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Um, yeah, I’ve been up since 4:30. I’ve done some of the line edits on my plate today, visited all the blogs, caught up on all the loops, and have been, for reasons not worth exmining, been reading the online Scarlet Pimpernel off of Bibliomania.
Please ignore the rambling. Scroll down to the next post to see my new covers.
If you’re an author and you have a picture of yourself surrounded by the ARCs/galleys of your book (in manner of this) please contact me.
And now, onto Veronica Mars. As usual, spoilers are in white text. Highlight to see (or, as one RSS reader angrily told me, look away now!)
WTF people?!?!?!?!?!?!? Has our girl gone TSTL or what? Look, I went to college. I knew people who had, LIKE VERONICA, been raped as a result of being slipped roofies and other drugs. Do you know the main thing these women had in common? They never took their eyes of their drinks. Ever. They never had uncapped drinks, they never left their drinks unattended, they never accepted drinks from people who said, “I can’t finish this, want it?” and in extreme cases, they would only accept drinks from bartenders’ hands directly, not bartenders who would prepare drinks them leave them on the bar (where anyone could get at them) to be picked up by servers and served. They lectured anyone who would listen about the dangers of drinking items if you didn’t know where they’d been. So much is made of the fact that Veronica is scarred by her experiences with untrustworthy men. What about her other experiences? What about the fact that she was drugged and raped, what about the fact that she’s a P.I. closely dealing with a serial rapist on campus? Should she be even MORE vigilant about her drinks? And even if you’re going to try to get me to believe that she’d just leave her drink there and wander around, there is no way I’m going to believe that, once she starts feeling the effects of the drug, her response would be to leave the nice, crowded, well-lit food court and wander down to the deserted parking garage. No. The Veronica I know would grab the nearest co-ed and say, “Call campus police. I think I’ve been drugged.” And I think she WOULD think she’s been drugged. With the serial rapist on the forefront of her mind, I doubt her first reaction woould be, “Gee, I don’t think that capellini is agreeing with me. YES, even under reduced mental capabilities. SERIAL RAPIST ROAMING CAMPUS.
I believe that Veronica would have behaved in the manner she did this episode about as readily as I believe that Logan would actually notice a car alarm going off in southern California. Yes, once he (luckily) noticed that it was Veronica’s car, and saw that someone had clicked the alarm off, I believe he would have gone looking for her, since, you know, she owns the car and he was looking for her.
Speaking of Logan, that’s another WTF moment, as far as I’m concerned. What’s all this “just trust me” crap. That only works if the secret is actually trustworthy. I was expecting it to be some kind of therapy session (Sociopaths Anonymous?) that he can’t share. “Just trust me, he’s not a rapist, only a Mexican arsonist-and-runner” doesn’t quite have the same cache. And of course, Logan’s part in the whole affair only further points out that he’s not a good guy, he’s just protective of the people he loves. I also don’t know if I believe him, given the whole setting-the-pool-on-fire thing. It’s disturbing and I’ve lost a lot of faith in the character, and I suspect that the writers are trying to pound it into our head that Logan is Not a Good Guy. I was clinging to the idea that his earlier sociopathic tendencies are always brought on by periods of great emotional stress — the whole girlfriend being brutally murdered, girlfriend’s best friend blaming it on own best friend’s dad, father beating, mother committing suicide, father revealed to have first slept with, then murdered old girlfriend as is trying to kill new girlfriend — thing (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, someone get this kid into therapy!)
The Mutant Enemy people pulled a similar stunt with constantly and explicitly trying to remind all the Spikelovers that Spike is Not a Good Guy, and it didn’t work, and eventually they gave in and gave him a soul, blah blah blah, but I gotta say, it worked just fine for me. I lvoed the Spike character. I even loved his nonrequited love for Buffy. I didn’t love it when he expected a return of affection, or got all schmoopy, or got a soul. Blecccch. Their reminders that he was bad worked for me. I liked him bad. I didn’t want him ot get all good. Logan isn’t evil like Spike. He’s not a torturing, murdering, blah blah blah fiend of the night. He’s a kid who fucks up a lot, and needs therapy, but isn’t evil evil. Veronica is supposed to fix him. guess this is supposed to show that she doesn’t have any effect on him. And I guess, also, that they will now break up, and, as Logan does every time they break up, he will go about showing how bad he can really be, because he’s self-destructive like that.
And I know I’ve been complaining about Logan losing his edge. So am I happy now? Um, no…
Schmoop schmoop schmoop.
Justine says my problem is that I’m watching it on TV for the first time, rather than Netflix. I think she may be right.
With no further ado, I give you the new cover concepts for the Secret Society Girl series.
Please note the Rose & Grave pins on the Amys’ shirts. That’s all me. I had this pin designed, I had it made, and I’ve been using them as promo prizes since the hardcover came out. I’m so pleased that they incorporated my little brainchild into the new design.
The other thing I’m please about is that these books are being offered at the low low low price of $10. That’s cheaper than a martini in Manhattan, folks.
Secret Society Girl: The Paperback (released May 1, 2007) and Under the Rose: Now With 100% more football (released June 26, 2007) are available for pre-order from Amazon and other fine online retailers.
Updated to add: Yes, they are in trade paperback. Hence the title of this post. Hence the new low price. Cool, huh?
And also: No, they are not YA. They’ve never been YA, and when they become YA, I’ll let you know. Okay?
Like many writers, I’ve been glued to the latest incarnation of Romantic Times and Dorchester Publishing’s American Title. The latest round of eliminations centers around descriptions of the hero and heroine. Though there are usually a few howlers in the judges’ comments, I’ve found the latest entries to be particularly enlightening (read: frustrating). Every aspiring writer should read the judges’ comments on the entries. Heck, every writer period should do it. Anyone who wonders why an agent can say “I just didn’t fall in love with it,” or an editor can feel free to reject something that may sell, and well, because they don’t personally care for it — in short, anyone who has the slightest idea that this business isn’t subjective should take a gander upon the latest in feedback.
Lindsey Brook’s entry gets a comment about the unsuitability of firemen as romantic heroes, “especially since 9/11″ from editor Hillary Ross. Gotta say, this is new information for me. I read category romances all the time, and usually, firemen heroes are advertised as a hook (Jill Shalvis writes them a lot), in the same manner as other likely-to-be-killed-in-the-line-of-duty heroes like cops or Navy SEALs. Is this a new thing? Perhaps in the last five years or so?
Later, with Kimberly Howe’s entry, Ms. Ross says a military heroine is a turnoff because she “disapprove[s] of women who choose to go into combat.” That was definitely a double take on my part. Note to self: kickass heroines are not for Ms. Ross. Finally, Ms. Ross takes to task a writer (Raz Steele), whose twenty-eight year old heroine is a junior in college:
“Someone so neurotic is a psychology professor, not to mention the hero? And the heroine has more problems than those listed if she is still an undergraduate at 28.”
This last bit offended me, though perhaps I was already touchy from the whole women-in-combat thing. There could be any number of reasons she was an older student! (Lack of funds, going back to school for another degree, sickness, military duty (even non-combat!), never wanting to go to school before, etc.) But now, rereading, I think it likely that Ms. Ross is only saying that there probably is a reason, and the writer’s short description doesn’t list it, but should. At least, I hope that’s a case. I really hate the implication that someone has a “problem” if they’re an older student.
Moving on to… RT columnist and reviewer “Flavia Knightsbridge,” who is supposed to be the “Simon” of the group. Flavia’s schtick is to call every author on using “cliches.” She skewers the usual cops, secret agents, librarians, chefs, etc., until you get a really different relationship, which she then also skewers. Jenny Gardiner’s chick lit (so, obviously not going to be focusing so much on the hero, but don’t get me started about how unfair these “categories” are) is lambasted for not giving enough insight into the “boring husband’s” perspective. In contrast, she drools all over the quirks of the neurotic prof and late-in-life student the other judges despised. It’s the same old: fresh and new, but only in the way we want it. Apparently, Flavia wants quirks.
Sometimes, she doesn’t even comment on the characters, as in the case of Linda Thomas-Sundstrom’s entry. She’s too busy making fun of the names:
Finally, a romance novel starring Barbie and Ken! Because I always wondered what happened behind the Malibu Dream House doors … Seriously, if your characters are as plastic as their alter egos, we’ve got trouble.
Yeah, because a heroine who describes her exercise routine as “jumping to conclusions” and a hero whose profession is “graveyard keeper” sound incredibly plastic.
The final judge, editor Leslie Kazanjian, is supposed to be the nice one. She always gives the mildest comments, and is, I supposed, instructed to “like” everyone. But she had some difficulties with this one. Check out a few of her backhanded compliments:
The chaos of Claire’s life and the confusion of Jack’s could add up to two slyly sweet, endearing and sympathetic characters whose happiness we’ll root for, but the proof will lie in the execution — it’s gonna take both wit and wisdom to handle this pair!
However improbable, I like the idea of a tough-minded nurse going to bat against dangerous Japanese bad guys to rescue her sister, and I trust that the ex-Army undercover operative she encounters will prove sexy as sin.
Over and over again, I was seeing “improbable,” “boring” and “cliched.” So there’s the real trick, ladies and gentlemen. Believable, interesting, and original but not too out-there. Unless of course, you’re sending to someone who lives for quirks. That’s the other trick. Sending to someone who gets you. This is pretty hard, because you’re not necessarily going to know what an agent’s or editor’s little turn ons or turn offs will be. But hey, if this were easy, everyone would do it.
Reading stuff like this is really valuable, in the “refreshing, humbling, and painful” definition of ‘valuable.’ It gives you a little insight into what exactly is going on in the minds of the publishers evaluating your work. The old “not right for us” could be anything from, “I don’t do women in combat,” to “this set up was old when Methuselah wrote it.”
I know who I want to win… but I ain’t saying. Anyway, go read and vote!
I’ve got a lot on my plate today. A bunch of line edits for Under the Rose (due next week) and more work to go on my W.I.P. (I’ve almost used up all my advance capital from last week. According to my chart, I’ve enough word count to last me until Wednesday.)
Last night I went to a wedding reception for two friends, which was lots of fun. The bride is Russian, so the reception featured all sorts of great Russian touches in the food and drink selection. I had horseradish and pickle and honey-and-pepper flavored vodkas. Sailor Boy and I were informed of a tradition in which we, as the next to be married, were supposed to eat the pickle and garlic clove from inside the bottle. I suspect, perhaps, that this “tradition” was made up on the spot in order to watch us squirm. And squirm we did, because, um, gross. I was assigned the pickle, and I think, judging from the expression on SB’s face, that I got the (very) slightly better end of the deal. I also met a librarian and we had lots of good discussions about books. Ooh, books. Love books.
I also realized how many books I have started and not finished. It’s nothing where I’m not compelled to finish, but I just have SO MANY books in my “to be read” pile and they are scattered about my apartment that I just keep picking them up at different times and then misplacing them. I should probably limit myself to short stories or novellas for that reason, at least until I’m given more of a chance to do steady reading work. Good thing both Magic for Beginners and Viva Las Bad Boys are on my list of half-finished. I’m also part of the way through: Slave to Sensation, Oh My Goth, Wuthering High, Rebel Angels, and The Subtle Knife. I need to start focusing more.
Or maybe, clean my apartment. Okay, off to work.
I’m off to a potluck and Xmas ornament painting party today. I know, it sounds a little bizarre, but it’s actually a blast. I was just saying to Sailor Boy the other day how rarely I do visual art of any kind (mostly because I’m pretty rotten at it) but I’ve always like coloring, and I love this party, because we all just goof off. Last year I painted a dappled reindeer and a Santa wearing a Merlin outfit, complete with a blue hat and little gold stars.
And, I have a new essay up at Romancing the Blog. Check it out.
 My dear friend, the fabulous Wendy Roberts, (author of Dating Can Be Deadly) has just sold a three book deal to Penguin!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations, Wendy! Go give her some props!
Doing for the Dead, her mystery series about a crime scene cleaner who can see dead people will debut in December of 2007.
Colleen, Jana, Elly, and I could not be happier for you!
And yes, blog readers, this is one of the little secret bits of news I’ve been keeping under my hat.
First off, I have officially hit the halfway mark of my NaNoWrimo Novel. Feel free to celebrate, congratulate, jeer, or even cast dire predictions that I’ll crash and burn for the next twenty days.
Meanwhile:
NaNoWrimo
25005 / 50000 (50.0%)
Those of you who saw Tuesday’s post may note that this is only 2k more words. However, I have my reasons. I have been simultaneously working on line edits for Under the Rose, and I have been working on revisions of the stuff I’ve written on this proposal so far. I think that may be against NaNo rules, but what the hey. Researchign probably is, too, and I don’t think I can ever stop doing that. I did a particularly wonderful bit of it today, in fact. Woo hoo, research!
Onto other topics. I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend of late in industry blogs and email loops that I frequent. I’m not quite sure what to call it. Sometimes, it takes the form of universalization (e.g., “This one agent says to do this, so I’m going to do it just as she says, despite the different directions from other agents”). Other times, it’s accusation, (“Miss Snark says such-and-such but you say you don’t do that. What’s wrong with you!”) And finally, in its most amusing form, it’s two questions asked of two different industry bloggers. Unhappy with one answer? Try it again elsewhere. Above all, make sure you berate people for giving you “conflicting” advice.
Ugh. Stop the advice comparison shopping. Seriously. Stop trying to stir up pointless debates about whether or not equeries or snail mail queries are better. Stop expecting legitimate agents outside of New York to tell you exactly how their businesses work because some New York agent decides to get uppity on her blog somewhere and say she’s better than everyone outside the 212. (The only thing you need to know is a list of who she’s sold recently and where to, and if the six figure Hyperion and Disney deals aren’t enough to prove to you that legitmate agents do indeed work in Denver, CO, then I don’t know how a post explaining how she flies to NY every few months will make it any better.) Stop berating some nice agent who visits your email loop because his advice differs somewhat from the opinionated anonymous mouth of Miss Snark (who, God bless).
Accept the fact that different agents do things differently. Not EVERY Mexican restaurant in the world uses the exact same spices in their fajita, do they? No. And that’s what these comparison shoppers are really getting at here. With all the actual scam agencies out there in the world, the equivalents of Mexican restaurants serving rotten meat or taking your money and not giving you fajitas at all, you’re really going to quibble over a restaurant’s right to choose ultimately meaningless minutiae as the difference between habanero over jalapeno? Yes, by all means find out if it’s a habanero place, and if you never much cared for that and like your esophagus just fine the way it is, then by all means skip over querying –er, eating — there. But stop asking why they don’t serve jalapeno. Habanero is working just fine for them.
Step back for a minute and picture literary agencies as being like any other small business. One takes Visa. One only takes cash. One is closed on Sundays. One stays opens. One accepts equeries. One doesn’t, but wants five pages included with every query letter. Why is this so hard to grasp, or worse, to obey? I’ve been to cash-only nail salons and been forced to run across the street, my pedicured toes still separated by cotton balls, to hit an ATM. I would never dream of forcing my credit card into the poor attendant’s face and insisting she accept it. Yet that’s what this feels like to me. Have we been so overrun by the corporation, McDonalds culture of this country that we can’t accept minor variations between businesses of the same type?
It’s pointless. It’s wasteful. It’s a prime example of getting totally focused on the wrong thing. Reading the comment trails of these posts, I invariably come across some writer who gets all in a huff about the “conflicting” advice and/or promises never to query the agent in question because they won’t “get with the program” and do it the way that the writer wants. In truth, all the writer really wants is to be represented. If a writer was guaranteed a “yes” for sending a snail mail query rather than an email query, that stamp would be licked so fast! If an agent can land you a great deal, I doubt you care how many lunches she did or did not have in order to do it, or whether she hand-delivered the manuscript or sent it by way of carrier pigeon.
(I can’t even remember where I read the one that asked if, given an agency that accepts
both e and snail queries, one was “more likely” to get noticed. But any question that bears the slightest resemblance to “what are my chances?” gets an automatic eye roll at the screen. Poor Pantalaimon. Save him from all the eyerolling!)
It’s not the medium; it’s the message. Remember the immortal words of Theresa Nielsen Hayden:
Aspiring writers are forever asking what the odds are that they’ll [sell their books]. That’s the wrong question. If you’ve written a book that surprises, amuses, and delights the readers, and gives them a strong incentive to read all the pages in order, your chances are very good indeed. If not, your chances are poor.
It’s sad, really, that the remarkable boon to this industry that is the proliferation of the industry blog is being dragged down by this kind of pettiness. I love to pick up exciting new bits of industry information, to hear about scam agents being brought down, to learn insider tips and have publishing myths busted. But lately it seems I’ve been spending too much time watching the same questioners make their circuit, repeating the same questions over and over in an attempt to get their “secret handshake” answer, or trying their best to prove how “corrupt” and “ridiculous” the whole system is by showing how differently the so-called “gatekeepers” respond.
Update: Jana DeLeon has an easy-peasy “twelve step” program for writers looking to find that secret handshake. It’s a real winner.
Thirteen Things I Love About My Job
1. I get to make up stuff all day long.
2. Lying on the couch with my eyes shut is, arguably, “working.”
3. If the people I am working with (read: characters) piss me off, I can kill them.
4. At parties, when people ask you what you do, it’s so much fun to say, “I’m a novelist.”
5. Did I mention the part about lying for a living? (Well, maybe that’s not so uncommon. I live, after all, in D.C.)
6. I get to make people laugh, and otherwise distract them from bad stuff.
7. The pajamas, the bathrobes, the bunny slippers…
8. No commute.
9. I set my own schedule.
10. It’s never boring. Unless I’m doing it wrong. (Or it’s galleys.)
11. Buying books is a business expense.
12. Reading books is “industry research.”
13. According to the Lloyd Dobbler theory of careers, you can do one of the following: buy, sell, process or repair. I always liked process the most. I get such a kick out of the fact that I’m a creator. There is nothing, and then there is a manuscript. I hold it in my hands. I like seeing what a big stack it makes all printed out.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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No new pages to report today. No new translations contracted for SSG. Ah, well. If such happened every day, when would I get time to goof off and, say, watch election returns?
My favorite part was the humorous juxtaposition of the ticker-tape announcement of Britney Spears’s impending divorce alongside world news. She sure knows how to hit a busy news cycle, though, doesn’t she? Far less covereage than, say, Reese Witherspoon’s recent announcement.
Doesn’t anyone ever stay together anymore?
Apparently not. Which brings me to last night’s episode of Veronica Mars. (White text). The marketing folks at the CW did a right jolly bait and switch there, didn’t they! The whole “their relationship isn’t yet broken, but it’s starting to crack” nonsense had me on pins and needles all week. And yet there wasn’t any LoVe action at all! And Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith… what has become of you? And is there to be no closure with this whole priceless painting situation? And don’t get me started on all the characters acting out of character. As Sailor Boy said while Vee was trying to figure out how to hook up Parker and Piz, “I think Veronica would be the queen of ‘he’s just not that into you.’” Not to mention she’s suddenly become the most horrific liar. The girl of previous seasons who could hide under bathroom cabinets then concoct believable excuses to be naked in a doctor’s office, who pulled elaborately staged quasi-lesbianic sorority sisters with car troubles out of thin air, who had a litany of fake voices, fake personalities, and no fewer than seven fake IDs in her pocket has suddenly turned unable to tell a halfway decent lie when caught with her hand in the filing cabinet? She did the same thing in the coach’s desk the other day as well. Bleh!
Veronica, our relationship isn’t broken, but it’s starting to crack.
Okey doke. Off to work on edits. Later!
Actually, it’s a bit crappy, if you want to know the truth. Cold and drizzly. But I haven’t been so excited to start a day in a long time. I woke up before my alarm this morning.
First of all, I’m waiting to hear back from my agent about whether or not I can post some fabulous news. News that made me shout and pump my fist in the air in the middle of a public coffee shop yesterday. Yeah, that kind of good.
Updated to add: I sold my book in Portugal! Party in Lisbon, everyone. I shall be released in trade paperback through Aletheia publishers. Special thanks to my foreign rights agent, Whitney Lee of the Fielding Agency.
Secondly, I was a badass writing machine yesterday. Perhaps it was due to the workshop I attended last weekend with April Kihlstrom on writing a book in a week. Perhaps it was due to an alignment of the stars. All I know is, there were 36 more pages in my document last night than there were yesterday morning. Good pages. Hoo-yeah.
NaNoWrimo
23000 / 50000 (46.0%)
C, I’m about to plunge into the final round of edits for Under the Rose, and I’m so excited.
4: Check out this recent sale from Pub Marketplace:
Foreign rights:
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Budge Wilson’s authorized prequel to Anne of Green Gables, BEFORE GREEN GABLES, the story of Anne’s early life in foster homes and an orphanage in Nova Scotia, to Helen Reeves at Penguin Canada, for publication in 2008. |
The big question, of course, is if that’s coming out in the U.S., too. And is it authorized by the estate of Montgomery? How cool! Come on, Penguin CA, more details, please. Inquiring fangirl minds and all that!!!!
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