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Though to judge from my the other residents of my city, August is the laziest month on the calendar, this is not the case for My August. As a cap on what has been a particularly whirlwind summer, August is also the date of my deadline, which is currently consuming my days and nights. Except, you know, when I’m busy with the myriad other things that are also going on in my life. The day of my deadline is also the date of SB’s birthday. (Present bought.) I have that big signing next Tuesday. (Reading prepared? Um, not so much.) My mother and her sister are coming into town for the weekend and we’ll be hanging out. (Yes, I’m mopping the kitchen floor right now. Why do you ask?) And there’s that pesky wedding planning thing, which has been in high gear all month. (And I am not a party planner and have pretty much hated every moment.)
So is it any wonder blogging is falling through the cracks?
A few points of interest:
Heather Harper compares me to a Mystery Dum Dum pop.
Justine, inconceivably, has no problem cutting out words from her books. Since I’m currently looking at vast swaths (in my mind, at least) of ROS(B) that shall need to go back for…. reshoots?…. this subject is muchly on my mind.
Richelle Mead is utterly charming. If only I were reading right now, I’d definitely pick up her new book. Ah, well. That’s why God invented September. And she’s so right. Good grammar is so sexy. Also, creative, cunning, and highly literate coinage.
And now, back to mopping and writing.
Don’t forget, DC-area locals! Next Tuesday, August 21st, I’ll be signing and reading from the Secret Society Girl books at the Borders at the White Flint Mall at 7 pm.
When: Tuesday, August 21st
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Borders Books & Music
White Flint Mall
11301 Rockville Pike
Kensington, MD 20895
And if you want to buy Secret Society Girl or Under the Rose, now is a great time to do so at the aforementioned Borders, since I happen to have here a handy dandy 20% off coupon (for Borders Rewards members) good for the next four days.
Oh, and this author may or may not confess to a small bout of self-Googling which landed her on the blog of a recent college graduate whose posts make her all nostalgic for her own college days. But, if she were to confess it, she would add only that the blog is totally awesome, as are the pictures. Creative geniuses, those folks from the Tiger school.
I can admit that and still be a daughter of Eli.
Yesterday was a good day. I got a lot of writing done, and also some really cool non-writing related news, and I went out to lunch to celebrate the latter, and ate this ginormous dish that was really nothing more than lump crab meat baked in butter. Which was as it should be. Those Marylanders do it up proud, I tell you.
I also did a good deed in a really sneaky way. Which means I may be hanging out with Diggers a little too often.
So this is partially inspired by Justine Larbalestier and Meg Cabot’s posts of recent days, partially by the fact that I’m planning a wedding, the traditions of which might comprise the single least feminist ritual known to mankind, and partially inspired by a conversation I’ve been having on one of my writerly email lists about what exactly you’re saying when you write a book where part of the requirement for a “happy ending” is that the woman finds herself a man. But these are all big topics — much bigger than I have time to post upon right now (deadlines and all), so this post is just about the most disturbing Amazon review I’ve ever seen.
Now, I’ve seen some whoppers in my time. Personal attacks on the author, threats, racist and bigoted posts, “reviews” that read more like the writer’s weekly therapy trip than any comment on the book, illiterate ones, comments from the land of bizarro-world that make you wonder if you were reading the same book as the poster… and I usually don’t give them much thought. But this one made my mouth drop open.
It’s from a new lead title out of a major publisher, and the review was five stars, and titled that it was one of the best books the reviewer has ever read. But then, she said:
“I almost didn’t buy it, expecting a book written by a woman to be some silly romance.”
My hackles raised instantly upon reading this line. First, “silly romance?” And then, indignation reined supreme as the words “expecting a book written by a woman to be…” sunk into my brain. This reader has a prejudice against any book written by a woman? Every book? What kind of books has she spent her life reading (she claims in the review to read about five per week) that she dismisses any novel written by a gender that includes half of the population? Does she only read novels by men? Does she…
And this was when my mouth dropped open, as the entire meaning of the sentence became clear. This person, this reviewer, was a woman. It was her “real name” she posted under. She was a woman, and a devoted reader, and she thought anything a woman would write was silly, was worthless, and would only cover one subject. She didn’t hate romance. She hated women.
What’s with the self-loathing? It takes my breath away. The way I see it, here are your choices: 1) You can appreciate and even celebrate femininity in fiction, modern romance, etc. Or, 2) you can hate and demean the “silly romances” that make up the lion’s share of the fiction market. (I know many people who do.) But, if so, then you spend quite a bit of time finding the women writers who write the books you do admire. You get all gooey for Alice Sebold or James Tiptree or Marilyn Robinson or Ursula Le Guin. Dismissing an entire gender of writers? Not so much a choice.
I know I’m talking about this one reader on the internet, one who may not have given much thought to what she was really saying in her review, but it a microcosm of an attitude I’ve seen over and over and over again.
On one list I’m on, we were recently discussing a phenomenon of writers, both men and women, who speak in media outlets about their favorite novels, and tend to dismiss those of women. At the time, one of the list members was up in arms about Stephen King’s recent tribute to J.K. Rowling, in which he listed a bunch of other amazing children’s writers, most by name or at least the title of their books, but only, obliquely, the work of a single female writer.
You know, except for the fact that the whole article was about Rowling, said her responders.
Okay, Touche, but I do think that the original poster had a point. Do we do that, and if so, why? Because we’re more likely to be taken seriously if the work we name is the work of men?
And then I started wondering if I do that. When people ask me about my favorite books and writers, what do I say? The Count of Monte Cristo. I talk about loving The Chronicles of Narnia and rereading them over and over. And I do. Wow, do I ever. But why don’t I talk about Jane Austen? Is it because I don’t want to be yet another of those Jane Austen-loving romancey acolytes? Why don’t I talk about Louisa May Alcott, or Lois Lowry, or Judy Blume? I mean, I was just in a book about how much I love the work of Ms. Blume, and my own novels owe far more to Forever and Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself than they do to anything penned by Dumas.
Why don’t I mention L.M. Montgomery, whose books I’ve reread just as often as Lewis’s, and who may have provided her Anne with a happy ending via husband, but as soon as Miss Shirley affianced herself to Gilbert (post university, mind you!), she gallavanted off for a stint as the first female principal of Summerside High School. Surely, my love for epistolary novels was formed then, not when I read Clarissa, by the all-too-male Richardson.
I spent the first year of college in a program called Directed Studies, in which we read the “western canon.” Some of my classmates jokingly called it “Dead White Men,” which isn’t funny in retrospect. (We read a couple Sappho poems, and Hannah Arendt, but otherwise, it was all male.) A whole year, studying nothing but men. And male writers formed the bulk of my studies for the subsequent four years. Even my favorite class, Women and the Rise of the Novel, which I took senior year, had as many male points of view as female (or Clarissa was long enough to balance out several books). So, in retrospect, it’s little wonder that, post-college, I leapt into the world of women’s fiction and didn’t look back. It was time to balance the scales.
And it’s funny, now that I think about it, since this subject has only been on my mind for a few days, but I’m looking at my most recent manuscript, and a few months ago, I wrote a scene where Amy laments the lack of female-penned books in a Rose & Grave library. So I suppose this has been bubbling under the surface for a while.
I didn’t spend much time thinking about feminism in college, but it’s a subject that’s increasingly on my mind. I am fascinated by the fact that I’ve received letters that both applaud me for talking about sexism and letters that ask me what century I think I’m living in, that sexism is no longer an issue.
As Demetria says to a similar statement on page 261 of Secret Society Girl: “Oh, Honey, we need to talk.”
Because if we can say to ourselves, “Oh, it’s fine, it’s not like it was in the fifties/sixties/seventies/eighties/nineties…” then we are missing the point. Because Joss Whedon is still asked why he writes strong women, and my friends are being told that they need to wear skirts, not pants, to job interviews, and writers are only talking about their favorite male writers, and women readers– women– are tossing off statements condemning everything a woman can write.
Casablanca was great. The Mall was packed, but everyone was friendly and having a great time. We bartered our food with our neighbors in a very school-cafeteria-style manner, and clearly didn’t smuggle in enough wine. Oh, and there were shooting stars! One was very very bright, even with the lights from the Capitol building right there. Amazing.
Update on Rampant: “Unicorns are Back,” says USA Today. Take that, Justine.
Update on Rites of Spring (Break): I just got a look at the flap copy today. Great stuff. It will be a while until I can post it, but I get warm fuzzies every time I read it. The storyline excites me so much. I know I haven’t written much on this blog about the development of this particular book, especially in comparison of my posts about the other two. I think it’s because it’s very in process for me, and it will probably be something that I’ll be able to understand much better in retrospect. My process has changed significantly over the past year, but it hasn’t settled yet. It’s still in dark room phase.
One thing which is always a balancing act in the writing of these books is the blend of fact and fiction. The core of the series has always been showing secret societies the way they really are — not the way they are portrayed by Hollywood thrillers. But at the same time, I am telling a story, so certain facts need to be massaged or compressed or altered for the sake of a) drama, and b) respect for the subject matter and for the readers. But you’re always making a choice: what part of this is going to be “ripped from the headlines” and what part is going to be larger-than-life? The strange thing is that sometimes I choose not to include something real in the books, because it sounds too outlandish. Ironically, I’ve been called on the carpet by readers for having unrealistic elements about my made-up society that are one hundred percent true, as well as by readers (society members) who want to know how I found out about some aspect of a society that I made up because I thought it sounded cool. I think it was Twain who said that the difference between fact and fiction is that fiction has to be believable.
And I also have to be conscious of not hitting too close to home: these are novels, not roman-a-clefs, though there are elements of the latter in the story. Eli is obviously Yale, for example. But no character in the story is based on a real person. They may have characteristics in common with real people (we all do), but they are all completely made up. But, as I mentioned above, sometimes you can make things up and discover later that they are actually true. Then the question becomes: does this weaken the book? Will readers find it derivative, even if it works wonderfully within the context of the story? There’s definitely the impulse to go, “Screw reality! I thought this up first!” However, it also gives you the opportunity, perhaps, to twist the reality a little more. Play a little more “what if” with the new parameters. It’s an interesting dilemma.
I’m thinking it might not be an issue in the fantasy novels.  Or not as much, at least, since my fantasy novels are very fact-based.
Up at 5:30 AM for an early, early zoo shift. I love the zoo when it’s empty. I know that’s probably a horrible thing to say, but it’s so peaceful. The animals actually make a lot more noise when thre aren’t hundreds of kids screaming up and down the pathways. Saw the elephants out with their trainers and heard some elephant gossip!!! They were walking trunk-in-tail. Super cute. The monkey family, of course, is doing splendidly — if you’re in the DC area you should definitely make an effort to come see them when they are out. The babies are getting so big!
I also went to the bird house. How many hours have I spent at the zoo and never visited the birds? I made a special trip up the hill because I wanted to see some ospreys. There are ospreys in ROS(B) and I wanted to take a peek. No ospreys at the Nat’l Zoo though the keeper there told me they were all around in the wild if I was interested. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to go kayaking on the Potomac until this deadline is over.
(In passing, there are kangaroos on every street corner in Australia and that doesn’t stop their zoos from having them.)
The bird house? Amazing. I had no idea how amazing it was. I saw Stanley cranes protecting a nest (national bird of South Africa, and gorgeous) and wattle cranes with a young one, baby flamingoes like little grey puffballs on sticks, and these sunbathing South American birds whose names I’m kicking myself for not remembering right now. Sereni-something. Any bird watchers out there care to help? They had chicks, too.
I also saw a cassowary, or a flash of one, which, let me tell you, is plenty! Cassowaries are my least favorite animal, and quite possibly the scariest creature I’ve ever seen in my life. In Autralia, we were told that they will actually run into the road to attack cars. They’ll lose, but they will do it. Dinosaurs aren’t extinct, folks. We’ve still got them, and they are called cassowaries.
 Run! Run from the Cassowary Before It Devours Your Laundry YOU!
(By the way, the website I got that picture from calls cassowaries “velociraptors with feathers,” which is the description I’ve been using for years to describe these monsters.)
Ah, the Zoo. Sailor Boy is mildly nervous that I love the zoo more than him, since I will be doing zoo-related activities three times this week. I think he’ll come to accept it in time.
And in other DC news, tonight, I will be going to see Casablanca on the National Mall. (Sorry for the About link, it’s all I could find.) Regular blog visitors know that this is one of my all-time favorite movies. I have to watch it every time it’s on.
Speaking of movies, I went to see Stardust last weekend. Now, I haven’t read the book. My only Gaiman is Coraline. So I can’t speak to that. But I liked the movie. Actually, I loved it, until a scene near the end, which made no sense to me whatsoever and left a really bad taste in my mouth, since instead of enjoying and reveling in the film’s conclusion, I was going, “WTF?” Very much violated the Chekov “gun on the wall” rule, as far as I’m concerned. And lest someone tell me that moviegoers don’t think about rules like that, I wasn’t watching this as a writer. I was watching it as a moviegoer (one turns off the internal writer when one is in love) and it didn’t make sense to me. THAT’S why Chekov’s rule works — you need that gun on the wall so the shooting makes sense to any old audience member.
I wonder if people who have read the book had a different experience, or if too much of the plot was changed so that it didn’t matter. It’s kind of like when I took my parents to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabaan and they didn’t get why Harry was so sure his dad would show up with his Patronus, but it was because the movie never really explained Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. I feel like they just left out something at the end of Stardust that would have nailed it.
As for the casting, almost everything was as I expected. The hero was cool. Whoever did his costume/makeup design actually pulled off the whole “transformation” zero/hero thing quite well. All the secondaries were great. Claire was Claire. (Best comment in any review I’ve seen of the film is the one where the NYT reviewer asked how much better would it be if the part had been played by Gwyneth Paltrow.) The only performance that truly surprised me was Sienna Miller’s. I’m not a Miller fan. I think she’s vastly, galactically overrated, and horrible in every movie where I’ve ever seen her. She’s also always cast as this stunning beauty, filled with charm, devastatingly attractive to everyone she comes near, etc. etc. Never go it. However, here she was perfect. Cast as the mildly pretty (if pedestrian), but overwhelmingly vain, ultimately vapid, and easily outshone (no pun intended) by even Claire Danes… well, that’s the perfect role for her. Bravo, casting directors.
So, in all, not The Princess Bride, but very PB-esque. I will definitely watch again on DVD.
And now, off to finish ROS(B). What did you all do this weekend? Any big plans this week?
I just remembered about doing the drawing for Beyond Cool and Unmasqued. Sorry, guys: deadline brain.
The winners are:
Mary
Amanda Ashby
First come, first serve on the books. Email me your address.
Today, I’m guest blogging at Plotmonkeys with a reprint of “Protect the Work” from a few weeks back. Drop by.
Speaking of Plotmonkeys, I just bought Julie Leto’s newest book, Stripped, on Audible.com. This is my first Audible.com purchase. It’s also the first Leto book (I have ‘em all) that I’m getting in any version other than print. It’s also the first time I’ve gotten an audio version of friend’s book. How cool is that?
Now I’m so curious as to what an audio version of the SSG books would be like.
Speaking of, RITES OF SPRING (BREAK) awaits…
Check back Friday afternoon for the giveaway winner. Meanwhile, a Venetian (maybe?) weighs in…
Serenissima asks:
If it’s not too late to ask a question, I’d be curious to know how an aspiring writer decides which contests to enter, i.e., is there a quick way to see which ones have the most winners who end up with contracts? I’ve been searching out contests and googling the winners, but it’s a slow process and doesn’t usually reflect winners who’ve been signed but not published.
Um, I’m probably the wrong girl to ask here. I’m pretty jaded about contests. I entered, oh, two dozen? Finalled in more than a half a dozen, won two, and got a request from… wait for it: one. NOT one I’d won. NOT one that resulted in a sale, or even a revision request. The two I won? One had no request attached, the other had a judge who’d just sent me a very nice rejection letter. Before judging. (Pretty jewelry and plaque, though.)
Then I got frustrated with the whole contest system and decided to write a book designed to do poorly in contests. (It had a prologue, footnotes, first person POV, a very sarcastic heroine who right up front lists all the men she’s slept with…all of which I knew were going to get dinged by some of the contest biddies.) I got four agent requests, three offers, and sold it at auction a week and a half later. Go figure.
There are two problems with this question:
1. The supposition that a list of contests where the winners end up getting signed/contracts down the line is a useful statistic. Unless the contest has a contract as a prize, it’s unlikely that there was any connection. Here are three contests where the winner gets a contract as part of the prize: Malice Domestic (St. Martins Mystery), American Title (RT/Dorchester), and Gather.com (S&S). I’m not going to speak about whether or not these kind of contests are a good idea. Others have done it at greater length and with more knowledge on the subject than me. Google that.
Most of the contests out there like to advertise when their winners get contracts and sign, but that’s more correlation than causation (because hey, the winners are usually pretty good). For instance, there’s a contest out there right now that is advertising that the winner signed with such-and-such agent. What they aren’t mentioning is that the agent wasn’t a judge of the contest and the author had her full manuscript on the agent’s desk before she finalled in the contest. Which is not to say that this contest isn’t a great one. It is. I love it. I’ve entered it, I’ve judged it. The judges are great, the feedback is top notch, the prize is pretty freaking cool! But I’ve also been a contest coordinator, and I know how the PR works.
2. That a contest is a good way to get signed/a contract. It’s not. See above. Look, I know a lot of writers. A lot. And out of all the authors I know, I can think of maybe half a dozen or so who got their first contract as a result (even an oblique result!) of a contest. Most of those entered Lori Foster’s Brava Novella contest. (I don’t think Lori runs it anymore, but I do think there are other Brava authors that do. Alison? HelenKay?) The others are Janice Lynn, whose book Jane Millionaire won the first American Title, Karen Lingefelt, whose book True Pretenses was a runner-up in the forebear to the AT that RT used to run, and my dear friend CL Wilson, who entered and won a dozen or so contests over the period of a decade before she finally found a final editor-judge who not only loved her masterful, extraordinary, exquisite Tairen Soul, but ALSO wanted to publish it. (No lie: read the whole story here.)
Sidenote: The first two books of Tairen Soul: Lord of the Fading Lands, and Lady of Light and Shadows, are out this fall, and really, they are two of the best books I’ve ever read in my life. Or two parts of one of the best books? It’s a Lord of the Rings kind of thing, being volumes of one epic. Still, amazing. Preorder now.
And maybe one or two who signed with an agent who’d read their work in a contest, though at least one of those was already published and was shopping for a new agent.
Most people get agents and publishers by starting with query letters. Really really really really really. (Do I sound like a broken record on this topic? I apologize.) As I was telling a friend the other night, the most common thing to get out of a contest win is bragging rights on your query letter. If you’re lucky, said bragging might persuade the agent to get to your submission a bit faster.
Now, having said all this, there are some contests that are better known than others, by which I mean that bragging on those is going to sound a hell of a lot better. No point in putting down that you won Podunk 2007 if the agent has never heard of it. And it depends on genre. For romance, you’re looking at The Golden Heart Contest, which is run every year by the national organization. I’ve heard that earning the right to put “current Golden Heart finalist” on your query earns you a quick trip to the top of the submissions pile. (Please note: this only works if you really are a finalist.) Even after I’d burned out on contests, I still entered that one. RWA chapters also have a few regional contests that are very highly regarded, but that will vary by year and who you talk to. Some perennial favorites include the Maggie and the Jasmine, but then again, I may be biased in saying that because I won the former and finalled in the latter back in 2004. By contrast, I totally bombed in the Emily (worst scores EVER) but CL swears by it. (I also regularly bombed in the Golden Heart. See the whole sordid tale here.)
For a genre that isn’t romance? I don’t know. By the time I stopped writing romances, I’d moved away from entering contests. I assume that having a Hugo or Nebula-nominated short story might be a good step on the path towards getting an agent/publisher for a novel (though, of course, you have to first get the short published), but someone more versed in that world (yes, Justine, I’m talking to you) may want to weigh in on that. And while we have Justine here, perhaps she’d like to talk about YA? Because I have no clue.
What I do know is that if you are entering contests to get a contract, you’re going the long way ’round. When I was entering contests, I often did it to get my work in front of a particular judge. That’s how I usually picked my contests. Wanted Abby Zidle to read my work, so I entered the 2004 Jasmine. Wanted Lucienne Diver to read my work so I entered the 2004 Molly. I finalled in both, and before they read the work in question, they’d already rejected it through the usual submission process. Then I figured out that I was actually pretty good at writing queries, and they were cheaper and quicker than contests, to boot. (Oops. That darn record keeps skipping, doesn’t it?)
Cue the dozen comments about or from writers who got agents and editors through their contest entries. I applaud you guys and I’m honestly and from the bottom of my heart happy that it worked for you. And I don’t disagree that it worked for you. But I think you’re in the minority.
The best quote about contests I’ve ever heard:
“Winning a contest means something, but not winning means nothing.”
A lot of really great manuscripts are not going to do well in contests. They’ll maybe do worse than a mediocre manuscript in many instances. Here’s how:
Say you’re grading on a scale of 1-10. One judge loves this manuscript, gives it a 10. Another judge hates it. The voice is so strong, and it breaks some “rule,” or it offends her (maybe she doesn’t like sex, or swear words, or prologues), or just moves her in a way she doesn’t want to be moved. She gives it a 1. (This happens. Trust me.) Your final score on this manuscript is a 5.5.
Another writer enters. Her manuscript doesn’t suck, but it’s nothing special either. The first judge thinks, “Meh.” But she’s a nice lady, and she can’t find anything WRONG with the entry, it just doesn’t push her buttons. She gives it a solid “C” score of 7. The other judge feels the same. Well, this “meh” entry just knocked the one that elicited strong feelings out of the game.
And yet, editors will publish books that some will love and some will hate. They’re much less likely to publish books that no one particularly likes.
Which leads me to my other favorite quote about contests:
“I’d rather get low scores than mediocre scores. At least I know I got a strong response.”
I got great stuff out of my contest experience. I got judges offering to introduce me to their editors, I got amazing feedback on my work from extremely talented writers, I got bolstered confidence and, yes, some bragging rights on my query letters. But I also got some of the weirdest ass comments you ever did see:
“Heroes need to be alpha!” (Oh yeah? Someone tell Brandon.)
“You can’t have sex in chapter one.” (Party pooper!)
“You can’t have a paragraph with only one line.”
Oops.
And many, many more. Of course, none of those hold a candle to the comment a friend of mine once got, and she knows what I mean, and can share here if she pleases.
But I digress.
(See? there I go again with those one-liners! I’m incorrigible!) My final point is, if you want to enter contests, go for it. Enter the most prestigious ones, or the ones with the best feedback, or — as certain friends and I have been known to do — the ones with the best jewelry as prizes. Because, jewelry? Shiny.
But one thing that I beg you not to do is to let your trip on the contest circuit derail you from your pursuit of publication. And do not let the slings and arrows of stupid judges make your work the result of bland committee input. Because there are also a lot of folks out there who have seventy (no exaggeration) contest finals on their C.V. and no publication credits to their name. Some of those folks may honestly be writing something that the market is shy about but readers are going to love once it’s published right (like CL’s gazillion page — amazing, wonderful, beauteous, fabuloso– fantasy), but many more are either using contests to distract them from actual submissions or worse, polishing that one chapter and forgetting that the whole book needs to work.
Okay, I guess I did have a lot to say about contests after all. But you know what? I bet the people in the comments have even more to say:
What has your experience been with writing contests? Any recommendations? Warnings? True stories from the trenches? Which ones do you think are the best?
We’ve reached the end of questions week, unless anyone wants to weigh in on Casear’s chicken-or-egg query, or tell Patrick the difference between a preface and a foreword? Like, officially? (I think it’s whatever you decide it is. I think prefaces are usually written by the author and forewords by the author OR someone else, but that’s merely anecdotal. Google was no help either.)
In the meantime, my buddy Andrew has started a crusade. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Also, it shocks me every time I realize how groweds up he is. I still think of him as the college kid who needed a place to crash one Spring Break…
As a writer, you are subject to lots of reviews of your work. Some of them are negative, but you can see their point, and will secretly vow to do better next time. Some of them are negative, and you know the reader has caught the entirely wrong end of the stick and/or is taking crazy pills to get that interpretation, and you must powerfully resist the temptation to tell them so. (Pause, while I powerfully resist temptation to give examples.) Some reviews are positive, and those make you happy, even if you aren’t always sure what they so loved about the story was what you were getting at. These may make you wonder if you will accidentally repeat the effect in the next book you write, or if you are doomed to disappoint the reader through no fault of your own. But the best reviews for a writer to read are the ones where the reader gets it the way you do, loves what you love, and says so in a way that you took 300 pages to get across. Those are the ones I can’t resist sharing. Especially this part:
And let me just say, I have been reading just tons and tons and tons of sex scenes of late and have been pretty well burnt out, but this book made me sit up and get interested again. Hubba hubba.
That made my day. Several of them, in fact. Thank you, Speed Reading Book Nerd, wherever you are…
Enough about me. Let’s talk about two very different books that are both out this week:
First up, we’ve got Unmasqued: An erotic novel of The Phantom of the Opera, by Colette Gale. I am dying to read this book. I actually won a copy the other week, but I’m keeping it out like a carrot on a stick until I finish ROS(B). Here’s the description:
 One of the world’s most beloved stories as it has never been told before, Unmasqued is a novel of breathtaking historical erotica. His exquisite obsession… Christine Daaé heard rumors of the hideous Phantom said to haunt the great Opera House in 19th-century Paris. But its youngest and brightest star knows something no one else does-the truth. For in the darkness she thrills to the deep velvet timbre of his arousing voice, and quivers to the soft strokes of his leather-gloved fingers. He is real. Her inspiration. Her Ange de Musique. Her liberator.
Her erotic awakening… Condemned to the catacombs below, Erik has desired his obsession from the shadows, careful to keep his identity, and his secret, in the dark. Only he understands Christine’s extraordinary talents and her beauty. Only he can pleasure her like no man has before. But his sensual power comes with a price-and a risk to everyone who stands between them. For Christine too is succumbing to her most forbidden and dangerous desires-and to the Phantom who’s making them all come true.
Oooooh. Yes, I had that whole Phantom phase when I was in high school musicals. Plus, I loved the recent movie starring Leonidas Gerard Butler, and I know Colette was more than a little inspired by it as well. So this one is just pushing all my buttons. I’ve been hearing about it for ages from Colette, and I’m so excited it’s finally on the shelves! And that cover! Wow! (Rumor has it she’s working on another one based on my all-time favorite book, too!)
And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we’ve got the teen-friendly Beyond Cool, by Bev Katz Rosenbaum, a sequel to the cryongenic comedy I Was A Teenage Popsicle. Here’s the description:
Apparently being frozen for ten years hasn’t made me any cooler… The next in the hot series about a girl whose life is really on the rocks. Floe Ryan was frozen at sixteen because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self-but everything else has changed: her little sister’s older than her, her teachers are holograms, and she’s learning to drive a hovercar. Plus, with her boyfriend acting distant and having to deal with all the cliques, high school is becoming an even colder place. She’s also learned that those who were frozen are susceptible to illnesses, and the one doctor who can cure them has gone AWOL. Floe must find him. But she’s learning that someone might be hunting for her too-and she could be iced for good this time.
I know a lot of folks who have been waiting on tenterhooks for this book, so I’m so glad it’s finally out!
Leave a comment here, and I’ll enter you in a contest to win these books (two winners, one of each book).
Two for one today:
Celeste asks:
*Eh-hem* Suppose I’m writing a series (which I hope to be), however I have other stories niggling around in my head. (I’m sweating with Sven, as well – my he’s popular.) I have finished Book 1 of said series, and now have a fabulous idea for Book 2, BUT Book 1 is on submission and is likely to be tied up for a while in that stage… What the heck do I write next? The proposal for Book 2 or the Book I promised Sven?
Celeste and I actually got the opportunity to discuss this in detail last night. Her situation has changed somewhat, from the time she left this message, and so my advice changed as well. However, in general, this is an interesting conundrum. There are positive and negative aspects to each choice.
Established party line on this subject: “you should write something different in case book one doesn’t fly and then you won’t be able to sell book two,” or “you should make sure it stands alone…”
Pros: If book one doesn’t fly, you do have something else in progress/ready should someone want to see “something else.”
Cons: If you can’t rev yourself up to write something, it doesn’t matter if it’s different or not.
Another outlook: Write to your passion, even if that means doing a sequel of an unpublished book.
Pros: If you love what you’re writing, your writing will reflect that. Also, you can often make it stand alone if you really need to.
Cons: You may have the same problems with the sequel as you did with the original, if the reason for the pass is tone or subject matter.
There’s a lot of freedom before you’re under contract. You can write what you want, unconcerned about brand or whatnot. Write whatever you feel drawn to and see what sticks. Write different things, write the same things, write write write.
Story time: In 2003, I started my fourth manuscript, which was a single title romance sequel to an unpublished category romance I never did end up finishing. I had a secondary character in that story I liked a lot. I liked her story better than the main characters. So, following the Joss Whedonesque advice of “If you like a secondary character enough, make them a main character,” I decided to center a story around her, and that became my fourth manuscript. It finalled in the Jasmine, won the Molly, got 18 agent rejections (and two publisher rejections), and may have gotten an offer eventually. I don’t know. It was still with two agents when I started querying SSG. (I think the last time my agent and I were drinking together Marley was trying to talk her into reading it.)
(Really funny aside, I’ve bogarted more than a little of the setting of that book for SSG3. They are both set on tiny private islands in Florida. The difference is that Cavador Key isn’t haunted…)
If I had listened to that “don’t write sequels” advice back in 2003 and 2004, I wouldn’t have written that book, which I think was pretty essential to my development as a writer. I sold my first book about four months later.
and then Patrick asks:
I’m assuming that since it has been over a year since the first publication that you have seen some sort of royalty statement(The statement, maybe or maybe not money). Does the statement give much information? If so, has SSG done better or worse than you expected? And how much credit do you give to My Cover Photo for UTR?
Yep, I got one last spring. I’d been led to think my royalty statement would be this huge shock, as well as this completely byzantine document. It was neither. It was exactly what I expected, and was very straightforward and easy to read. (Perhaps it will get more complex when we start looking at multiple books?) The statement included the usual info of royalty statements everywhere: number of copies shipped, sold, returned, in what format, etc. (Sadly, Patrick, I don’t think we can give you any credit, since it dealt with a period well before you made your photo. Maybe the next one?)
And, on the topic, I just found out this week that the paperback of my first book is in its fifth printing! Thanks guys, for buying books, reading, telling your friends… you rock!
Back to wrapping up Rites of Spring (Break)…
I’m cheating a bit today, since I’m really tired. I’ll tackle Celeste and Patrick’s questions later.
Taylor said:
First off I want to say I really enjoyed SSG and Under the Rose, both books I got so into it, that I ended up staying up really late to finish them. I look forward to next summer, I can’t wait to see what direction next book goes in, I bet it will be great.
As I was reading I took an instant liking to Amy, and when I got farther into Under the Rose, I started becoming a fan of Poe (Jamie) and decided they’re my two favorite characters. Do you have a favorite character other than Amy?
Thank you very much, Taylor! Also, thanks, Ashley!
Yes, I do have favorite characters. I probably shouldn’t say that, but hey, if J.K. Rowling can admit it, why can’t I? (She must have a weak spot for Luna, which is why we get to know what she does for a living post-Hogwarts, but not my fictional boyfriend Neville.)
(Please note: if you haven’t read my books, there are some spoilers below. I’ve whited out the text where indicated, so mouseover to see.)
I really like Poe, too, and have ever since I first had him stick Amy in that coffin. He’s a lot of fun to write. So evil! He was supposed to be a minor character (which is part of the reason he never got a real name in the first book), but he remained so interesting that I (spoiler for SSG in white text) gave him a bigger part towards the end and then sent him to Eli Law School so that he’d stick around for the sequels. I’ve pretty much been thwarting my original plans for his future at every turn. Poor kid. Like he hasn’t had a hard enough life. But yes, definitely one of my favorites! (Interesting bit of trivia, that may or may not ruin your own image: In my head, Poe looks like Christian Coulson, the guy who played Tom Riddle in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie. He’s pretty much the only character I have such a firm visual on. Just FYI.)
I also really like Malcolm, and it’s too bad he didn’t get more screen time in Under the Rose. I think he and Amy work really well together. They have fabulous chemistry. Spoiler (in white text): He’s back in a big way in the third book. I even have some letters begging me to get them together! (In passing: The bulk of my fan mail addresses whether or not real secret societies are angry at me and/or who Amy will “end up” with. My question is, does she need to “end up with” anyone?)
I love all the Diggirls, especially Clarissa, Demetria, and Odile. I love how they are so different in their personalities and needs, but they can find common ground. Their relationships with each other and Amy remind me so much of friendship I had in college.
I love Lydia, too. She was fun in the first book, but I think I really fell for her in Under the Rose, especially given her plotline. Spoiler for UTR (in white text): I think it was writing Josh falling for her that did it to me.
And I love Brandon. I love writing him, because he’s so different than all the other characters in the story, but he’s also a very strong and complex person. He’s a “moral compass” character, and as such, he’s probably the one that let’s me know most easily whether I’ve written him right or wrong. But he’s also really challenging for that reason; he’s not perfect, but it’s harder to show that than it is with a character who is more obviously flawed, like Amy or George.
Ahhh… George. Talk about characters who weren’t what I planned them to be! George was supposed to be a jerk, but he basically refused to be so from the very beginning. He’s not without his flaws, and I think (spoiler in white text) he makes some pretty big mistakes in UTR, but overall, I believe George is a nice guy. I’d originally envisioned him as a sort of ruthless player, very Valmont-type, but I like him so much better this way. More like Daniel on Ugly Betty, I think.
Is that enough favorites? That’s most of the cast, isn’t it? Yeah, I like them all. I think if I had to pick one fave, it would be Poe, because it’s the most obvious choice. He’s the only main character who wasn’t originally envisioned as such.
HUGE HARRY POTTER SPOILER WARNING FOR THE COMMENTS SECTION. (Sorry, Leah and I had ourselves a little late-night HP party…)
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