C. L. Norman

Reading

This week I read Caitlin Kittredge‘s Street Magic. I am an avid fan of her Nocturne series and have been wanting to try out this other series for a while and finally broke down and bought a copy.  I tried to be all responsible and read it only at night after I had finished the things I needed to get done but by the third night I was heading to bed earlier for more time with my book and the next morning I finished the book before getting anything else done. It was different but exciting. The central mystery of the story was engaging and well thought out. I really enjoyed it.

Tax Season

We finally filed our taxes this week and I learned a valuable lesson. We have always had H&R Block prepare out taxes and I have always been satisfied with their work. This year, my writing is in the shady area where I might be able to claim some deductions because of it and the tax preparers were not prepared to handle those questions. I learned that I can’t trust professionals to know everything about their fields. A good lesson to know. Hopefully I keep this information in mind when I meet with other professionals in the future.

Dr. Suess

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess. It is such a wonderful thing that children across America celebrate the birth and career of an author every year. I helped with this tradition by reading Green Eggs & Ham and The Foot Book during this week’s storytime. The children never seem to tire of the words of this wonderful writer. A personal thank you to him for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I was reading this book when I was 4 years old. Dr Seuss is the author that launched me into the world of books that I live in today.

Revising/Rewriting

Up to this morning I always thought there was something wrong with me that I never rewrote on as massive a scale as everyone else I have heard of. I touch up grammar and word choice, delete repetitive sentences, and in general only clean up my first draft. I don’t delete huge passages or shift around large blocks of text or any of those other drastic measures revision seems to involve. This morning I read an entry in Dean Westley Smith’s Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing series and am now in the process of letting go of that feeling of wrongness, embracing my method, and working up the confidence to believe in my words despite them being the result of only one or two drafts.

Birthdays

My second child turned 13 this week. That brings the number of teens in the family up to two. I am bracing myself for the fallout of that event. Two teen daughters and only two parents. Things could get wild and crazy around here for a few years. I’ve been told my kids are easy and others are jealous, I have my fingers crossed that that trend continues.

How ’bout your week? Did it go well? Learn anything new?

        

Some days my brain takes longer to wake up. Add to that the cognitive processes I’ve devoted to a couple new writing projects and details slip through the cracks. This morning at 6:30am I slipped on some foot coverings, jumped in the car, and drove to work.

At the store I clocked in and went to my locker to store my coat and purse and a strange thought went through my head.

“My feet are comfy-cozy. And I’m at work.”

I looked down and realized that I was wearing my slippers. My cushy, brown leather moccassin type slippers. At work. Slippers aren’t usually part of the semi-pro look but for today, I made it work.

I think only one out of ten customers noticed.

        

Writing

After the workshops and panels at RadCon last weekend, I became determined to start treating my writing more as a business than as a sometimes hobby. To that end, I have submitted a couple short stories this week and caught up on my novel manuscript so that I may continue with that project.

Another aspect of that is getting myself organized so that I can track expenses and submissions and all the other details needed to be successful. To that end I am working again to get my household finances in order and find a system that works for me in tracking and budgeting them. I am notoriously bad with the details and while I do not have a lot of things to track for writing yet, my household accounts are a good place to start learning the skills to carry me onward.

In addition to the above I have also started reading through Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Freelancer’s Survival Guide. I have only read through the second Money chapter at this point but I am learning a lot and learning that there is a lot I don’t know. Very enlightening and her advice isn’t just for writers.

On TV

I’ve been rewatching Stargate SG-1 this week. Every episode I try to identify which character is my favorite and I can’t make up my mind. Usually it is a toss up between O’Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson but then Carter or Teal’c steal a scene and I am torn between four again. My favorite episode is still A Window of Opportunity. It is like Groundhog Day with science fiction elements. Fun.

Writing Group

This week my writing group met for the first time since we closed the group to all-comers. The meeting was all about hashing out rules for members and set up the structure of the group. I know it is necessary but I found myself wanting to get past all the back-and-forth discussion and get back to the writing. Soon enough.

Gaming

We started a new D&D game on Saturday night. I am DMing the old AD&D campaign, Night Below, and updating it for Pathfinder rules as we go. I don’t have any idea how well the conversion will go but we intend to have fun finding out. My 9 year old son is joining us for the first time and it is entertaining watching him play with the adults and the differences in how he approaches the puzzles in the game.

        

Work

Many hours were made available to the employees at the store this last week and I took advantage of them. I took as many as they would allow and as such I kept very busy with that.

As a part of the above, I spent two shifts in the cafe for training. The first day of training on the register left me hopeful that I could get the hang of it all. The second day of training at the bar left me lost and confused. I viewed the machinery and bottles and mixing containers as the paraphenalia of the arcane. Clearly only wizards could understand the vocabulary and methodology behind the mixing of those caffinated beverages the masses crave.

And I am not a wizard. I am merely a mundane temporarily transported into the magical world of the cafe.

Writing

Grrr. Arrgh.

Those words sum it up. Time has been at a premium because of work and other draws on my time. However, I had time to write if I wanted to use it. Instead I spent that time staring at the screen, mentally paralyzed by the fear that what I would write would suck or be so great someone might notice my writing. I need to get over myself and just write those stories that swirl around in my mind and heart. Stop worrying about how bad or good they will be until after they are down and complete on my digital paper.

Open Mic Night

I participated in my first Open Mic Night this week. I read five minutes of one of my short stories aloud in front of several of the local authors. I was scared and excited and very glad I did it. I have never read my stuff to anyone before. I have read aloud to myself before but in front of others things sound differently. New, more awkward, less awkward. Hearing the feedback from audience members afterwords was a bonus. I will definitely be participating in the next Open Mic Night.

Books

I read Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder this week. While I enjoyed most the story and the characters, I found myself distracted by what I perceived as flaws or oversights in the book.

Early on, Jessie loses an eye and an arm. I thought the details about adjusting to the lack of an arm were done well. However the eye was a cosmetic injury with no affect on the character. I had to wear an eye patch in high school for 2 days and I know that it take a while to adjust to the change in vision and Jessie didn’t have to adjust. I found this oversight distracting.

The other problem I had was with the pacing. The first two-thirds of the book had a nice steady climb in tension but the last third became a frantic race to the end. A race that I had trouble keeping up with.

Macmillian vs Amazon

I read two articles today about this contretemps over e-book pricing, here and here. I am still enough of an outsider I don’t have enough information to form more than a gut opinion on the whole deal. Most importantly though I find this to be a herald of things to come. Upheavals and changes in the publishing world. Something to keep an eye on.

I, myself, am not a consumer of ebooks. Yet. I have tried various devices and feel to distanced from the words and uncomfortable with the medium. However, I do know that many others do not have this problem and ebooks will only get more popular as time goes along. This development is bound to have repercussions and growing pains.

How was your week?

        

So often I read or hear the advice, “act like a professional.” Act like a professional even before you sell that first story, even before I have any contact with the professional publishing world. Everytime I wait for the advice to be elaborated. How exactly does a professional writer act? I haven’t yet heard what this means among professionals.

Here I offer up what I think acting professional means:

• Dress with Style: From my observations of sci-fi/fantasy authors at signings and conventions, style of dress isn’t a set pattern.  Office folks dress in suits and ties and dress suits. Writers don’t dress all in the same fashion. They do all seem to have their own style though. One person may wear leather vests and cowboy hats, another long flowing dresses with scarves. This style they have adopted seems to be for official ‘appearances.’ Unofficially they may dress very differently.
• Research & Share: I don’t mean researching for those details that make stories real. I mean researching on the craft of writing. Most every author I have talked to or heard speak reads widely and often. They read from many genres, fiction and non-fiction. And they share the insights and knowledge with others freely.
• Follow Through on Commitments: Deadlines are met. Or if they can’t be met, plenty of notice is given so that the person expecting results can plan for the delay. Appointments are attended. Emails are sent. Writing time is shown up for. This one sounds the easiest but as a dyed in the wool procrastinator, I know this isn’t anywhere near easy but it is also the behavior that most distinguishes the amateurs from the pro’s.
• Public Mood is Always Positive: Aches and pains and woes in their personal lives aren’t shared with others. Criticism is listened to with patience and tolerance, at least outwardly. Response to criticism is done politely, sometimes with a touch of humor. Blogs, emails, and conversations with the public aren’t places to rant and complain but to educate and inform.

These are four behaviors that I have observed in the writers I have encountered. I try very hard to live up to these guidelines and act like a pro. Maybe one day I will be in a position to know the secret pro handshake and learn why certain things have to be kept secret, how to respond to fan emails, and how to communicate with agents and publishers about my work.

What do you think? How does one “act like a pro” in the writer world?

        

Looking back over the last week:

Haiti

The terrible earthquake in Haiti has been all over the news and the social networking sites. My heart and prayers go out to those enduring the tragedy and those rushing in to provide aid.

Books This Week

I have finally managed to get back in my reading groove. I had been feeling like I couldn’t read like I use to because I should be writing. Instead I have ended up feeling smothered and very unlike myself. This week I am back in my reading groove.

I read Grave Suprise and An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris this week. I gotta say that Harper Connelly and her ‘talent’ is so intriguing and fun. I am thoroughly enjoying the pace of these books and the who-done-it plots are surprising but not cheating solutions. I am still not sure how I feel about the relationship between Harper and Tolliver yet but I have already found myself recommending these books to others.

I read Belle by Cameron Dokey. It is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, another of my favorites.  This tale had enough differences to make it fresh and engrossing. If you like fairytales, I highly suggest this one.

I also read Dying Bites by D. D. Barant. This combines a portal story (ie Narnia books) with an Urban Fantasy. In the world Jace, the protagonist, ends up in, humans are a very small minority and supernaturals dominate. I enjoyed this book enormously and can’t wait for the next one in the series.

Movies

Last night, my husband took me to see The Book of Eli. Wow. I loved it. It had action. Post apocalyptic setting. Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. One of the big reveals at the end was awesome in that clues had been so well seeded throughout the movie that it was an “ah ha!” moment. My husband and I spent the whole drive home pointing out those clues to each other. There is every likelihood that we will be owning this film when it is released on DVD.

Writing

I am finally getting myself back in the writing groove after the chaos and vacuum that is the holiday season working retail. Stories are living in my head and pressuring me into putting them on paper. My habits are still rotten but I am working on them.

How did your week go?

        

I work in the mall in a bookstore. I have worked in the mall in a bookstore on and off since my first job at B. Dalton’s in August 1991.

I think I have seen holiday shoppers in all shapes, sizes, and colors in that time. Some are full of the holiday spirit; polite, patient, and understanding of the over-busy retail clerks and the ever shrinking stock. Others are full of some other spirit; rude, impatient, angry when they don’t find that specific item they were looking for.

I like to think that I don’t know my customer’s private lives. Maybe something awful is happening at home and that is why they are acting so terribly. I smile bigger, take a deep breath, and try even harder to maintain my patience. Other times the rudeness has reached such a level that I become grateful I am not a manager and I can pass the customer off. Or maybe the customer will get so fed up they will stomp out of the store and come back another day when their mood is brighter.

These are the days when we see most of those cranky shoppers. The lines are long, the ‘good’ books have sold, and there are only so many employees to go around. Tempers get short. Frowns and grimaces are on nearly every face. 

I call this time of year the ‘swipe and go’ period. The customers don’t want to hear about the offers for this or that. They don’t want to hear about special programs. They just want to hear their total, swipe their card, and leave. It can be very frustrating for the store clerk and a strain on their smiles.

Christmas Eve this all changes. For some strange reason, even though time has nearly run out, shoppers on this day relax. They smile. They joke. They listen to the offers and promotions. They feel the spirit of the holidays and it becomes a pleasure to work with them. This is the time when suggesting a new author becomes easy. Convincing the shopper to go home with something different than they originally came in for is an opportunity to share more of my favorites. Not only the best selling ones.

I like working on Christmas Eve, at least the early shift. I see the spark of Santa in every face that passes through the checkout line and it puts me in the mood for the evening when Santa-in-full arrives. 

So if you are one of the shoppers heading out today, take time to smile at the clerk helping you out. Bring Santa out a day early.

        

I’ve read several articles about how blogs can be used by writers to gain a following and be noticed. And I have to admit that that was the main reason why I started a site for myself. However, at this moment in time and probably for at least another 3 to 6 months I hope I do not get noticed, at least on a large scale.

I hope a few friends and family wander on in to my den of thieves and post a comment or two. I hope those comments inspire me to think and reflect and learn from my blogs and thereby improve.  I also hope that the act of writing posts on  a regular basis will improve my writing. And maybe curtail my tendancy to babble on.

I also hope to learn how to keep on task and meet a deadline. I have set myself the goal of writing a new post at least three times a week. I have had this site up for three months and I haven’t met that goal yet. So I changed the goal. I am now going to write a new post every day. This way if something crazy happens around the house that prevents me from writing, I should get those three posts I want.

Attention I wish I wasn’t receiving is from the spammers. Gah! I have made it a daily ritual to visit my site just for the purpose of deleting all of their posts.

So while my writing improves from the daily practice, I hope you, my few and far between readers, enjoy my posts and feel free to comment. I would love to hear what you have to say.

        

How many of you work or have worked retail? Come on, raise your hands. I know most of you have at one point in your life. Have you noticed how the holidays start earlier and earlier every year?

It use to be the new calenders didn’t arrive until fall and now they are arriving weeks after the old calenders have been clearanced out. Halloween titles and product start arriving in the store in late July. Followed very quickly by the Christmas titles and product.

Yesterday I set up a required display in the store. A display sent down from on high (ie New York) with a required title list. This list only has 7 titles on it. The date is September 29th. Three, yes three, of the seven titles on that list were Christmas titles. Happy Holidays!

You may think I am complaining about this and while it does strike me as weird, I love it. I was born in December and I love the whole holiday season and if it is getting longer that is just more to enjoy.

My parents were divorced before I was three and during the holidays my sisters and I celebrated everything twice. Once with mom and once with dad. Then you throw in my birthday, again once with mom and once with dad, and the holidays were the best time of the year. I saw my parents, my grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, that strange gentlemen in the corner I have no idea how he is related to me, everyone. I also received presents of course. Never a bad thing.

Now many people in my life have passed on and the holidays are not so full of family but I still see my dad and my sisters and some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. As for the strange gentleman in the corner, I know his name now. I do more giving of presents than receiving as I have four kids of my own and many neices and nephews and cousins once removed. The holidays are good times.

Now I need to figure out four costumes, two girls and two boys before the month is up. And find my Christmas music.

        

Procrastination

Folks keep suggesting scheduling writing time, setting specific goals, and sticking to them. This is always in response to me whining (and let’s face it, I do whine) about my procrastination habits.

These habits have been cultivated since grade school. I loved school and learning but I hated doing homework and studying. However since I tested well and found it all very easy I could get away without learning those daily habits of sitting down and working every day after school.

That lifestyle choice is coming back to bite me in the . . . writer’s chair.

The last couple days I have been trying to set myself goals. Planning a writing schedule out weeks in advance is no good for me. I ruled that out the first time my kids invaded my writing area to ask me for help with their homework or help build the Mystical Island of Metra’Nui or the phone call from work pleading with me to come cover someone’s shifts. These are the things I cannot plan for.

So I set my goals small and not too far in advance. For instance, this morning before work I knew I would have about an hour free after getting ready for work and before waking up my second daughter for school. I felt a 200 word goal was fair for this time period.

It felt good to finish it.

This evening’s goal was 500 words and between kids, cooking dinner, balancing the checkbook, and the monday night TV show line-up I am addicted to, I finished it. It was a lot harder tonight. Sleepiness encroaches and fight scenes do not come natural to me yet.

Opening My Big Mouth

I had this idea a couple days ago for a monthly event at the bookstore where I work. I thought an Open Mic night would be very cool. And a  good opportunity to both read and hear others read their work. I still think it is a good idea.

I approached the lady in charge of arranging the events in our store and now I think I may be running this new event. And instead of starting after the holidays, which was the hazy idea I went to her with. We will be starting in November. November 11th at 7pm to be exact.

This is very neat and I don’t mind the extra responsibility. Much.

Now, I need to keep writing voraciously between now and then so my writing skills improve as much as I can get them so that I have something to read at the kick off of this event. Something I won’t be too embarrassed to read.

I use to be a drama major in high school and college. I do the weekly storytime in our store in front of kids and adults numbering between 3 and 35. Reading won’t be the issue. Feeling comfortable enough in my writing skin to read my own work is.

Another milestone for me to hurdle (or possibly trip) over on the road to Professional Writer Status (imagine a serious announcer voice saying that in stark even tones).