

Isabel as gatekeeper. You shall not pass.

I hear the titular advice a lot: “If you’re bored, your readers will be too.” It’s that kind of advice you see on inspirational posters. It’s simple enough to fit in a small space. It sounds good at the outset. And, like, many of those, it’s not very helpful.

In this case, I think it’s actually the kind of bad advice that can cause real problems because it’s absolutely not true.

See, writing is a painstaking process. Especially writing a longer work like a novel. Even for people lucky enough to write fast, or on those fantastic days when the words pour out, there’s days when the writing isn’t like that. And there’s revision, which can be torturous. If you write a lot, then you perforce spend a lot of time writing. It’s absolutely unreasonable to expect to be thrilled and fascinated every moment of the process.

Certainly not at the level you hope the readers will be.

This is the key, so I’m going to all cap it. Because, what else is the Caps Lock key for?

READING AND WRITING ARE DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES.

Do I need to say it again for the people in the back? I’m guessing no, because we all recognize that this is true. There are few more contradictory feelings for an author than releasing a book we spent the last six months or a year writing and at various levels of editing, only to have readers message within hours that they LOVED it and when is the next one coming out? On the one hand, it’s fabulous and exhilarating that people are so excited for the story that they read it immediately. There’s really no greater compliment. (So, Readers – don’t stop! That’s not what I’m saying.) On the other hand, however, it’s daunting that readers can devour so quickly what takes so long to produce.

Which is why this whole “if you’re bored, the reader will be, too” thing is a false equivalence.

What it takes me a day of work to write might feel like a slog. Let’s say I write 3,000 words/day, which is my usual goal. At my typical average of 271 words/page (this is remarkably steady across all my work), that’s about 11 pages. (That’s in Word, Times New Roman 12pt, double spaced, 1″ margins all around.) How fast do you read 11 pages? At the average reading speed of 200 words/minute, that takes 15 minutes to read what I spent hours drafting. And that’s not counting any of the editing that comes after.

OF COURSE my experience is slower and less exciting!

Neil Gaiman says that writing a novel is a lot like paving a road with bricks. (I think this was on his Tumblr – I haven’t been able to find it again. If anyone knows, please link me to it! Edited to add, I asked him on Twitter and he suggested this post, which isn’t exactly how I recalled it, but is full of awesome.) He says it can be like laying down one brick after another, slowly making progress. Laying bricks is, by nature, tedious. Painstaking, even.

You don’t go into brick-laying for the thrills; you do it because you want a paved road.

Same with writing.

If you’re bored, that’s okay. Keep going. Seek the next brick, layer on the mortar, carefully set it in place. Keep going.

If you do your job right, the reader will cruise along on a smooth road, never guessing what it took to put it there.

Exactly as it should be. 

 

Screwing Up in that First Book

I’m always terribly amused by these signs. Apparently in flat, desert landscapes like we have in New Mexico, one must beware of sudden lakes. 

A big mistake, to be cruising along and not realize the road ends in a cliff dive into water. 

That segues pretty naturally into this week’s topic at the SFF Seven: “Looking Back: Your first book’s (published or not) most cringe-worthy gaffe.” Come on over to find out about mine…

 

Does Your Family Read Your Books?

We have high winds today and Jackson is feeling the fever – here he is trying to climb the portal post. Spoiler alert: that’s as high as he got.

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is whether our spouses or close family read our books. I always find it interesting how widely this answer varies among writers – from those who cowrite with spouses, or rely upon them or close family to critique, to those whose families don’t even know they write. Come on over to find out more!

Collaborations and New Things

It’s starting to be spring here. One of the things I love about the early blossoms like these crocus is how they push up from the bracken, surprising me with their sudden spots of color. 

I’ve been writing a new character, the first scientist heroine I’ve had since Gwynn in Covenant of Thorns. This one is working as a scientist for her profession, and it’s interesting to get back in that head of a person who meticulously observes and understands nature. I used to be that person, back when I was working on my PhD in Zoology & Physiology. Now I’m thinking about stuff like form and function again, and how organisms fit into an ecosystem. I’ve even been pulling my books on natural history off the shelf to bring those parts of my brain out of the coma they’ve been in all these years. It’s like I’m turning on the lights in a wing of the castle I closed off long ago. The chimneys are belching smoke, lots of dusting to do – but I also rediscovering a lot of great stuff I forget was stored in there. 

This is the collaboration I’ve been working on. I’ve been pretty close to the vest about it, but it’s looking like this will happen! My collaborator is Jim Sorenson, who comes from a graphic novel/Transformers/GI Joe background. He lives in Albuquerque (an hour away) with his wife, who is a kick-ass trauma surgeon. Jim brings a whole other element of storytelling to the table, plus he’s experienced in working as part of a team, so he’s incredibly indulgent of my process. He’s also *really* good at observing world rules, so he’s become my walking story bible. I’ve often said I didn’t think I could collaborate with someone else on a book – because I like things MY WAY – but this has been a terrific experience. And fun!

It’s also been a stretch for me, creatively and craft-wise. It reminds me of when I went from writing short – essays and short stories – to writing novels, and I felt like I had to learn to write all over again. This has been a bit like that, learning to develop a story with another brain in the mix. 

So, we pitched an idea to Agent Sarah, and we’ve been working it up with her feedback. Jim has now signed with her, too, so we can run all the legalities of the collaboration through the agency. We just finished up another draft and sent it to her to read. That’s one of the “future project balls” I’ve been juggling that I mentioned in my Sunday post at the SFF Seven. Fingers crossed we can go on submission with it soon! 

In the meanwhile, LONEN’S WAR and LAST DANCE are on sale for 99 cents right now. (You can also get one of those free if you want to sign up for my newsletter.) Share that news around if you like! Last Dance

Lonen's War Book Cover

 

 

The Arrows of the Heart

The Artful Juggle: Planning Future Books While Keeping up with Current Deadlines

The Arrows of the Heart

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven – the challenge of maintaining a writing schedule and trying to prepare for future business – is an apropos one for me right now.

Because, boy howdy, have I been wrestling this particular challenge lately. Come on over for more!

The Arrows of the Heart

The Arrows of the Heart Has a Cover!

The Arrows of the HeartYesterday we revealed the cover of THE ARROWS OF THE HEART!

Isn’t it pretty?? Plus: CLUES.

And yes, I’m writing it and it’s coming along. Here’s a little snippet that amused me greatly:

***

Finding myself staring, pruriently fascinated, I decided to pour more [tea]. “Why do you refer to Her Highness Queen Andromeda by her title, but Her Majesty High Queen Ursula you call by any number of irreverent nicknames?”

“Irreverent nicknames,” he echoed, sounding vastly amused. “Because, my sweet Dasnarian, Queen Andromeda is my queen, Queen of the Tala. No matter how many documents my mossback cousin might draft declaring her majestyness, Annfwn and the Tala don’t belong to her and her cluster of acquired realms.”

“But Annfwn is the thirteenth kingdom of The Thirteen Kingdoms,” I pointed out. “That’s the law. Doesn’t such irreverence make you a—” I glanced about, to be sure no eager ears lurked nearby to overhear. “A traitor,” I whispered.

“A traitor?” Zyr shrieked, clutching his hands to his heart. He’d popped his chair up onto its two hind legs, so it wobbled wildly with his gesticulations, threatening to pitch him over the edge. “Oh, no! Save me, someone—the big, bad mossbacks are coming to get me!”

***

There’s a bit of insight into my process, too. The [tea] in square brackets like that means I haven’t decided what they’re drinking yet. So, rather than get distracted while I’m writing, I just put square brackets around anything I need to revisit. Then it’s easy to go back later and search for those.

So, I know I hoped for May on this, but some deadlines imposed by my traditional publisher got in the way and I had to set this aside. I’m hoping for June, but it might be July. Very early July, though! I notice my assistant is judiciously saying “Summer 2018.” She is wise.

But, once I’m confident of my progress, etc., we’ll get the preorder links up. 

 

Welcome to My Mediterranean Villa

I often joke that in my old age, I shall be writing from the balcony of my Mediterranean Villa. Grace Draven plans to live with me (we figure our husbands will be gone by then – sorry, guys!) and we’ll have several very handsome young men with medical training to look after us.

Why the Mediterranean instead of the Caribbean, you may ask? Many of you know that’s my favorite place. 

No hurricanes. Better medical care. A girl has to plan this stuff. 

That’s our topic at the SFF Seven this week: If you could not write in your customary spot, what’s your dream writing environment?

What about you all – dream writing spot? Dream retirement spot?

Important Things to Know about PRISONER OF THE CROWN

The alert readers among you – some of you people are amazing how fast you find stuff! – have noticed that I have covers and copy up for two new releases coming this year. These are the first two in the high fantasy trilogy I’m doing with Rebel Base Books, Kensington’s new Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint. (They just launched in January 2018.) The trilogy is called The Chronicles of Dasnaria – I told you before that it was The Lost Princess Chronicles, but we changed that – and the first book is PRISONER OF THE CROWN, not Princess of Dasnaria as previously reported. 

The reason for these changes? Well, it turns out that any time you put “princess” in a title, people go running straight to Young Adult (YA) in their heads. Including cover artists, it turns out. The first cover for PRISONER OF THE CROWN was way too Disney princess for the content of the book. A major problem!

Because…

And this is the entire point of this post and I hope you all will help in sharing this widely!

THIS TRILOGY IS NOT YA!

In fact, it’s not even fantasy romance. 

There’s dark shit in these books, people. Lots of rape/abuse triggers, too. 

Here’s the copy for PRISONER OF THE CROWN (releasing June 12, 2018):

 

***********

She was raised to be beautiful, nothing more. And then the rules changed…

In icy Dasnaria, rival realm to the Twelve Kingdoms, a woman’s roleis to give pleasure, produce heirs, and question nothing. But a plot to overthrow the emperor depends on the fate of his eldest daughter. And the treachery at its heart will change more than one carefully limited life…

THE GILDED CAGE

Princess Jenna has been raised in supreme luxury—and ignorance. Within the sweet-scented, golden confines of the palace seraglio, she’s never seen the sun, or a man, or even learned her numbers. But she’s been schooled enough in the paths to a woman’s power. When her betrothal is announced, she’s ready to begin the machinations that her mother promises will take Jenna from ornament to queen.

But the man named as Jenna’s husband is no innocent to be cozened or prince to charm. He’s a monster in human form, and the horrors of life under his thumb are clear within moments of her wedding vows. If Jenna is to live, she must somehow break free—and for one born to a soft prison, the way to cold, hard freedom will be a dangerous path indeed…

***********

Okay? 

The husband is a monster. He’s not an alphahole, not a hero-in-disguise, not a villain tranformed and redeeemed. This is Jenna’s story and no romance AT ALL in this first book. 

Here’s the  copy for the second book, EXILE OF THE SEAS (out September 4, 2018):

It’s a bit spoilery, but hey, so is the title, right? And if you’ve read THE EDGE OF THE BLADE, you knew what happened to her anyway, so…

 

***********

 Around the shifting borders of the Twelve Kingdoms, trade and conflict, danger and adventure put every traveler on guard . . . but some have everything to lose.
 
ESCAPED
Once she was known as Jenna, Imperial Princess of Dasnaria, schooled in graceful dance and comely submission. Until the man her parents married her off to almost killed her with his brutality.
 
Now, all she knows is that the ship she’s boarded is bound away from her vicious homeland. The warrior woman aboard says Jenna’s skill in dancing might translate into a more lethal ability. Danu’s fighter priestesses will take her in, disguise her as one of their own—and allow her to keep her silence.
 
But it’s only a matter of time until Jenna’s monster of a husband hunts her down. Her best chance to stay hidden is to hire out as bodyguard to a caravan traveling to a far-off land, home to beasts and people so unfamiliar they seem like part of a fairy tale. But her supposed prowess in combat is a fraud. And sooner or later, Jenna’s flight will end in battle—or betrayal . . .

***********

 

So, as you can suss from this, there’s not really romance in this one either. Although, there is the beginning of a something something that you keen romance-sniffers will detect. And the third book…

Well, I’m writing WARRIOR OF THE WORLD (out January 2019) right now, so we shall see!

<insert evil laugh here>

Okay, who are we kidding? You all know I love an (eventual) happy ending. But, you know, if you see readers putting these on their YA shelves on Goodreads or Booklikes, talk them out of it. Really, they’ll be glad you did. These books tell a heroic tale, but our heroine goes through some bad stuff that I didn’t want to flinch away from or gloss. 

All that said, I think the trilogy is a fantastic journey and I can’t wait for you all (those who won’t be triggered, that is) to read it!

Reviews Are for Readers – Or Are They?

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is on our calendar as “Reviews – I’m rubber, you’re glue.”

Which gave me pause, I’ll admit. The phrase comes from US playground taunts among children (do other countries have this one?) where the teased child will reply “I’m rubber, you’re glue. What bounces off me, sticks to you.” In other words saying that any insults hurled at us bounce off and stick to the the one flinging them. Come on over for my take. 

Books on Sale!

A lot of you have been sharing that the book that kicked off my Twelve Kingdoms and Uncharted Realms series, THE MARK OF THE TALA, is on sale for only $2.99 for 

the ebook version.

 Which is awesome of you all – thank you! Just thought I’d let you all know that the first book in The Uncharted Realms cycle, my RITA® Award Winning Fantasy Romance, THE PAGES OF THE MIND, is also on sale for that low, low price. 😉

Happy Weekend All!