Drinking and Thinking...about Books

Last night we went out to dinner and I actually ordered a drink. Now, as much as I enjoy my adult beverages, I don't often order drinks when we're out for dinner. They tend to be over-priced...blah blah blah. But I'd finished a project yesterday and wanted to get something to celebrate. In the spirit of celebration, I perused the menu for something a little different and ordered a mojito--a drink that I enjoy but don't have very often.

For me, picking something like that is sort of like going into a bookstore and grabbing a book from a genre that I don't normally read but I've liked before. It makes the stories I do read there more special somehow. For instance, I read a lot of YA, but very little contemporary YA. The exception to that is Hannah Moskowitz. Love her work. I don't read much homosexual erotica either (yes, jumping from YA to erotica...it's what I do), but I decided to give it a chance and found that in certain ways I like it better than a lot of straight erotica (but odds are it'll still be a less common purchase). My mainstays in reading are what I normally write--speculative. Give me some weres and vamps or spaceships or clockworks or even elves and gnomes and I'm a happy girl (as long as it's well-written and a fun story). But in those other genres... I'm a lot more picky.

A friend once told me there's nothing like a really good mojito. He's right, but there's also nothing like a really bad one. And this went beyond bad. It was horrible. It tasted like really syrupy peppermint schnapps on the rocks--a big old glass of it. Nothing against peppermint schnapps, I mean, it's tasty in hot chocolate, but it's definitely not a mojito. I sent the drink back, but the peppermint taste was so strong that not even my cajun shrimp could cover it.

So, imagine buying a not-my-genre book and sitting down to read it and ending up with a similar experience. Since it's not a standard read for me, the book that leaves the horrid taste in my mouth that no amount of Kelley Armstrong and Richelle Mead with a Mark Henry chaser will kill, risks ruining the entire genre for me. That shit will make me pick my ass up and desert an entire section of the bookstore.

Now, one good thing is I've had a decent mojito. Hell, I've had a damn good mojito. I know they're out there, so other than making sure I never order one at that particular restaurant again, I'm not going to avoid mojitos at all cost, after all, I know they can be yummy. To be fair though, odds are I won't risk ordering one blindly. It'll take having had one at the place before (mmmm....Pickle Barrel...) or having a friend tell me the place makes good ones. Otherwise, I'm going to stick to what I normally drink.

The same is true with books. If I pick up a YA contemporary that turns my stomach (or melts my brain), I'm still going to buy the next Hannah Moskowitz book. A gay erotic romance with no character development or discernable plot? Meh. I know there are good ones out there, but I'll base that reading on recommendations from now on. This is, from my discussions with others, a pretty standard way of thinking. Beyond judging a book by its cover, readers often judge a genre based on the first book they read in that genre.

So every writer--traditional, digital, indie, I-don't-care-what-the-newest-label-is--needs to keep that in mind. That means the editing, plot, characterizations need to be the best you can make them. Your book could be the first one a reader picks up in that genre. It will be the book by which all others are judged. What kind of taste do you want to leave in the reader's mouth?

Have there been any books that you've read that would have turned you off to a genre if you didn't already know there were better books out there?

Name That Band!

First and foremost, I'm starting a new feature on Mondays. Sometimes it'll be more in depth than others, so please stop by and check it out (Hint: ManCandy).

Anyway, the heroine of Badlands 2 is being obstinate about telling me her tale, so I took a short break to work on (appropriately enough) a short story. It's going pretty well, but the hero is a member of a rock band and I need to give the band a name. Bantering around on FB and Twitter has gotten me several suggestions, but I can't decide. So, I decided to have a nice little poll here. I'm going to list the options that I liked for the band name, and I want you to vote on your favorite. Easy-peasy! (If it helps, think of the band as kind of Shinedown-like in nature. If you don't know them, I'll even provide you a video to help give you a feel of the kind of music they play.)

Band name options are:

Poets & Pornstars (Added after 3 votes and Psynde telling me not to skip it :P)
Taboo Coalition
Targets and Taboos (TnT)
Targets and Triggers (TnT)
Triggerhappy

Just mention your favorite in your comment, and thanks for voting :)

Arrogance, Men and Romantic Times

Because if that title doesn't get me hits, I don't know what will.

Just kidding. Today's blog is going to be a bit of a mishmash, so please bear with me. Maybe by the end it'll all come together in some brilliant epiphany about the meaning of life.

Yeah. I kind of doubt it too.

One of my beta readers loves to point out how arrogant she thinks a particular character of mine is. I actually find it funny, because I see him as more...childish than arrogant, but she detests him because of it. This led me to thinking about arrogance in men in general, and I came to the conclusion that for me very few guys can pull off arrogance. Most look like complete assholes, but every once in a while it works (generally when accompanied by some sort of insecurity, but that's another story). So last night I asked twitter if they found arrogance appealing in the opposite sex, whether real or fictional people. The results weren't surprising, but were a little interesting.

Nicole said:

Is arrogance sexy/appealing? Not to me. Not even if it's deserved or understandable.

Andrea agreed:

No... not at all. One of the most off-putting qualities. Pretty much insures I'll hate them. Real and fictional...

Danielle was a little more forgiving:

It can be, but you have to be careful not to cross the line into asshole territory.

As was PJ:

A little arrogance at the right time can be insanely sexy. Too much and it gets to be a turn off real quick.

Laura differentiated between fictional and real:

I think arrogance is more appealing in a fictional character than in reality. Confidence is better in RL. But it's a fine line to walk.

Renae said much the same thing:

Appealing? No. Much more forgivable in fictional characters, but, I'll never say "if only he was more arrogant, he'd be hot"

Kelly was the most in tune with arrogance:

I usually go for the alpha guys in real life and in fictional characters. Arrogance is part of the package

Interestingly enough, all of the answers I got from men said no.

From Ken:

Confidance, snark, and a sharp wit = yes. Arrogance crosses the line and is generally a no.

Of course, I had to ask if acknowledging one had the first three by default made them arrogant. Apparently that could go either way. Hmmm...

But like everything, it seems people can't all agree on the appeal of arrogance. I debated doing a second poll with the same people asking them to rank their own arrogance, but that seemed even less scientific than the initial poll, so I quit while I was ahead.

On the topic of arrogant men, however, I'm getting ready to get my male model fix for the year. I know, I know, they aren't all arrogant--some are just really, really, really confident. Anyway...I leave for RT in twelve days. My last RT post, I had seventeen weeks! Now I'm down to less than two. All those fabulous promo plans...uh...not happening this year. What I want to do frankly cost too much to pull off with the revenue only coming in from a few shorts. Maybe by Authors After Dark this summer, but not for RT. I will have at least one project ready to pitch, maybe two (one adult, one YA). Even though the panel I'd planned for didn't happen, the lovely ladies at Steamed invited me to be part of the steampunk social on Friday, so I'm very geeked about that.

Right now though, I'm at the point I'm just trying to keep my head screwed on straight so I make sure everything is done and ready to go when I take off to drop the kids at my mom's house. Because once I leave here, if I've forgotten it, I just have to do without, which won't make me a happy camper.

So...what do I need to remember to take with me? (One of my lovely editors arranged for another of my lovely editors to pick up my vodka for me in advance, so WOOT! there will be booze!)

Two Days and Twenty Questions

In less than forty-eight hours, NaNoWriMo 2010 begins. I have my file for Blood Kissed #3 ready to go with most (if not all) of the major players with character pages and folders of plot points I want to hit. Thing is I want to have this puppy done by mid-December at the latest and I'm estimating it at 75-80k. So...yeah. That means I need to write a minimum of 2k a day throughout November, preferably 2.5-3k. It's going to be a tough one, but I'm determined to give it my best effort. I want this, and I've been told people want this story.

I just hope they still want it when it's done LOL.

But in the meantime, I'm doing my best not to freak out about the numbers. I'm trying not to think about all the days my kids have off school in November, or the pre-holiday shopping, or the revisions that I know will be hitting my inbox during the month. Nope. I'm just focusing on the story and the new characters I'm dying to write. I still have a little bit of "casting" to do in order to appease the visual side of my nature, and I want to flesh out some sections of the plot more. But I can't wait to tell this story. So that's where my energy is at least for now. There will be time for panic later.

In the meantime, Ellen Keener interviewed me for her blog. Twenty questions, people! Please read the post so I don't think I spent all the time answering them in vain. K? Thanks.

To Be a Writer

Yesterday I came to a realization about this whole "published author" thing. In order to really commit to it (especially digital publishing), you have to be at least a little bit insane.

Right now, I have contracts with two publishers. If everything goes right, it'll be three before the end of the year. I'm working on series for the first two. Let's start by quietly understanding that—I am a brand new author and I'm working on two series for two publishers. They aren't going to care about each other's timelines, and if my stories sell, they are going to care about getting more from me.

This is a mixed blessing. Yay—they want more! Boo—somehow I have to be the one who figures out how to balance everything. If I had years in the business, I might have all the tools at my disposal to accomplish that, as is…I'm winging it.

So far, I'm not doing too badly, but a few weeks ago I looked at the calendar and realized National Novel Writing Month was right around the corner. I sat for a full ten minutes staring at the calendar with one thought in mind: which project do I work on (ie—which publisher is going to get something first)? In the time since then, I've struggled to stay focused on anything because I kept changing my mind.

Last weekend, while working on two very sex-heavy holiday stories, I decided to go with the much less erotic option for NaNo. I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief, convinced my internal stabilizer would get back online finally.

Then the other publisher held out a carrot to its authors. A fairly impressive carrot.

My internal stabilizer went haywire again and options started flying through my head. Buh-bye Focus.

After a few conversations with the publisher in question, the real insanity set in. You see, while I'm pretty sure I'll get my 50k in November (I haven't lost NaNo yet), I'm not certain I'll finish that novel in time for the carrot. I'm definitely going to try, but since I'm not positive and I really want that carrot, I'm also initiating Plan B.

Plan B involves taking a novel that I'd trunked a while ago and shining it up. Before November. You know, those eighteen days when I'm also supposed to be editing and submitting those two holiday stories?

Yeah. I'm pretty sure I've completely lost it. Oddly enough, I feel good about the decision. It's not because I work best under pressure (sometimes I do, but not often enough to claim it). I think in this particular case it's just because I'm not fighting the pull of the madness. (And because I know come December, I'm free and clear to work on the other project, which might not have been long enough for NaNo anyway.)

Stabilizer is momentarily working fine. Now if I could just figure out this navigation thing, I'd be all set.

Manuscript, Interrupted

One of the rules I live by as a writer is when one project is done, I start another one. Especially in e-publishing, authors are expected to be prolific, so there's no time to rest on one's laurels. That means after I signed my contracts, I got back to work.

When I was in Myrtle Beach, I started a new paranormal romance. For a while it went really well. Unfortunately, I was pantsing the story, and I reached about 10k and kind of stalled. Pantsing never has really worked for me though, and I proceeded to take a day and plot the rest of the story. Got back to work and cranked out about another 10-15k.

Then, about a week before I left for Toronto (yes, it's been a busy couple months for travel), I received the first round of edits for Badlands. Obviously, I dropped the new story to take care of edits. Then I left for Toronto. So I was away from the new story for about two weeks.

Once I got home, I tried to work on it again, but the momentum I'd had disappeared. I still made progress, but it was much slower going. I finally broke the 30k mark a few days before leaving on my next trip, and then the line edits on Badlands showed up in my inbox.

I knew once I stopped working on it so I could do edits, I'd be starting all over with regard to forward momentum. Considering I have a holiday story I need to get to as well, I finally made the decision to set aside the new manuscript until I'm back from this trip. Instead, I'm taking the week to focus on the line edits, some critiquing and the holiday story.

For those who are wondering, it's a Jocelyn holiday story, and part of the reason I'm willing to sideline other things for it is that people seem to like and want more of her story. This is me doing my best to give it to them. Hopefully the Powers that Be like it.

By the next post, I should be home, and hopefully that will mean Jocelyn's new story is done and I will get back to the sidelined manuscript until it's finished. But as long as the story is working at all, I won't quit on it. I hope it finds a home and that my fans and friends will get to see another side of my writing.

So what's derailed your writing lately?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I Always Wanted to Be a Caveman

My friend PJ Schnyder and I are planning a writers' weekend this fall. Originally we were looking at Florida, then a photographer friend of hers said, "Come to Vegas, we'll do a photo shoot." She suggested this, and while part of me said, "Cool! Vegas, baby!" the other part of me looked at myself and cringed at the thought of pictures.

PJ, in her wisdom, said to look at the trip as motivation. After a lot of stress and ice cream (yes, I am a stress-eater), I decided to say screw it and try this diet my friend, Dani, has been having a lot of success with. Of course, it gets a little sticky in that after this week, I'll be spending a week with my in-laws, then a week with my extended family. Remember that stress-eating thing? Yeah. I'm screwed.

But I figured even if I fall majorly off the weekend during that time, I can at least get a try this thing out for a solid week first. So, from now until at least next Saturday, I am a caveman.

Different people call the diet different things: the Paleolithic Diet, the Caveman Diet, the What-Are-You-Thinking-You're-A-Modern-Woman Diet. Okay, that last one was mine. Basically at this stage, the diet involves grazing on foods that could realistically have been gathered back in the stone age. Nuts (but not peanuts or cashews) that are in their plain, raw state, fruit (especially berries), and veggies with a preference for root vegetables (except potatoes). That's during the day. Then for dinner you can have whatever you want (this changes in later stages).

Honestly, at this point, the diet seems nice and healthy. Only a couple of problems. I don't really like much of what I can eat during the day. Fruit is fine (especially with it being summer), but vegetables and nuts? Um. Yeah.

I'm going to give it a try though. I've been told the weight loss is enough of a motivator to stick to it. Here's hoping. I'll let you know next week how things went, but I probably won't update on it again until all the visits are over.

But anyway, if I'm crabby this week, please blame the diet.