C. L. Norman

Today at con went at a much slower pace than the previous three days. I went to three readings: James C. Glass, Harry Turtledove, and Patricia Briggs. All of their stories were very enjoyable and yet all very different.

I also had the very unique experience of my husband introducing himself as MY spouse, like folks would know me by name over him. It was very flattering and maybe a hint of things to come?

The drive back alternated between heavy grey clouds darkening the roads and torrential rain bouncing off of it. About an hour away from home we had the wondrous opportunity to see a bright double rainbow arcing across the sky. It was very beautiful and a good way to end the trip.

To sum up, I highly recommend this con for SF/Fantasy fans and writers. It is small but well-run. Friendly and educational. You should come next year.

        

Instead of my regular Sunday Week in Review post, I am going to give you another Con report. Specifically, Day 3 of MisCon here in Missoula, MT.

This day is the weirdest in my experience. Pros and guests are getting worn out and there is still another day to go. There is a lot more giggling and a lot more lost trains of thought. In other words if you can stay awake to enjoy it, it is the most fun.

That said, I have a bit of a rant to make. Today we had the follow-up to the Writers Workshop yesterday. I heard a lot of submitters dismiss everything the pros had said because “They didn’t understand what I was trying to do” or even worse “He didn’t understand because he’s a man.” If I wasn’t as shy as I am, I would have piped in as agreeing with the pros but I didn’t really want to start an argument. It really bothered me that these folks who had paid to be in this workshop were completely closed off to being taught just because the feedback they heard wasn’t exactly as they wanted it. I am not saying they should rush to change everything the pros pointed out, but they should be at least considering and mulling over the comments and only reject them then. /rant off

I spent the last half of that talking with John Dalmas who had sat himself down next to me. He is a fascinating gentleman with a lot of experience in the field of writing SF/Fantasy. I enjoyed that part of it thoroughly.

I enjoyed the readings of M. J. Engh and James C. Glass today. Their stories they shared were entertaining and, especially during M. J.’s (who had primarily pros at her reading), educational.

The final panel titled “Beyond Vampires” was very amusing. They argued and discussed. They were very passionate about genre trends and why the current trends exist. Also this is the first time I had seen one of Patricia Briggs’ fans come in dressed up. I wish I had a picture but this one had on a Mercy costume, complete with a heavy wrench hanging from her belt and tattoos painted on her arms. The only thing that would have made the costume better would have been the tattoo at the base of her back and if the wrench hadn’t been so shiny silver.

Tomorrow is the last day of the con. I am glad it is almost over. I am in desperate need of some writing time after all the positive experiences I’ve had here.

        

Day two of the con opened with snoring in triplicate.  So I was up early and out of the room. I caught up with my fellow writing workshop group mates and my email. Speaking of which I know I am not suppose to really enumerate my rejections but I got one today that was very personalized and made the rest of the day pass in a rosy glow. Also it has me planning my next short story so I can submit again very soon.

Harry Turtledove and M. J. Engh were the authors who critiqued my story and while I was very excited to hear all the good things they had to say about my submission, I was even more grateful to hear the criticisms they had on punctuation, word choice, and dialogue tags. These were the kinds of things I was hoping for. They won’t help me with just this story, they will help me with all of my writing.

The rest of the day was spent in and out of panels dealing in Space and Time for Writers, Arguing about Punctuation, and Writers of the Future. The Writers of the Future panel was given by James Glass, a former winner of the contest. He gave us the six day workshop the winners get in miniature. He had some very relevant things to say to where I am currently at in my writing career and reinforced some things I had heard a few but not many other authors address before.

I’m having fun here. Hope you are having fun where you are.

        

After getting all the kids off to school we set off on a five hour tour  (a five hour tour). The van acted as part boat as we traveled east in the rain that went from barely a drizzle to a torrent of water and back to a drizzle again as we journeyed along.

Arriving in Missoula, we swiftly and expertly made our way to the convention site and hotel (helped by the fact we were old hands at this seeing as how we had been here once before) and shivering (the men weren’t, I was as I am a sissy cold girl) entered the hotel. Inside near the front desk I quickly espied Patricia Briggs and M. J. Engh in a cosy chat in the dining room and waved in a self conscious kind of way.

In the dealer’s room I finally picked up a copy of Deby Fredericks’ Necromancer Bones. I’ve been looking for it for a while and it was the only I saw displayed and it’s mine, all mine I tell you!

First event we attended was the “Meet Harry Turtledove” panel and as always it is a treat to hear about an author’s beginning and the early steps in their journey to becoming a household name (at least in houses with geeks like us in them). Afterwords I went to the Writer’s Meet and Greet for the workshop tomorrow and had a lot of laughs and heard some tips on what software is used by various writers.

Dinner at the Stone of Accord followed with a big Huckleberry Bomb for dessert and then back to our room to rest up for the big events the next two days.

Now I am off to read the workshop entries from the others in my group and make ready to have my writing torn apart. I can’t wait.

        

Howdy Friends. It has been a slow week of writing and watching the clock and wondering when my husband is coming home from work. He was putting in A LOT of extra hours and so I spent extra hours with the kids to give them more parent time.

Reading

I am trying out an ebook for the first time this week via the B&N eReader app for my PC. I prefer the print book still but the ebook was free and I like that price so we will see.

Writing

Speaking of ebooks, Barnes & Noble announced pubit! this week and everyone is buzzing about it at work and in my social networks. My writing group is considering trying to publish an anthology using that technology. There are a lot of things to take into consideration and decisions to make but it is still exciting all the same to have that option out there.

I submitted some stories this week and in the process I accidentally submitted the same story twice. I used the right word counts in the cover letters but the same title and the same file attachments. Seconds after hitting that send button I knew I had done it and then I panicked. How do I let them know I made a mistake and sound professional at the same time? I am such a worry wart but it was a small but good experience. I learned how to say Oops! like a professional.

Spider Tracks

Another great post by Dean Wesley Smith on Talent as a Myth. I like what he has to say about it and in fact, had already come to the conclusion that the hard work he talks about is the next skill I need to develop to continue in the writing field. My problem though comes from everyone telling me how talented I am but not believing them. My self esteem is very weak and I always think that when folks praise my writing clearly they are just being nice and they mean the opposite.

Discovered the site Adventures in Children’s Publishing and the character worksheet series. I found them interesting and while I am not sure I will actually use the sheet, I did find reading through the questions with my current MC in mind helpful.

J. A. Konrath’s press release for Shaken by Amazon got me thinking. I am still too new to this business to know all the ramifications or even be able to guess them but this is a neat development. So many changes coming down the line, it makes a writing career seem like a sandbox full of possibilities as long as one has the imagination to pursue them.

So my week went well, how was yours?

        

“We regret to inform you . . .” 

Hands waved wildly in the air. Long low groans fill the air. Head hits wall or computer or desk repeatedly. “I need ice cream” is said and followed through on.

Sound familiar?

Everytime I tell someone I’ve received a rejection letter I think they expect that reaction from me. They are surprised by my happy face and how excited I am. In other words, I’m weird. (Not big news to anyone who knows me)

Admittedly I don’t have huge amounts of rejections yet but I am starting to pile them on and I love it. Well maybe love is a little strong. But I do relish them. For, you see, I don’t see rejections as dead ends. I see them as stepping stones.

The stones lead to my goal and I can’t bypass them. I also have to keep an eye on each one as it comes or I will slip. I have no idea how many stones are on my path, the end is shrouded in mist. I am happy to be on the path though. Writing and submitting is enough for me right now.

I know that not everyone will love my stories and even if they like it, there may not be a place for it with them. And so I keep going. Skipping from stone to stone, excited to see the view from each new one. Writing more stories to send out so I can get more rejections to pave my path with.

        

Salutations, friends. Hope your week went well, mine did.

Graduation

My littlest sister has graduation Magna Cum Laude from WSU with a Psychology degree. We are so proud of her and I had the pleasure of watching her walk the walk and hide from the cameras after as much as she could. I am so excited for her future and where it will go from here. So many possibilities.

Writing

I am still feeling my way to a process for the novel I want to write. I have a protagonist I adore speaking incessantly in my mind’s theater. He struts about ranting and bragging and occasionally revealing bits of his story to me. I see a little bit of a couple subplots and the start of the main one but the rest remains shrouded. This time I won’t give up. I will write and finish a novel no matter how much it sucks.

Write on the River

I attended the Write on the River writing conference for the first time yesterday and I am very glad I went. Terry Brooks was the keynote speaker. I have adored his work since I was 13 years old and I am so glad I had the opportunity to speak with him face to face. He and his wife are wonderful people.

Samuel Ligon hosted a workshop on Novels: Launches and Landings and while I have never heard of him before I greatly enjoyed learning from him. One thing that I took away from his lecture was the idea that writers need to maintain a balance between ego and failure. Ego so we have the confidence to submit and keep writing. Failure so we realize that we need to keep improving as nothing is ever good enough. I myself have a healthy dose of the failure side of things, I am working on the ego part.

Randall Platt workshopped on Character Etching. She handed out a nice poem about all the wonderful things that are accomplished only after a lot of failures. She also handed out the interview sheet she uses to get to know her characters and in the workshop we created Wendell Hopscotch, age 37, born in an abandoned fish hatchery to unwed teens. From there he only got more interesting and real and he touched something in all of us.  She also posed the question “why spend your life fighting for other peoples dreams?” A question that I feel in my soul and am looking forward to acting upon.

The last workshop I went to was given by Anjali Banerjee about Avoiding the Pitfalls of the Middle Grade novel. She taught about having your protagonist “save the cat” in the first few pages to make them redeemable and sympathetic to the reader. She also highly recommended finding a mentor that is further up the trail, they will teach you so much more than writing groups.

If things work out right next year, I hope to return. It was a wonderful experience and I recommend it to any writer, aspiring or not.

        

Working today, I realized something about the readers/shoppers of the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the store. I realized that they ‘own’ their section of the store. Or rather I should say we own it.

Readers of other genres are just want pointed to their favorite authors and they are good to go. They are pretty flexible to change. They realize that they are in a store owned and operated by other people.

SF/Fantasy readers are very attached to their sections being set up a certain way. Any changes or mistakes in the organization of the books earns a quick comment to the nearest bookseller. No bookseller handy? Then they ‘fix’ it themselves.

When I first started working in bookstores, I took extra interest in my favorite section of the store. I learned the do’s and don’t's of shelving and displaying books there. I memorized which shelves the major authors were on as ‘bookmarks’ to the rest of the section. If given an option about where to work, I chose the fantasy section. Now I am unofficially in charge of the section. Now it is mine on a whole other level.

I pay close attention to how the customers shop, where they look for their books, and how they discover the next author to try. Readers of SF/Fantasy don’t tend to wander around the store looking for books on display or what’s on sale in the bargain section. They beeline for their section and lose themselves in the corridors filled with spaceships, elves, swords, and phasers. They have everything they need there and no need to explore further.

The SF/Fantasy section is mine. Thank you for leaving it as you found it and for pointing out that the Dragonlance books are suppose to be at the end with the RPG novels and not alphabetized in the main part of the section.

        

Good morning all. Another week is drawing to a close and it is time for my weekly post.

Happy Mother’s Day

Today is mother’s day. A day for spending time with your kids and the mothers in your life. My grade school kids have special things they have made for me and my teen daughters will hold in their attitudes long enough to mumble “happy mother’s day, mom”. It is a family day. Hope you enjoy yours.

Reading

This week I read Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris as I promised I would last week. I have to say I enjoyed it. I have heard some people complain that it is slower paced than the previous novels. I agree with this but it felt right for Sookie and Co. to have that breather. To me it feels like the lull before the storm. This book is all about family. Sookie and her brother get close again. Sam is still worried about his family and their reaction to the Great Reveal. Even Eric has some relatives come to town. There is still a lot going on but more of it has to do with relationships. There is even an appearance by Russian nobility. Fun.

I also read The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod. I can’t rave about this book quite as much. It is the first in the series and all the different things that were introduced in this book were confusing in places. I did enjoy most of it and found it interesting take on vampires and fae. Also the character of Finn is a satyr and you just don’t see many satyrs in fiction these days. I like him. The vampire nobility that involve themselves with Genny’s life are darkly mysterious and their motives remain in the shadows. That said I will be reading the next one in the series. Now that I understand (or think I do) what is going on with Genny and her past, I am ready to dive forward in her world and see where things go.

Movies

I saw Iron Man 2 on Friday with my husband and two boys and I loved it. My 7 year old has dubbed it the third best movie of all time. Tony Stark has more snark than can fit in that suit and Vanko was sufficiently smart and creepy to be a worthy adversary. The action was eye-popping and fun, the way superhero action movies should be. I recommend this movie to comic fans, action fans, and comedy fans. It even has a bit of something for fans of romance.

Writing

I am still working on that “sitting down and writing everyday” thing that I need to progress further in this dream of mine. I have a conference coming up on Saturday where Terry Brooks is the keynote speaker. I have been a fan of his since I was in high school. In particular I have a soft spot for his character Allanon from the first Shannara series. Allanon had that black cloak that obscured his features and his motives wonderfully well. The first time through the books I didn’t know if he was just pretending to be a good guy or not.

 I also will be heading to a convention and participating in a writing workshop May 28th through the 31st. I found out who is critiquing my submission and now my husband is begging to pretend to be me and go. I will share with you who it is after I hear what he has to say. I can say that I am totally looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

How was your week? Are you enjoying your Mother’s Day?

        

Her aunt gripped her small hand and yanked her along the stone corridors. Mysjenn’s smaller legs worked hard to keep up. So hard she was nearly running. The worn floor chilled her bare feet and keeping them moving meant less time on the floor freezing.

The corridors here were a maze to Mysjenn. Her aunt seemed to be taking corners at random. Up one set of stairs and down another, until Mysjenn was thoroughly lost. Tear tracks dried on her heart shaped face, her nose still dripped. She used the sleeve of her rough robe to wipe at it as she ran.

“Don’t do that. Respect your attire, girl.” Her aunt didn’t even turn her head. How did she see what Mysjenn did?

Mysjenn had arrived on the island a few hours ago. She had come by ship from her homeland of Corethe. It had been the first time she had ever been one. The hustle and bustle of sailors moving about the deck and up in the rigging like spiders, the ocean wind in her face, the bob of the waves as the ship cut through a swell made her fall in love with the sea.

Time spent on the ship helped dull the memories of her parents and what had happened to them. The wild men had attacked their farm. The bandit leader with the compass rose on his forehead above his colorless eyes and sharp featured face haunted her dreams.

Her aunt pulled her into a room and stopped. Mysjenn tripped as she ran into her and would have fallen if not for her aunt jerking her arm to keep her on her feet. Mysjenn bit back a whimper.

“Soren. Prepare her.” Her aunt thrust her forward and without a backwards glance, left the room.

A hunched man, skin pasty white except for the patch of honey brown spreading across his forehead and down his left cheek to the top of his pale blue tunic that matched his eyes, approached. His mouth stretched into a smile that gave Mysjenn the shivers and she backed away until she ran against the closed door.

“I won’t harm you. The Sea Priestess wants you prepared for a special ceremony and I am the man for that duty. All of us here must do as the Sea Priestess requests or the god will strike you down. You too. So you better do as she says.” Throughout this speech, he kept coming closer until he grabbed her tightly by her upper arm as he finished. “You want to please the god, don’t you?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. He dragged her across the room to a half cask filled with water that dominated one corner of this large cluttered room. He stripped her of her robe and left her standing naked in the light of the torches around the perimeter of the room. He walked around her, examining every inch of her. She turned and tried to run away from the invisible worms that crawled in her belly at the hungry of this strange man. Soren laughed and caught her easily.

“You aren’t getting away that easily, little bird. The door be locked and anyone in this temple who sees you will just bring you back.” He lifted her into his arms and gave her a one-sided embrace before he dumped her into the cask.

She came up sputtering out a mouthful of salty water. “It’s cold! And it tastes funny.” She shivered and sniffled back snot as her nose began dripping once more.

“It’s sea water and you’ll come to love it.” One large hand descended on her head and pushed her under and held her there.

Her lungs burned and she saw stars floating through the water. A black cloud closed in, narrowing her vision to a small spot right in front of her nose when she was finally allowed to the surface again.

A hard wooden bristled brush was slapped into her limp hands, fingers reflexively closed around it. She stared at Soren, dazed, confused.

“Scrub yourself. And be thorough. Unless you want me to do it for you?”

She grabbed the brush, large in her small hands and awkwardly began scrubbing. Worried he would not approve of the job she did and take the brush from her, she scrubbed until her skin was pink and scraped raw. New tears came to her eyes from the pain but Soren never even looked at her. He busied himself with a tray near a stool. From where she sat in the water she could see shiny silver tools arranged neatly. Small jars and other arcane containers were shuffled around on a nearby shelf. All set within reach of a small battered stool.

After she had finished scrubbing every part of her body including her hair, scrubbed with ragged fingernails that made her scalp sting. She waited shivering in the water for Soren to acknowledge her.

Note: As I didn’t want to turn my attention away from my current project, I am posting the opening scene from my NaNoWriMo novel last year.