On Killing the Angel

The Bitch is Back

Staying on top of our writing isn't easy. No (wo)man is an island and if you are lucky you will have many, many distractions in your life. I say lucky.

 

I spent many years of my life doing theatre. It was my family; I had no time to date or start a family of my own.  That was cool for about 15-20 years. When the fun began to fade, I thought maybe an art which kept me closer to home would be good.  So I took up writing. Now here was flexibility. I filled notebook after notebook with short stories (this was pre-computer, only a friend or two had them) and even made my first sale. Then I met my future hubby, we courted and wed. Next came the patter of little feet.  I admit I took a very long break from writing. Around the time my son turned six, I felt comfortable enough in my role of wife and mother to return to it.

 

It seemed the perfect occupation for a stay at home mom and home schooler. Seemed, which leads us to the angel… the infamous angel of the Victorian era whom Virginia Woolf wrote about. The perfect wife who put aside all her personal needs to meet the needs of her family, yeah, you know her.

 

In Woolf's 1931 essay, "Professions for Women" (originally given as a speech to the Society for Women's Service and then posthumously published), she writes:

 

I discovered that if I were going to review books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom. And the phantom was a woman, and when I came to know her better I called her after the heroine of a famous poem, The Angel in the House. It was she who used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews. It was she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her. You who come of a younger and happier generation may not have heard of her--you may not know what I mean by the Angel in the House.

 

Well, we are of a younger and happier generation, but the Angel in the House still lives and she is one hell of a mean bitch.

 

I fight her each and every day as I look at the pile of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, or even when I decide to cook something simple (or order in) so I can meet a deadline.

 

So, spill it. Have you met the Angel? Share how you either killed her or put her in her place. Please leave a note, I love hearing from you.

A Very Sticky Wicket

There's an internet controversy going on -when isn't there?

This time about a YA novel, Save the Pearls.  I haven't read the book, and it's not on my list to read, but it has lead to a cautionary story.

The author in this case has written a book which supposedly will help young adults understand racism. Wonderful. We need to have greater awareness if we are to create a better world.

Unfortunately, in the process of tackling this important topic the author, Victoria Foyt, may have reinforced racial stereotypes.

So the question is how does one write about racism without falling into this trap?

One writer who I follow wrote about this saying that he has wanted to do a similar book but was unsure if it wouldn't be misinterpreted. This guy is a terrific writer, if anyone could write a great novel using this topic, it's him.

So I wonder. Are we all stuck writing within our own little fishbowls of culture, race or religion due to fear that by commenting on racism we will somehow make it worse? How do you approach writing characters that are of different  backgrounds from your own?

Do we comment on racism or perpetuate it?

Quicksilver Moonlight is Up!

I recently decided to break up one of my novel length stories into different sections and self-publish it. It's an experiment. I want to learn if serializing a story can help sell it in the long run.


Part One is a stand alone, complete in itself, but the story and the characters didn't want to end. And so I wrote more, it got longer and before I knew it I had a novella length tale ready to blossom into a novel.

It's a Regency Paranormal, taking place just after the Napoleonic War and it's my take on historical paranormal and gothic romance. In it ghosts and werewolves haunt the halls of Pembrook Manor.

I haven't written too much in this genre. There's "The Vision" which is also a dark romance, and then my work in progress - A Clockwork King.

Usually my novels are Urban Fantasy, but as of late I've been drawn to the Early Nineteenth Century.

As far as author branding goes, I consider myself a writer of dark fantasy, horror and sf. The key term would be dark meaning contemporary dark fantasy is as valid to me as historical.

Blurb:

 

Beth felt sorry for her brother-in-law, but that was no excuse for the way he had treated her husband, or the way he was treating her now: forcing her to stay in his house as a nurse to his ailing wife. Once she discovers his secret, she is thrust into a nightmare from which she may never escape.

Accused of murder, Beth Pembrook must rely on the man who stole her inheritance and who plans to marry her off to the highest bidder. Can she trust him?

Ghosts, werewolves and things that go bump in the night abound in this Regency thriller, part one of a planned series.

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So it's up and available for reading at both Smashwords and Kindle.  I hope that you stop by.

My News! No Man (Woman or Writer) Is an Island

It's going to be a short post. I'm very excited to make the announcement (finally) which I've been hinting at for the past few weeks.

I've accepted a position on the editorial staff of Damnation Books. I've long held great admiration for Kim Richards and the people she's chosen to work with her. When the opportunity presented itself I jumped at it.

It does mean some self-disipline to get my writing and promotion done along with the editing of other people's work; however, I believe that you get out of a community what you put into it.  Very often writing seems like a business where there is a need to ceaselessly promote one's own work and I think I will enjoy helping to promote others for a while.

Wish me luck!

Why I Support E-publishing

I consider myself a greeny wannabe, and when it came right down to it, when I was sending my first novel, Chasing The Trickster, out to agents, I had visions in my head of advances not earned out and my book with it's cover ripped off filling some warehouse in New Jersey.

Eventually the feeling got so strong that I sent my novel to an e-publisher and was delighted to be accepted. With e-pub it can stay in cyberspace a very long time, which meant working with a publisher willing to return those rights became very important. I am very happy with my e-publishing contract.

Which brings me to Gordon Dahlquist. You may have never heard of him, but he has written the best steampunk literature that I have read. Based on his works I consider myself a lover of steampunk, yet, I often find myself disappointed when I read other steampunk because nothing seems to match the sheer joy I had when tearing through the first two volumes of his Glass Books of the Dream Eaters.

Maybe you have heard of him. He was the guy who got a $2 million dollar advance and only earned back $800,000. Oh, yeah...

Well, he's coming out with The Chemickal Marriage, a third book. [Depending on how you count - the first book The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters was divided into two volumes (over 400 pages each), and the follow up was called The Dark Volume (500 pages). So it's the fourth book in the series and perhaps the last if this is indeed a trilogy.]

The Dark Volume left the reader dangling. I'd say to my husband, who has no choice but to at least pretend to be listening, "Mr. Dahlquist doesn't know how to end a book."  But I'd say that still craving the next one. I really want to get my hands on this new book, still not quite believing that the story will ever end.

Here it is end of July and its publication date was at the beginning of this month. Penguin UK has it listed, it's published by their imprint Viking but Penguin doesn't even have it listed on its American website.

Furthermore, this book is only available in hardcover. And the hardcover wasn't available at my local Barnes and Noble yesterday. Barnes and Noble on-line lists his other books and an upcoming book, The Different Girl, but no mention of The Chemickal Marriage. Why don't they just sow the ground with salt?

Amazon is better. The hardcover is available, with the paperback coming out Jan. 31st of next year. At 528 pages, I don't look forward to owning the hardback copy and lugging it around.  So, as much as I am aching to read this book, I'll probably wait.

And that is another reason why I love e-pubs. It's lightweight and I can usually get it immediately.

If anyone has any info to add it about getting a kindle copy of The Chemickal Marriage it would be great to hear from you. Also, I do have an announcement to make, but I have to put it off until the right time, which I hope will be soon.

A Change of Pace

As a writer, I exercise two sets of muscles. One is the crazy, creative, write-as-quickly-as-I-can part, and the other is my editorial side.  As much as I love writing, very often the hypercritical, perfectionista editor in me gives me a PITA.

That's why I love arts and crafts.  My grandfather was actually a well-known and respected artist in Holland. When I told my dad that I'd like to take art classes his attitude was that my grandfather was never without a pencil and pad of paper in his hand. Was that what I really wanted?

That turned me off. I couldn't ever be that determined to draw.  What was ever present in my hand was--a book! I was constantly reading and you can't really spend all your time drawing if you spend all your time reading.  And for the first 20 years of adulthood I was working as a theatre person and a paralegal. I got to read in my spare time, so making art got short shrift.

But I've always loved Art, with a capital A. Theatre and the visual arts mostly. Just like I've studied a lot of foreign languages and realized it's not my forte, I also tried to become proficient in several musical instruments: piana, guitar, violin.  I think I do okay on the Jew's harp and enjoy little ditties on my penny whistle, but I'm just not talented at music or languages. Writing, reading, theatre, and the visual arts make me smile and give me the warm fuzzies.

Getting to the point: I spent this past weekend at Create NJ, a mixed media retreat. I got to be with two of my former teachers from the City Quilter - Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Jane Davila. I also had the pleasure of being with two new teachers. What I learn everytime I go to an arts/crafts workshop is to relax and play. I'm not doing this for money or to be a professional. I'm just having fun. Which is so refreshing since the fun part of writing is often overshadowed by the editorial or business aspects of the profession.

So, I kicked back for the past 3 days with other women (mostly) and made stuff. I learned how to carve stamps, make ATCs, put paperclay faces on canvas and decorated them, and made collage pendants.  What a hoot!

I feel refreshed and relaxed and ready to face another week of teaching ESL, and working on my writing.

How do you feel about doing multiple arts? Are you a Jack of all Trades, King of None? Or do they all feed into each other. Please leave a comment and let me know.

Also, I might have some surprise info for you all next week (or not)!

My Weekend at Connecticon

As I might have mentioned, I have a teenager.  He likes gaming and at almost all our cons he spends his time in the gaming rooms.  Connecticon is all about that, anime and cosplay. It's a energetic and youthful con. And there are little corners tucked away where you see the parents, patiently doing their thing--waiting for their children to be done.

It's not a literature heavy con like Philcon or Lunacon so I make a point of checking the panel listings when I get there, attempting to get in as many writers panels as possible.

This year, however, I missed CJ Henderson's panel because we were checking into our hotel.  Rats. I did drop a bundle on buying anthologies at his seller's table, though.

And I did make it to a couple of panels:

I was in the audience at three panels with Michele Lang, (I think I was on a panel with her at Lunacon.)  She was kind enough to do a reading from her book, Lady Lazarus, and to give away copies of the next book in the series, Dark Victory. Thanks, Michele, you are next on my reading list. She also read one of her short stories at another panel.

Finally she was on a Copyright and Creation panel with Margaret Killjoy (not a kill joy at all). 

Margaret is absolutely the cat's meow when it comes to anarchy and steampunk. He's the author of A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse, which I plan to read ASAP, and the current editor of SteamPunk Magazine.

Finally, I sat in on an inspirational panel by Oscar Rios and Mike Tresca called Maintaining Motivation in Writing. This was worth the price of admission as I felt instantly determined to get my projects (way too many I'm sorry to say) done, done, done.  While I have no problem getting through a first draft, it's the second through final which feels like slow torture. They had an excellent explanation for this: in a nutshell you are not the same person who wrote that first draft and so as you change so does your perspective. Now we all know to put a story or novel in the drawer to get some perspective. Their point was to take a break, celebrate your success in finishing that first draft, and then get back to it.  Hmmm. Worth a try I think.

So it was a terrific weekend, and though we are all exhausted now, tomorrow we will be refreshed and ready to face a new week.

Were you at Connecticon?  How about some of the other cons last weekend. What was the best con you were ever at and why? Leave a comment.