Writers' Workshop

Ada works in a comfy chair.

Sam and Emily settle in to write.

Writing is a pretty introverted job, with the possible exception of co-writing. But that doesn't mean writers don't benefit from a crowded room.

Snack time!

One of the members of our local Science Fiction/Fantasy Meetup group occasionally hosts a writers' workshop. We all go over, eat, and write. It's like a party of sorts, wherein everyone sits in his or her own little world and works. With occasional breaks for food, chatting, and laughter, of course!

This past month's food theme was Greek food, so we had lots of healthy, delicious brain food that 'mysteriously' vanished over course of the day. Strawberries were in at the local farmers' market, too. Irresistible!

I was happy to get about a 1200 new words (I got there late), but some came out with close to 4000! Surrounding yourself with other writers is a great way to keep motivated, and get everyone working. Plus, it's just fun.

Special thanks to our hostess, Allegra, for opening her house to us for the day!

Contemporary or Urban Fantasy?

I had an interesting discussion with fellow writer and blogger Lauren Harris yesterday. We talked about genre.

It's a moot point, in the original sense of the word moot: arguable. Kristen Nelson, for example, suggests that New Adult might be Chick Lit revisited, and many authors have struggled with the fluidity of defining their own precise genre.

My novel takes place in the modern world, has a touch of romance, and tons of magic--the last means it's fantasy, but is it "modern fantasy," "contemporary fantasy," or "urban fantasy"?

The sticking point, of course, is that the recent stereotypes of urban fantasy revolve around detective stories, shifters, vampires, or demons. Of which my manuscript has none.

Contemporary fantasy is not a frequently-used term, however. Paranormal romance tends to apply to only, well, romance, but it's known to overlap urban fantasy. Contemporary fantasy is a catch-all, and includes non-urban settings... it's just not frequently used. And while the book has video-game and steampunk references, "geek fantasy" conjures an entirely different mental image than the story portrays.

For marketing reasons, I may continue to bill it as urban fantasy--because there's a market for that right now--but on the whole, I have to agree with Lauren: contemporary fantasy is a better term, at least for this manuscript. And it's a term that needs to become more common, as it's a better catch-all and doesn't have the same narrow connotations as urban fantasy.

Which would you, as a reader, prefer to hear? A better-known genre, such as "urban fantasy," in which the book is not quite typical? Or a slightly more specific "contemporary fantasy" that describes the book, but is less known?

Do you think it's time for the "Contemporary fantasy" genre to make a comeback? What other books do you know that would fall under this genre?

Wednesday Writing Exercise: Developing your story through food

$6.99 at Amazon...
or $2.99 at my local
Asian Market

Norimaki arare: it's a piece of seaweed wrapped around a sweet rice cracker. I would never have thought seaweed crackers would be addictively good, or something I couldn't stop eating. But they are.

The other day I had a seaweed craving. Could not stop thinking about how much I wanted to eat seaweed. So badly that, having only a short period of free time, I dropped by the Asian Market just to pick up a bag of these, despite the fact that I haven't been to the regular grocery store in a couple of weeks and have been eating leftover dinner for breakfast. Mmm, seaweed rice crackers!

Food can be a great source of subtle humor in a book. Whether a character has an odd craving, or an addiction to french fries dipped in tomato soup, or frequently refers to fish fingers and custard, it's a great way to lace in a character quirk. 

It can also tell you something about the character. How does your character take her coffee? Does she gulp it down so fast it scalds her tongue? She's showing her impatient, impulsive side. Does she set it aside and wait until it's cool? Patience, planning. Maybe she adds lots of sugar--a sweet tooth, meaning she likes a little luxury. Or if she pours in cold milk with no sugar, she's showing herself to be a thinker--impatient and unwilling to wait for the drink to cool down, but smart enough to avoid burning herself. Perhaps, instead, she's the one tea-drinker in a group of coffee-lovers: she could be an outsider, or an independent thinker.

Maybe you have a group of characters. How they eat together will evolve as their relationship does. At first, dishes are probably passed with polite requests, but as they get to know one another well, a wave of the hand or a "Hey, pass that over here" takes the place of formal manners. Slightly awkward polite small talk makes way for jeers and friendly banter. Or, for a couple, perhaps flirting evolves into plate-sharing, casual touches of the hands and arms, and warm smiles. 

Try finding a scene in your WIP (or write one as a side piece if there isn't one) in which your protagonists have food at hand. What are their food choices showing about their personalities? How are they eating, and how are they interacting with one another? 

Without increasing your word count by more than 10 words (try to cut it shorter, if you can!), try layering in a little food-symbolism, humor, or character development.

Using weather in a story

Do you use the weather to write?

I always feel inspired to write during storms. Thankfully, I have a laptop with a long-lasting battery, so I can disconnect it from the wall during lightning storms.

For a while, I had a storms CD. When I was having a spot of trouble getting inspired, I'd close the blinds and play the CD, and pretend there was a storm raging behind me. It helped. Because, I've noticed, there's always action in storms.

Often, the weather is just a background, a setting that doesn't influence the story all that much. But sometimes, active weather becomes a part of the story. Melting sun? That's active weather; it interferes with the characters' actions. Driving snow? A blizzard makes it hard to see, disrupts radio signals, and makes going outside dangerous. Pouring rain, lightning, and whipping wind? It's all fun and games until someone has to try to fight in it.

The sequel to Into the Tides has the working title Derecho right now. A derecho is a type storm system that's basically a long line of powerful, fast-moving storms with winds that blow in the direction it's going. The title may well change as the manuscript continues, but it refers to the fact that magic has played havoc with the weather, and so the weather will be a minor character in the story.

How do you use weather to strengthen your scenes? Do happy moments happen in sunny, cheerful weather? Do your storms do more than set the mood--do they play a part in how the events take place? Or is your weather a backdrop, a hint at the mood of the story without playing an active role in it?

In which books has weather been an active character? What books do you think use weather to the best effect?

Publishing Industry News

My heart is with the families of those lost in the tragic events, and the heroes who worked to hold us all together.

Have to admit I had a hard time getting myself to put this news post together. Not doing so seemed worse. I'll dedicated this one to the people of Boston who have the heart to open shop in defiance of cowards determined to spread fear. The point of acts of terror is to stop life from going on as normal. The best way to defeat it, is to continue living.

For the people of West, Texas, I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

This week's publishing news and relevant industry blogs cover 4/5-4/19.


Publishing News

Night Shade, in order to prevent itself from going into a bankruptcy that would stick most of its clients in legal limbo, decided to sell its contracts to SkyHorse Publishing and Start Publishing. At first the deals weren't great, but SkyHorse, after listening to the authors involved, changed the terms to be more favorable.

Indie booksellers ask the courts not to dismiss their lawsuit against Amazon and the Big Five publishers over DRM, which the indie booksellers say has locked them out of their ability to compete by locking e-books into the Kindle format instead of making e-books available on any e-reader. A couple of weeks ago, Amazon and the Big Five had asked that the suit be dismissed.

Barnes & Noble's PubIt! has a name change to Nook Express. It adds features to make self-publishing even easier than before, hoping to draw in authors with ease of use, with a product that it claims is very friendly even to the techno-unsavvy. Royalties are still the same as before.

The class action lawsuit against Harlequin was dismissed. The lawsuit was based on complaints that Harlequin had not adequately compensated authors for e-sales, but the dismissal came "on grounds that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim."

Simon & Schuster are giving the e-lending program a one-year trial, available in New York libraries.

The European Union has now approved the Penguin-Random House merger.

PubMatch and Copyright Clearance Center work together to create an online rights service, which seems to facilitate the sale of foreign rights for e-books between countries, if I've read the article correctly. (This isn't my specialty yet, so you might want to get someone with more foreign rights experiences to explain what exactly it means for you.)

Kobo releases a fancier e-ink e-reader for $170. It refers to the device as the "Porsche of e-readers."

Amazon's Jeff Bezos talks to authors about publishing royalties, explaining why they're now paying authors monthly instead of twice a year.


Industry Blogs

QueryTracker's Publishing Pulse for 4/12 and 4/19.

Nathan Bransford's Last Few Weeks in Books.

Are agents still necessary? Rachelle Gardner explains why even self-published authors might want an agent. When should an indie author consider partnering with an agent? After they've sold a ton of books and are now looking for new and further ways to be exposed to a wider audience, says Kristen Nelson. And at the London Book Fair, the role of the agent was much discussed.

Have you been planning on getting an agent to help you self-publish? Don't do it for a book that's already been published, says Suzie Townsend: Bring a new book to the table if your book hasn't already sold tens of thousands. Agents aren't interested in self-published books with poor sales, because they in turn can't sell the books to publishers. Remember, if you've self-published a book, your book is already published. Show the agent an unpublished manuscript instead.

Should you do a book trailer? Keith Cronin offers his insight on what his book trailer has done for him.

Taxes are over--for Americans who haven't filed extensions, at least--but Rachelle Gardner's general tax advice applies year-round: take the taxes out of your royalty checks when you get them, file quarterly, and save. She also busts some myths about publishing, such as, you don't actually have to be published to get published.

Writers Write offers advice on how to write a one-page synopsis.

So you may have read that bit of silliness opinion article by Scott Turow that sent every major writer, publisher, and industry-related professional into either fits or fits of giggles. The "slow death of the American author" indeed. Rebuttals have been sprouting up all over.

The FF&P blog interviews agent Beth Campbell, with BookEnds LLC, who is looking for great fiction, particularly "a great urban fantasy, YA, sci-fi, or women’s fiction author."

The Editor's Blog talks about writing the passage of time in a story.

GalleyCat launches an experimental program to help writers find writers' groups across the world. It also puts together a list of video tutorials to help self-publishers use the major self-publishing platforms.

What major publishing news have you encountered in the past couple of weeks?

Moving: The Main Event

So I've lately moved to a new apartment. The last few days have contained the following excitements:

5. I finally found my socks!

4. I learned how to re-caulk a bathtub.

3. The patio garden has sprouted! Poking up their heads are spinach, kale, catnip, blue buttons, and some other things that I can't remember what we planted. The mint went viral and thus got put into time-out (aka its own pot), and the thyme is settling in nicely. On the other hand, the squirrels got my gerbera daisies and my strawberry!

2. My roommate and I have now have a cabinet devoted entirely to tea. Note: any project that has screws instead of nails to secure the backboard on, is a project you will want to smash... if only your hands didn't hurt too much!

1. The cats met the roommate's kitten. The kitten is valiantly defending her castle; the cats are somewhat confused as to why a mouse is pouncing on them.

What are your most exciting moments in moving?

The Numbers of Self-Publishing

Self publishing and traditional publishing are two different paths to the same goal: being published. But neither path is right for everyone. When trying to figure out which you'll take, consider these two blogs:

Chuck Wendig offers a list of reasons you might choose to stick to traditional-first.


And Marie Force offers the actual sales numbers of some self-published authors. This is a self-selected response, so the numbers do not actually represent any kind of statistical average: it's just a snapshot of what some authors choose to report. (Amazon's been pretty reluctant to release the true statistics!)

Some people sell hundreds of thousands of books self-publishing; others don't break a thousand. Where will you fall? Do you have the time to promote, and the audience to sell to? Are you in a high-selling genre? And do you have the money to risk for that initial investment?

But when the sales are good, the money is great. Every traditionally published author had fantastic self-publishing sales. Some non-traditionally published authors had enough sales to live off, too. There's no clear-cut answer. Because, honestly? What works for someone else may or may not work for you.



When tides of magic drown the South, tone-deaf Kelly lost everyone she loves but her twin brother.  Now, to protect him and everyone she's met since, she'll have to master the music magic she long ago gave up on--and go into the heart of magic itself. Into the Tides comes out this fall, 2013.