It's funny, in a way. I get so busy actually working that I don't write blog entries.
I've been working really hard to get ready for Coming Together: Strange Shifters. (I wish I did cover art, because we still don't have any and I need some, but I'm a terrible graphics editor)
I've gotten all my stories edited and most of them returned, so I'm doing the final check-through for 16 of them and getting them mapped out in the anthology file.
I've written two short stories in the last two weeks, which has to be some sort of record, for me, at least. One of them is about 7,000 words and I wrote it from scratch, starting on the 10th and I finished it Tuesday, so 12 days. The other was half-finished a while back, I started it in February of 2014, and for reasons that I can't recall, never finished it. Then, this morning, I saw a story call and thought "did I ever finish that... no, no I didn't." I dug up the file, pulled it out, read it, decided it was actually fairly good and would meet the requirements for the call nicely.
I figured it would take me a week or so to finish it off, but no, apparently something started turning in my head and I cranked out almost 3,000 words today, did some quick editing, and sent it off to the publisher.
According to my calendar, on Monday I'll start writing my Twisted Fairy Tale story, which I'm calling Small Problems, and is a Tom Thumb m/m story.
For some reason, I decided that I'll try to write a short story for every one of Torquere's anthology calls for 2016. They have rather a lot of topics that I think I can work with. (I'm pretty sure I won't, actually, get all of them, but I might get at least seven done, and that's more short stories than I've done in a while... I think. I don't know, I lose track a lot...)
October will see me finishing off the Strange Shifters anthology -- the current anticipated publication date is October 31st, but if we don't get a cover soon, I'm concerned. (Do you have mad cover design skills? Want to donate some time? Please contact Alessia Brio at erotic.cocktail at gmail dot com for more information!) and writing a short story about Irish dancing. I have't decided much about that short story yet, but I do have some friends who do Irish dancing who've agreed to help me with the technical details...
And then I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I'm not what you'd call the best NaNo person, but I do want to finish writing All that Jazz by hopefully the end of this year, for fall publication of next year.
After that, I'll get Sins of Angels back from my betas and finish edits on that...
Which takes me through the end of the year...
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Friday, September 25, 2015
Monday, February 10, 2014
My Writing Process Blog Tour - Get Out the Map
Last week, in a wee bit of a panic, Victoria Blisse asked me to participate in this blog tour about writing and the writing process...
1) What am I working on?
The other day, my husband asked me if I ever intended to take another day off in my life. I didn't really know what to say to that.
Okay... ready for the list?
Right now, I'm technically in that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stage where I'm not quite certain WHAT I want to work on. I imagine I'll snap out of it in a day or so.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I'm very conscious of gender dynamics and the inequality inherent in relationships. Every time my characters have sex, there's a reason for why they're doing the specific act. Beau, in my novel Roll, for instance, is a topper, very dominant. Outside the bedroom, he's feels that he's lost control of his entire life, and this is somewhere that he thinks he can gain back some of that power. In Golden Moment - my story in the Steamlust anthology - my characters have sex in front of a mirror. In Garden Variety - in Lustfully ever After - the male character never has an orgasm. All these things are deliberate, reflecting the emotional state of my characters in other connotations. The sex is, therefore, an expression of the rest of their lives...
3) Why do I write what I do?
Funny story; my best friend and I wrote sex scenes back and forth to each other for years before we had any idea that there was a market for it. (we are now both published erotica writers... and we have a book of short stories coming out in March!)
I've always said that I engage in writing love stories because I miss that feeling of falling in love. I've been with my husband for ish 18 years now. I love him, but there's something eager and crazy and fun about falling in love that honestly you just don't get anymore in a long term relationship. There are times when you look over at your long-term partner who's being wonderful and you get that dip and glide in your belly - THATs what I fell in love with! - but a lot of times it's also paying the mortgage and fussing at each other about who's turn it is to do the dishes.
Writing a love story, getting deep into a character's head and heart, gives me that feeling again, the rush of new love, the passion and the absolute need for each other Right Now.
One of my favorite web comics, A Softer World, sums it up pretty well for me in this strip... writing romance gives me that rush without doing something utterly stupid with my real life.
4) How does your writing process work?
I'm really process-oriented... I hate writing myself into a corner. I've tried pantsing before, and all that does for me is end up with me crying about edits, trying to figure out how to get this scene to match up with THAT scene.
So, I usually start with an outline. I jot each scene down and lay them out in front of me, okay, this happens and then that happens, and here's some questions about the ramifications of that event. Usually, the first draft of my outline goes something like this.
MC has a vampire ex boyfriend.
This sucks
flashback, dead parents. why? angel rescues her, best friends with vampire
the head of the magic counsel puts a warrant on her death
vampire has to protect her
goes back to being in love
this seriously sucks
complication with brother? what the hell? how did we have a brother?
vampire <censored for spoilers>
Ow. oops. looks <censored for spoilers>
fight off the magic guy
smack brother in head
the end.
I go back and expand on this sort of jot-down, making scenes and collecting them into chapters. (this is the original outline from Blood Sight that I grabbed from my notebook. The outline has undergone significant revision since I wrote this down, back in 2011...
Once I have a polished draft of my outline, I'll write a chapter or two, see how the story's going. Add stuff to the outline that should be added (including physical descriptions when I remember, because I have a horrible tendency to change people's eye colors - this boils down to my husband having weird mood eyes. He has hazel eyes that range in shade from brilliant blue to almost brown, but are usually a middling shade of yellow-brown with green flecks. I was dating him for like 3 months before I realized his eyes weren't actually brown.)
I write in order, from beginning to end. I tried jumping around a few times, and I've discovered that all that does for me is leave me at the end of the novel with a shit ton of scenes that I don't actually WANT to write.
During the entire process, I'll tweak my outline to make sure I'm keeping on track, to add in scenes that become necessary as I write. Sometimes a scene is written out really vaguely. "Do some summer stuff here." or "Conversation with Ann-Marie." and sometimes it's very, very specific.
After I finish a piece, I'll send it out to my beta readers and then I poke my email repeatedly until it cries about inappropriate touching.
A few words about my schedule:
I write a lot of things for submission calls. And, in general, I write between 500 - 1,000 words a day (sometimes more, sometimes less, but that's about my average... when I get closer to the end, my word count often skyrockets). So when I plan things out in my calendar, I count backward from the due date. If this 1,400 - 4k short story is due on March 1st, writing 500 words per day, it's going to take me between 3 and 8 days to write it. I back up 8 days, then I add about 25% more time - so 10 days for this particular piece... and add a few days for revisions... which means if I'm going to do this piece, I need to start NO later than Feb 11th. (I don't write on weekends)
I can frequently write more than one piece at a time, if I need to. When I do that, I'll write 500 words in the morning on one piece, take a break, and then churn out 500 words on the other piece.
My calendar is color coded, blue is for writing fresh stuff, orange for real life commitments, pink for revisions or marketing stuff, yellow for household chores.... I spend a lot of time with highlighter on my fingertips.
So, to continue this trend, next week, I have
Elizabeth L. Brooks
Masquerading by day as an uptight corporate cog, Elizabeth spends her nights concocting gleefully smutty stories. She writes erotic romances for a wide span of worlds, genres, and orientations, and is also a senior editor for Torquere Press. When she's not writing or editing, she loves a wide range of generally nerdy hobbies, including reading, photography, tabletop games, geeky yarncraft, and silly smartphone games. Her safeword is "Oxford comma." You can find her online at http://EveryWorldNeedsLove.blogspot.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/EveryWorldNeedsLove.
V.L. Locey
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, belly laughs, anything romantic, Greek mythology, New York Rangers hockey, comic books and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a steer named after a famous N.H.L. goalie, and a flock of assorted domestic fowl.
Linkage- http://thoughtsfromayodelinggoatherder.blogspot.com/
A.R. Moler
A.R. Moler is a chemistry professor at a community college, a homeschooling mom and an avid science fiction fan. She is a devotee of first hand research for her writing whenever possible and to this end has - learned to fire a handgun, been rappelling, ridden with both ems and the police, flown a helicopter, bought a motorcycle and learned to ride it. She has traveled to nearly all the places where her stories are set and taken hundreds of photos for documentation. She has been writing since her high school years, but only recently has become published. Her fiction can be be found at torquere press and cobblestone and mlr. Her blog is www.playdohstoichiometry.blogspot.com and is entitled playdoh, legos and stoichiometry. When asked why such a name for her blog, she commented that it reflects 3 of the many phases of her life. Her daughter is 10 years old and was an avid playdoh artist, her son is 14 and owns enough legos is fill a 55-gallon drum and the stoichiometry--one of the most challenging topics to many chemistry students. Her husband's only contribution to chemistry is building rockets.
http://www.armoler.com/Blog.html
1) What am I working on?
The other day, my husband asked me if I ever intended to take another day off in my life. I didn't really know what to say to that.
Okay... ready for the list?
- Just finished the first draft of Blues, sequel to Roll, in the Rainbow Connection novels
- Working on the outline for Classic, the third in the Rainbow Connection series
- Expecting edits back for Blood Sight, book one in my Demoniac Codex series - once I get those, I'll do those edits and then I can begin writing Howling Bitch, which is book 2 in that series (I really need to change moods from New Adult novels to Urban Supernatural novels and I'm hoping that working on edits for Blood Sight will make Howling Bitch a little easier to write.) I intend to finish Howling Bitch by July. Ish.
- In the meanwhile, I have two short stories I want to write for a March 1st deadline, Hold the Dirigible! for Valves and Vixens, and Dreaming the Hardest, a fem fantasy piece. (Finally nailed an idea down for that, I had several that kept getting out of hand)
Right now, I'm technically in that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stage where I'm not quite certain WHAT I want to work on. I imagine I'll snap out of it in a day or so.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I'm very conscious of gender dynamics and the inequality inherent in relationships. Every time my characters have sex, there's a reason for why they're doing the specific act. Beau, in my novel Roll, for instance, is a topper, very dominant. Outside the bedroom, he's feels that he's lost control of his entire life, and this is somewhere that he thinks he can gain back some of that power. In Golden Moment - my story in the Steamlust anthology - my characters have sex in front of a mirror. In Garden Variety - in Lustfully ever After - the male character never has an orgasm. All these things are deliberate, reflecting the emotional state of my characters in other connotations. The sex is, therefore, an expression of the rest of their lives...
3) Why do I write what I do?
Funny story; my best friend and I wrote sex scenes back and forth to each other for years before we had any idea that there was a market for it. (we are now both published erotica writers... and we have a book of short stories coming out in March!)
I've always said that I engage in writing love stories because I miss that feeling of falling in love. I've been with my husband for ish 18 years now. I love him, but there's something eager and crazy and fun about falling in love that honestly you just don't get anymore in a long term relationship. There are times when you look over at your long-term partner who's being wonderful and you get that dip and glide in your belly - THATs what I fell in love with! - but a lot of times it's also paying the mortgage and fussing at each other about who's turn it is to do the dishes.
Writing a love story, getting deep into a character's head and heart, gives me that feeling again, the rush of new love, the passion and the absolute need for each other Right Now.
One of my favorite web comics, A Softer World, sums it up pretty well for me in this strip... writing romance gives me that rush without doing something utterly stupid with my real life.
4) How does your writing process work?
I'm really process-oriented... I hate writing myself into a corner. I've tried pantsing before, and all that does for me is end up with me crying about edits, trying to figure out how to get this scene to match up with THAT scene.
So, I usually start with an outline. I jot each scene down and lay them out in front of me, okay, this happens and then that happens, and here's some questions about the ramifications of that event. Usually, the first draft of my outline goes something like this.
MC has a vampire ex boyfriend.
This sucks
flashback, dead parents. why? angel rescues her, best friends with vampire
the head of the magic counsel puts a warrant on her death
vampire has to protect her
goes back to being in love
this seriously sucks
complication with brother? what the hell? how did we have a brother?
vampire <censored for spoilers>
Ow. oops. looks <censored for spoilers>
fight off the magic guy
smack brother in head
the end.
I go back and expand on this sort of jot-down, making scenes and collecting them into chapters. (this is the original outline from Blood Sight that I grabbed from my notebook. The outline has undergone significant revision since I wrote this down, back in 2011...
Once I have a polished draft of my outline, I'll write a chapter or two, see how the story's going. Add stuff to the outline that should be added (including physical descriptions when I remember, because I have a horrible tendency to change people's eye colors - this boils down to my husband having weird mood eyes. He has hazel eyes that range in shade from brilliant blue to almost brown, but are usually a middling shade of yellow-brown with green flecks. I was dating him for like 3 months before I realized his eyes weren't actually brown.)
I write in order, from beginning to end. I tried jumping around a few times, and I've discovered that all that does for me is leave me at the end of the novel with a shit ton of scenes that I don't actually WANT to write.
During the entire process, I'll tweak my outline to make sure I'm keeping on track, to add in scenes that become necessary as I write. Sometimes a scene is written out really vaguely. "Do some summer stuff here." or "Conversation with Ann-Marie." and sometimes it's very, very specific.
After I finish a piece, I'll send it out to my beta readers and then I poke my email repeatedly until it cries about inappropriate touching.
A few words about my schedule:
I write a lot of things for submission calls. And, in general, I write between 500 - 1,000 words a day (sometimes more, sometimes less, but that's about my average... when I get closer to the end, my word count often skyrockets). So when I plan things out in my calendar, I count backward from the due date. If this 1,400 - 4k short story is due on March 1st, writing 500 words per day, it's going to take me between 3 and 8 days to write it. I back up 8 days, then I add about 25% more time - so 10 days for this particular piece... and add a few days for revisions... which means if I'm going to do this piece, I need to start NO later than Feb 11th. (I don't write on weekends)
I can frequently write more than one piece at a time, if I need to. When I do that, I'll write 500 words in the morning on one piece, take a break, and then churn out 500 words on the other piece.
My calendar is color coded, blue is for writing fresh stuff, orange for real life commitments, pink for revisions or marketing stuff, yellow for household chores.... I spend a lot of time with highlighter on my fingertips.
So, to continue this trend, next week, I have
Elizabeth L. Brooks
Masquerading by day as an uptight corporate cog, Elizabeth spends her nights concocting gleefully smutty stories. She writes erotic romances for a wide span of worlds, genres, and orientations, and is also a senior editor for Torquere Press. When she's not writing or editing, she loves a wide range of generally nerdy hobbies, including reading, photography, tabletop games, geeky yarncraft, and silly smartphone games. Her safeword is "Oxford comma." You can find her online at http://EveryWorldNeedsLove.blogspot.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/EveryWorldNeedsLove.
V.L. Locey
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, belly laughs, anything romantic, Greek mythology, New York Rangers hockey, comic books and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a steer named after a famous N.H.L. goalie, and a flock of assorted domestic fowl.
Linkage- http://thoughtsfromayodelinggoatherder.blogspot.com/
A.R. Moler
A.R. Moler is a chemistry professor at a community college, a homeschooling mom and an avid science fiction fan. She is a devotee of first hand research for her writing whenever possible and to this end has - learned to fire a handgun, been rappelling, ridden with both ems and the police, flown a helicopter, bought a motorcycle and learned to ride it. She has traveled to nearly all the places where her stories are set and taken hundreds of photos for documentation. She has been writing since her high school years, but only recently has become published. Her fiction can be be found at torquere press and cobblestone and mlr. Her blog is www.playdohstoichiometry.blogspot.com and is entitled playdoh, legos and stoichiometry. When asked why such a name for her blog, she commented that it reflects 3 of the many phases of her life. Her daughter is 10 years old and was an avid playdoh artist, her son is 14 and owns enough legos is fill a 55-gallon drum and the stoichiometry--one of the most challenging topics to many chemistry students. Her husband's only contribution to chemistry is building rockets.
http://www.armoler.com/Blog.html
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Goals for the Upcoming Year and Some Reviews
I really don't like New Year's resolutions...
There's no particular reason to wait for a certain date to get something done, and I'm never really sure the intense pressure a lot of people feel about New Years does them any good at all...
Also, plans are what you make while life happens;
But, going forward:
First off, I plan to review every single book that I read. (I may or may not review books that I've previously read and am currently re-reading, since I do that a lot, too...)
Second, I have two novels to write this year; Blues, the sequel to Roll, and Howling Bitch, the sequel to Blood Sight. Since I did Blues as my NaNoWriMo project and I'm 54,000 words into the novel thus far, I plan to have it completed by the end of February. I'm guessing I have a little less than 10,000 words to go on the project, so it shouldn't take me that long.
Howling Bitch is going to be about the same length, so if I start writing it in March, I'd like to aim to have it done by the end of August. Mostly because I don't intend to try another NaNoWriMo-type-push... guestimating about ~700 words a day, four days a week, I should finish in six months... seems reasonable, right?
Third; Liz and I are finally finished writing and editing our collection of short stories, which underwent a project title change recently, and is no longer "Promptly" but now "Whetting the Appetite" which might be better if I could spell Appetite correctly the first time. Which I cannot. So, we're going to wait a week or so, then both do another complete read through it, make sure we didn't miss any typos and then submit it by mid-January... wish us luck.
Fourth; I also have several other side projects I want to work on. My friend Jonah's working on a collection called Local Magic and I'm hoping to get this ghost project together by January 15th for him. I also have several shorts I want to write and submit for some other collections. I have a ton of story ideas that got abandoned for other projects. Alive and Kicking, Leaving her Marke, one of these days I'm going to write the Wormwood Trade, a steampunk romance that I've had brewing for a while. (Amazing how I seem to only have one front burner, but 500 "back burners".)
I wrote a couple of reviews today, kicking off that particular goal....
Four Stars All I want for Christmas - V.L. Locey
Let's start off with the fact that I love Locey; she's funny and sweet and her stories are intensely emotional. if I am ever disappointed in a Locey book, it'll be because I went off my medication.
Alex and Cooper are another mis-match to start, attracted to each other but each with preconceived notions that turn out all wrong. One surly painter, one optimistic do-gooder and a pair of quirky cats turn their worlds upside down.
Again, bravo!
Five Stars The Wicked - Thea Harrison
Great add on piece
I love the Elder Races, and this one was pretty fun! Great supplement to the main stories... hot grouchy alpha male, puzzled, exasperated intelligent female. Good mix.
Five Stars Dragos Takes a Holiday - Thea Harrison
More Dragos, More Pia, and a little bit of Peanut on the side...
Cute story and every bit as fun as the rest of the series; I love the Elder Races...
Five Stars Kinked - Thea Harrison
Best one yet! I've been reading the Elder Races since the beginning, but I really liked this one a lot. Clears up some old mysteries left over from Dragon Bound and brings new life to side characters that have gotten very little attention up til this point. Also, continues to answer questions about the world, tying all the stories together. Marvelous!
Four Stars - No Good Duke Goes Unpunished - Sarah MacLean
Emotional Rollercoaster of a novel
I admit the premise is a bit weak; I spent a LOT of the book going "oh, COME ON... really?" but the love story is good, the sex is hot, and the characters are fairly typical of MacLean, which is to say tough women and tougher men.
(Note: I have not read the other books in this "series" so maybe I would have liked it more if I knew the side characters better...)
There's no particular reason to wait for a certain date to get something done, and I'm never really sure the intense pressure a lot of people feel about New Years does them any good at all...
Also, plans are what you make while life happens;
But, going forward:
First off, I plan to review every single book that I read. (I may or may not review books that I've previously read and am currently re-reading, since I do that a lot, too...)
Second, I have two novels to write this year; Blues, the sequel to Roll, and Howling Bitch, the sequel to Blood Sight. Since I did Blues as my NaNoWriMo project and I'm 54,000 words into the novel thus far, I plan to have it completed by the end of February. I'm guessing I have a little less than 10,000 words to go on the project, so it shouldn't take me that long.
Howling Bitch is going to be about the same length, so if I start writing it in March, I'd like to aim to have it done by the end of August. Mostly because I don't intend to try another NaNoWriMo-type-push... guestimating about ~700 words a day, four days a week, I should finish in six months... seems reasonable, right?
Third; Liz and I are finally finished writing and editing our collection of short stories, which underwent a project title change recently, and is no longer "Promptly" but now "Whetting the Appetite" which might be better if I could spell Appetite correctly the first time. Which I cannot. So, we're going to wait a week or so, then both do another complete read through it, make sure we didn't miss any typos and then submit it by mid-January... wish us luck.
Fourth; I also have several other side projects I want to work on. My friend Jonah's working on a collection called Local Magic and I'm hoping to get this ghost project together by January 15th for him. I also have several shorts I want to write and submit for some other collections. I have a ton of story ideas that got abandoned for other projects. Alive and Kicking, Leaving her Marke, one of these days I'm going to write the Wormwood Trade, a steampunk romance that I've had brewing for a while. (Amazing how I seem to only have one front burner, but 500 "back burners".)
I wrote a couple of reviews today, kicking off that particular goal....
Four Stars All I want for Christmas - V.L. Locey
Let's start off with the fact that I love Locey; she's funny and sweet and her stories are intensely emotional. if I am ever disappointed in a Locey book, it'll be because I went off my medication.
Alex and Cooper are another mis-match to start, attracted to each other but each with preconceived notions that turn out all wrong. One surly painter, one optimistic do-gooder and a pair of quirky cats turn their worlds upside down.
Again, bravo!
Five Stars The Wicked - Thea Harrison
Great add on piece
I love the Elder Races, and this one was pretty fun! Great supplement to the main stories... hot grouchy alpha male, puzzled, exasperated intelligent female. Good mix.
Five Stars Dragos Takes a Holiday - Thea Harrison
More Dragos, More Pia, and a little bit of Peanut on the side...
Cute story and every bit as fun as the rest of the series; I love the Elder Races...
Five Stars Kinked - Thea Harrison
Best one yet! I've been reading the Elder Races since the beginning, but I really liked this one a lot. Clears up some old mysteries left over from Dragon Bound and brings new life to side characters that have gotten very little attention up til this point. Also, continues to answer questions about the world, tying all the stories together. Marvelous!
Four Stars - No Good Duke Goes Unpunished - Sarah MacLean
Emotional Rollercoaster of a novel
I admit the premise is a bit weak; I spent a LOT of the book going "oh, COME ON... really?" but the love story is good, the sex is hot, and the characters are fairly typical of MacLean, which is to say tough women and tougher men.
(Note: I have not read the other books in this "series" so maybe I would have liked it more if I knew the side characters better...)
Monday, November 18, 2013
Playing with my Novel
Working on Blues has been an interesting experience...
For one thing, I'm coming to the interesting conclusion that real life really doesn't have a plot, exactly. It's just a series of events that happens, and sometimes that leads to good things and sometimes not. But most of the time, in real life, that guy you snubbed back in 5th grade doesn't come back as an evil super-villain, bent on destroying you and everything you stand for.
Which is where I ended up after working on Saturday; my "bad guy" for this book isn't really bad. He's not evil, or even really all that awful. He is, honestly, pretty sympathetic.
Unlike Chris, the bad guy from Roll, who is simply a collection of some homophobic traits wrapped up with a string and named after a guy I threw out of a gaming group for having his character attempt date rape and not understanding why both the other characters in the group AND the players all got mad at him. If you've done any role playing before, you recognize that character motivation and player motivation are not always the same thing.... but in this particular case, there were five real people and five pretend characters who were actively appalled at his behavior. We became more appalled as he not only defended that character's behavior, but that sort of behavior in general.
So, Charles (and yes, I just noticed that both antagonists have names that start with Ch.... yay, subconscious...) isn't a bad guy; he's just not the Right Guy. He was raised by strict evangelical parents, who, when discovering they had a gay son, tried to put him through a sexual orientation change program. This pretty much ends with him throwing out every one of his parents' cherished beliefs, including opinions on things like monogamy. As far as he's concerned, that's all Bible crap and useless for his life the way he intends to lead it. (There might be a bit of me in there, too, as I've thrown out a lot of my parents' beliefs, and I still almost never do anything major without considering if it would piss off my dad and rubbing my hands together gleefully if I think it will. As far as I know, I've never deliberately done something JUST to piss him off that I wouldn't have done otherwise, but that might not be 100% true.)
It's amusing in some ways, because I put traits in him that I've picked up from one of my friends who finds it hilarious that I insert jealousy and monogamy into my m/m stories. Charles's attitudes about monogamy come directly from conversations I've had with this friend. He and his partner frequently had/have m/m/m encounters or m/m/m/m encounters, or swinging couples. "I can't think of a gay partnership that we haven't both had sex with. Not all at the same time. Except, you know, when it was all at the same time."
And don't get me wrong, I love my friend. And I don't disapprove of what he does. I agree with him and to some degree, even envy him that particular lifestyle, so long as that works for him, his husband, and the various partners that they hook up with. I'm pretty sure, however, it wouldn't work for me. Whether it's imposed on me by the patriarchy or my own insecure and somewhat possessive nature really doesn't matter, as far as I'm concerned. What concerns me with issues of jealousy and monogamy is that you do what you and your partner agree to. If you agree to an open relationship, great! If you set limits and rules on it and you're both okay with that, great! If you're like a particular friend of a friend I know whose view on rules is that they exist specifically for him to violate? NOT okay!
Charles is mostly an impediment, rather than a true antagonist. He's the rock that Beau and Vin need to move out of the way in order to proceed down the road. He's not bad (he's not even drawn that way!) he's just not the right guy For Beau.
So, after building him up as funny, sympathetic, and good to hang out with, I had to spend some time tearing him back down, and pointing out some of his flaws; particularly the ones that clash with Beau's values.
And the biggest one is going to be about loyalty. You don't screw over your friends. And you don't hang out with people who do screw over your friends.
Which is one of the areas where I teeter from time to time. I hate "picking sides" when people get divorced (unless, like in some cases, I hated the spouse to begin with, in which case I'm just as happy to put them in the crazy ex pile). Case in point, a little more than a year ago, some of my friends got divorced; I'd known both of them separately of their relationship with each other. I like both of them. And while I consider one of them to be "more wrong" than the other, I can see where both sides weren't happy with what their marriage had become, and while the "wrong event" probably provided the spark to the divorce, it so obviously wasn't about just that one thing.
But it does sometimes make me feel all weird and wobbly inside when I feel like I may have unfairly picked "a side."
(Especially since, in college, whenever there was a break up, I was frequently the one blamed, the crazy ex, and the one losing friends. Without the people on the outside knowing what stuff looked like on the inside. And sometimes, I didn't act as best I could have, in the situation, but I don't think anything I did was so awful as to deserve some of the condemnation I got. So, you know, reverse golden rule, don't treat people the way you didn't like to be treated.)
So, I'm putting Beau right in the middle of that situation, where his current boyfriend does something particularly rotten to his ex-boyfriend. But Charles and Vin never got along, so it's not like Charles is betraying Vin, because he's not. In fact, with the current viewpoint of people usually not liking their ex's, Charles may have considered what he did as something Beau would approve of...
It's been interesting to play with....
For one thing, I'm coming to the interesting conclusion that real life really doesn't have a plot, exactly. It's just a series of events that happens, and sometimes that leads to good things and sometimes not. But most of the time, in real life, that guy you snubbed back in 5th grade doesn't come back as an evil super-villain, bent on destroying you and everything you stand for.
Which is where I ended up after working on Saturday; my "bad guy" for this book isn't really bad. He's not evil, or even really all that awful. He is, honestly, pretty sympathetic.
Unlike Chris, the bad guy from Roll, who is simply a collection of some homophobic traits wrapped up with a string and named after a guy I threw out of a gaming group for having his character attempt date rape and not understanding why both the other characters in the group AND the players all got mad at him. If you've done any role playing before, you recognize that character motivation and player motivation are not always the same thing.... but in this particular case, there were five real people and five pretend characters who were actively appalled at his behavior. We became more appalled as he not only defended that character's behavior, but that sort of behavior in general.
So, Charles (and yes, I just noticed that both antagonists have names that start with Ch.... yay, subconscious...) isn't a bad guy; he's just not the Right Guy. He was raised by strict evangelical parents, who, when discovering they had a gay son, tried to put him through a sexual orientation change program. This pretty much ends with him throwing out every one of his parents' cherished beliefs, including opinions on things like monogamy. As far as he's concerned, that's all Bible crap and useless for his life the way he intends to lead it. (There might be a bit of me in there, too, as I've thrown out a lot of my parents' beliefs, and I still almost never do anything major without considering if it would piss off my dad and rubbing my hands together gleefully if I think it will. As far as I know, I've never deliberately done something JUST to piss him off that I wouldn't have done otherwise, but that might not be 100% true.)
It's amusing in some ways, because I put traits in him that I've picked up from one of my friends who finds it hilarious that I insert jealousy and monogamy into my m/m stories. Charles's attitudes about monogamy come directly from conversations I've had with this friend. He and his partner frequently had/have m/m/m encounters or m/m/m/m encounters, or swinging couples. "I can't think of a gay partnership that we haven't both had sex with. Not all at the same time. Except, you know, when it was all at the same time."
And don't get me wrong, I love my friend. And I don't disapprove of what he does. I agree with him and to some degree, even envy him that particular lifestyle, so long as that works for him, his husband, and the various partners that they hook up with. I'm pretty sure, however, it wouldn't work for me. Whether it's imposed on me by the patriarchy or my own insecure and somewhat possessive nature really doesn't matter, as far as I'm concerned. What concerns me with issues of jealousy and monogamy is that you do what you and your partner agree to. If you agree to an open relationship, great! If you set limits and rules on it and you're both okay with that, great! If you're like a particular friend of a friend I know whose view on rules is that they exist specifically for him to violate? NOT okay!Charles is mostly an impediment, rather than a true antagonist. He's the rock that Beau and Vin need to move out of the way in order to proceed down the road. He's not bad (he's not even drawn that way!) he's just not the right guy For Beau.
So, after building him up as funny, sympathetic, and good to hang out with, I had to spend some time tearing him back down, and pointing out some of his flaws; particularly the ones that clash with Beau's values.
And the biggest one is going to be about loyalty. You don't screw over your friends. And you don't hang out with people who do screw over your friends.
Which is one of the areas where I teeter from time to time. I hate "picking sides" when people get divorced (unless, like in some cases, I hated the spouse to begin with, in which case I'm just as happy to put them in the crazy ex pile). Case in point, a little more than a year ago, some of my friends got divorced; I'd known both of them separately of their relationship with each other. I like both of them. And while I consider one of them to be "more wrong" than the other, I can see where both sides weren't happy with what their marriage had become, and while the "wrong event" probably provided the spark to the divorce, it so obviously wasn't about just that one thing.
But it does sometimes make me feel all weird and wobbly inside when I feel like I may have unfairly picked "a side."
(Especially since, in college, whenever there was a break up, I was frequently the one blamed, the crazy ex, and the one losing friends. Without the people on the outside knowing what stuff looked like on the inside. And sometimes, I didn't act as best I could have, in the situation, but I don't think anything I did was so awful as to deserve some of the condemnation I got. So, you know, reverse golden rule, don't treat people the way you didn't like to be treated.)
So, I'm putting Beau right in the middle of that situation, where his current boyfriend does something particularly rotten to his ex-boyfriend. But Charles and Vin never got along, so it's not like Charles is betraying Vin, because he's not. In fact, with the current viewpoint of people usually not liking their ex's, Charles may have considered what he did as something Beau would approve of...
It's been interesting to play with....
Friday, April 5, 2013
Roll with it
Well, I'm finished Part Three of London Steam, my vampire / artificial heart / daughter of a demon menage story...
Pretty awesome. And it's already been contracted by Torquere Press, which is More Awesome.
I have a cowboy story, Pistols & Guns, out right now. Ripped is still out - I begin to think that project folded and vanished into nothingness. The story's been out for over a year now and I haven't heard a word... My middle-aged lesbian story is out... and that's it at the moment.
I may or may not write a Tristan & Isolde based BDSM story; I have one that's about halfway done, but I'm not really happy with it. I think I'd have to scrap what I've written and start over. The due date for that one is May 1st, so I still have time... ish.
And I may submit stories for both Sex Objects (due July 1st) and Delilah's Highlanders & Knights call... (due June 1st)...
I've also finished concept edits for my fantasy-romance novel, cut the word count down dramatically, and have it ready for pitching. More on that later.
I need to finish writing my vampire urban supernatural story - I pretty much ended the damn thing right after the climax (story climax, not sex climax!) without having any of the falling action, sum-up stuff that usually makes up the end of a romance novel.
And then there's what I want to be doing now... which is the coming of age, m/m story, Roll, that's somewhat loosely based on a short story that I never finished. The original short was about two lovers, one of the men firmly in the closet, especially with his family, who took his boyfriend out to the family farm on a day when no one else was supposed to be there (because it was the day before his brother's wedding, and really, everyone had something better to be doing...) and ends up getting caught... that scene is still going to be in the novel, but when I sat down to map out the characters, they both had more to tell me. And in the end, I decided to let them. Which means I have a novel length project in front of me....
Beau with his uptight, highly religious family, and Vin with his over-protective grandparents and the search for his birth-father...
So, I'm working on that. My outline gives me the thought that this'll be about a 50,000 - 75,000 word novel... which means if I write about 2,500 - 3,000 words a week, I should be ready for edits in September/October.
And I've still got my short-short project; we just passed 25,000 words yesterday... I think it's going well, and that should be complete by June. (Oh, and I could use some more prompts... 5 words, noun, verb, adjective, and two random...)
Busy writer is busy. I've already written 3,200 words on Roll this week, in addition to writing 1,800 words yesterday on my short-short (which I may steal, write another 2,000 words on, and turn in as my short for Sex Objects... we'll see....)
Pretty awesome. And it's already been contracted by Torquere Press, which is More Awesome.
I have a cowboy story, Pistols & Guns, out right now. Ripped is still out - I begin to think that project folded and vanished into nothingness. The story's been out for over a year now and I haven't heard a word... My middle-aged lesbian story is out... and that's it at the moment.
I may or may not write a Tristan & Isolde based BDSM story; I have one that's about halfway done, but I'm not really happy with it. I think I'd have to scrap what I've written and start over. The due date for that one is May 1st, so I still have time... ish.
And I may submit stories for both Sex Objects (due July 1st) and Delilah's Highlanders & Knights call... (due June 1st)...
I've also finished concept edits for my fantasy-romance novel, cut the word count down dramatically, and have it ready for pitching. More on that later.
I need to finish writing my vampire urban supernatural story - I pretty much ended the damn thing right after the climax (story climax, not sex climax!) without having any of the falling action, sum-up stuff that usually makes up the end of a romance novel.
And then there's what I want to be doing now... which is the coming of age, m/m story, Roll, that's somewhat loosely based on a short story that I never finished. The original short was about two lovers, one of the men firmly in the closet, especially with his family, who took his boyfriend out to the family farm on a day when no one else was supposed to be there (because it was the day before his brother's wedding, and really, everyone had something better to be doing...) and ends up getting caught... that scene is still going to be in the novel, but when I sat down to map out the characters, they both had more to tell me. And in the end, I decided to let them. Which means I have a novel length project in front of me....
Beau with his uptight, highly religious family, and Vin with his over-protective grandparents and the search for his birth-father...
So, I'm working on that. My outline gives me the thought that this'll be about a 50,000 - 75,000 word novel... which means if I write about 2,500 - 3,000 words a week, I should be ready for edits in September/October.
And I've still got my short-short project; we just passed 25,000 words yesterday... I think it's going well, and that should be complete by June. (Oh, and I could use some more prompts... 5 words, noun, verb, adjective, and two random...)
Busy writer is busy. I've already written 3,200 words on Roll this week, in addition to writing 1,800 words yesterday on my short-short (which I may steal, write another 2,000 words on, and turn in as my short for Sex Objects... we'll see....)
Friday, January 4, 2013
My First "Work Week"
Here I am.
This was a half-week - the husband was on vacation until the 1st. On Wednesday, everyone went back to work or school. Yeah, that was fun. I live in a house full of sloths. I kept trying to convince both (or either) of them that they needed to start thinking about, MAYBE, going to bed early and getting up somewhere in the actual A.M.
Yeah, right.
So, I had to make schedule adjustments, but I got a lot done this week.
Wrote a little over 1,500 words, took care of a lot of blog administrative stuff, including writing up author interviews (I'm going to start hosting other writers on my blog, generally on Thursdays, starting the 17th of January...) and getting slots set up. I still have one slot open, the 21st of February. (Which happens to be my 15th anniversary!)
I got some prompts for the ultra-short collection, and I've written the first one. Liz and I talked about it and we're going to set up Wednesdays as our "due dates" for the stories; which is to say we need to give them to each other by Wednesday. I'm ahead for the week, since this one's not due until the 9th. How about them apples?
So, my first short-short, written from Jeannie's prompt... was finished yesterday, wrapping up at ~1,000 words. And I worked about an hour of "over-time."
(I'm going to mark that down somewhere, so that when I end up cleaning frantically, or have something to do or just do NOT feel like going "in to work" today, I have a built up bank of extra hours...)
This was a half-week - the husband was on vacation until the 1st. On Wednesday, everyone went back to work or school. Yeah, that was fun. I live in a house full of sloths. I kept trying to convince both (or either) of them that they needed to start thinking about, MAYBE, going to bed early and getting up somewhere in the actual A.M.
Yeah, right.
So, I had to make schedule adjustments, but I got a lot done this week.
Wrote a little over 1,500 words, took care of a lot of blog administrative stuff, including writing up author interviews (I'm going to start hosting other writers on my blog, generally on Thursdays, starting the 17th of January...) and getting slots set up. I still have one slot open, the 21st of February. (Which happens to be my 15th anniversary!)
I got some prompts for the ultra-short collection, and I've written the first one. Liz and I talked about it and we're going to set up Wednesdays as our "due dates" for the stories; which is to say we need to give them to each other by Wednesday. I'm ahead for the week, since this one's not due until the 9th. How about them apples?
So, my first short-short, written from Jeannie's prompt... was finished yesterday, wrapping up at ~1,000 words. And I worked about an hour of "over-time."
(I'm going to mark that down somewhere, so that when I end up cleaning frantically, or have something to do or just do NOT feel like going "in to work" today, I have a built up bank of extra hours...)
Thursday, January 3, 2013
He Loves me...
So, you can get your e-copy of He Loves me for My Brainsss from Torquere...
Thought I'd give you a little sample today...
“Wish you didn’t have to go,” Avesy said, drawing a teasing line down his chest, finger tracing along the waistband of his trousers. Korin forced a half-smile, heart aching.
“I wish you wouldn’t talk about it,” Korin answered. He snatched at the teasing hand, jerked Avesy’s arm down, placed his palm firmly against Korin’s straining erection, ground his hips against his lover’s fingers. He groaned at the touch, then roughly pushed his lover onto his back. Korin tore the buttons free in his eagerness to get his pants off, much too eager, he was going to cream his pants right there if he didn’t get what he wanted, what he needed. There was nothing but hot desire in Avesy’s eyes and Korin let himself sink into those eyes, sink in and drown there, not looking away.
He’d tasted Avesy’s lips a hundred times and more, but tonight, this one night, was sweeter and more bitter than any flavor he could ever imagine. The last time, the very last. And even having memorized every line of his face, every soft nuzzle of his mouth, Korin was startled all over again at how intoxicating those sweet kisses were. How full and lush his mouth was, how heavy his breath, and how Korin’s entire body turned to fire with the simple touch. Like wine.
Well, I had to move my work hours around immediately, since I discovered that on those days I need to take the husband to work, I don't get back to the house until almost 8:30. So... guess I'll start at 9am. No worries.
I did do some writing on the 1st, even though technically I was still on vacation. I decided to work on my story for a Valentine's Anthology. I was specifically asked to submit, if I could, and I admit that that's flattering.
I'm running a Shadowrun paper and dice game at the moment, and cyberpunk (and cyber sex!) are on my mind recently. What would it be like, to be able to jack into your partner's head, feel what they're feeling? Sometimes it could be really amazing, and sometimes, not so much. I'm exploring that, with the help of two characters, Adria Benn-Parker, a character who's been hanging about in my head for a while and needed something to do, and a new fellow who just showed up recently, Cyberius Jann. We'll see how that goes. It's a pretty tight deadline, so we'll see if I can get something put together by mid-month.
Hey, my first ultra-short story is due to my partner on the 9th (that's going to be the established pattern for the time being, we'll exchange our shorts on Wednesday...) So, I could use some prompts, please. One noun, one verb, one adjective, and two random words of your choice. Please, help a writer out, here?
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The world didn't end
That's a text I got from a friend of mine on December 22nd.
"The world didn't end. Now I have to do my Christmas Shopping. Crap."
Yeah, that happens. If you wait until something happens, or doesn't happen... sometimes you end up doing shopping at the very last minute, and panicking.
Even if, sometimes, you don't do what you meant to do. I set a bunch of very specific goals last year and accomplished almost none of them.
So, flexibility is good, too.
Now, admittedly, I have it pretty good. I don't have a public sector job. (I used to say "real job" but fuck you, being a mother, housekeeper, and writer is a real goddamn job and I bet I work harder than a lot of people out there who punch a clock....) While this has its drawbacks (no vacation, no sick days, no clear-set career goals, and strangely enough, sometimes not having a boss is a lack I keenly feel...) it also has its benefits. I won't say I have a ton of free time, because let's face it, I really don't. And I don't work a "shift" and then get to be off-shift. I am always on-call as mom. I am always on-call as housekeeper. And I'd have to be in a coma to stop worrying about stories and ideas.
But I can arrange my time as I see fit.
So my goals are slightly different this year. While I still have a ton of projects that I want to do, and stories that want to be told, I'm going to try something else.
I want to arrange my time a little better.
I'm not, perhaps at this time, ready to dedicate myself to being a full-time, 9-12 hours a day, writer. I'm not ready to say I will write 3,000 words a day. (I know people who do that and it always makes me feel a little bit like a slacker... ) What I am ready to do, however, is start treating my writing as a job.
I want my butt in the chair from 8am until 1pm. Daily.
I have several projects I want to work on, and I'm not going to get those done if I'm playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I'd like to be even more structured than that; I have an ultra-short story collection that we want to have done and ready to present to a publisher by end of Summer, so I'm going to set one day aside to work on those stories. (Here's where you, dear reader, come in... I'll need flash-fiction prompts to get me started. At any time, feel free to leave a five word prompt; at least one noun, one verb, one adjective, and 2 words of your choice. If I select your prompt, you WILL get credit in any finished product... )
I want to set one day aside to work on other short-story projects. I keep saying I should work on longer projects, and I will, but I also have a really hard time passing Submission Calls by. I love Submission calls. So, one day a week, I'll work on whatever Sub-Call I happen to find interesting.
Two days a week will be set aside for work on my longer novels and projects.
And one day will be set aside to edit my novel.
Also, I'd like to do more with my blog. I know I'm a sporatic blogger, I thought I'd try to get a little more active here... have some contests, some guest bloggers, and other things... we'll see. I can't promise the moon. And really, do you want to have to dust that thing if I gave it to you?
Anyway, much love, luck, and lust in 2013...
"The world didn't end. Now I have to do my Christmas Shopping. Crap."
Yeah, that happens. If you wait until something happens, or doesn't happen... sometimes you end up doing shopping at the very last minute, and panicking.
Even if, sometimes, you don't do what you meant to do. I set a bunch of very specific goals last year and accomplished almost none of them.
So, flexibility is good, too.
Now, admittedly, I have it pretty good. I don't have a public sector job. (I used to say "real job" but fuck you, being a mother, housekeeper, and writer is a real goddamn job and I bet I work harder than a lot of people out there who punch a clock....) While this has its drawbacks (no vacation, no sick days, no clear-set career goals, and strangely enough, sometimes not having a boss is a lack I keenly feel...) it also has its benefits. I won't say I have a ton of free time, because let's face it, I really don't. And I don't work a "shift" and then get to be off-shift. I am always on-call as mom. I am always on-call as housekeeper. And I'd have to be in a coma to stop worrying about stories and ideas.
But I can arrange my time as I see fit.
So my goals are slightly different this year. While I still have a ton of projects that I want to do, and stories that want to be told, I'm going to try something else.
I want to arrange my time a little better.
I'm not, perhaps at this time, ready to dedicate myself to being a full-time, 9-12 hours a day, writer. I'm not ready to say I will write 3,000 words a day. (I know people who do that and it always makes me feel a little bit like a slacker... ) What I am ready to do, however, is start treating my writing as a job.
I want my butt in the chair from 8am until 1pm. Daily.
I have several projects I want to work on, and I'm not going to get those done if I'm playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I'd like to be even more structured than that; I have an ultra-short story collection that we want to have done and ready to present to a publisher by end of Summer, so I'm going to set one day aside to work on those stories. (Here's where you, dear reader, come in... I'll need flash-fiction prompts to get me started. At any time, feel free to leave a five word prompt; at least one noun, one verb, one adjective, and 2 words of your choice. If I select your prompt, you WILL get credit in any finished product... )
I want to set one day aside to work on other short-story projects. I keep saying I should work on longer projects, and I will, but I also have a really hard time passing Submission Calls by. I love Submission calls. So, one day a week, I'll work on whatever Sub-Call I happen to find interesting.
Two days a week will be set aside for work on my longer novels and projects.
And one day will be set aside to edit my novel.
Also, I'd like to do more with my blog. I know I'm a sporatic blogger, I thought I'd try to get a little more active here... have some contests, some guest bloggers, and other things... we'll see. I can't promise the moon. And really, do you want to have to dust that thing if I gave it to you?
Anyway, much love, luck, and lust in 2013...
Monday, December 31, 2012
Looking at my Progress
(Just as a note, there's still a bit more time to qualify for the absolute TON of smutty prizes for the Advent Calendar. Winner announced tomorrow.)
Last year, I thought it couldn't get any better... that 2011 was the best year of my life.
It's really nice to be proven wrong sometimes.
Now, admittedly, I went about everything upside down and backwards, barely accomplished a thing that I'd set out to do for myself in 2012... and yet, still... fan-freaking-tastic!
I wrote Blister Effect and saw it published. From my to-do list from the beginning of the year, that's all I said I was going to do that got done.
However, I also:
So, while I accomplished almost nothing that I'd intended, I did a lot of good work on other stuff, and I am quite pleased.
2012 has been a good year.
Last year, I thought it couldn't get any better... that 2011 was the best year of my life.
It's really nice to be proven wrong sometimes.
Now, admittedly, I went about everything upside down and backwards, barely accomplished a thing that I'd set out to do for myself in 2012... and yet, still... fan-freaking-tastic!
I wrote Blister Effect and saw it published. From my to-do list from the beginning of the year, that's all I said I was going to do that got done.
However, I also:
- wrote and published 8 short stories (two of which are in the 10,000 word range...)
- submitted 5 more stories that were either rejected or I haven't heard back yet...
- Got asked to write something specific for a few different editors
- MOVED INTO A HOUSE
- edited about 8 chapters in my novel
- planned out and wrote the outline for a romance novel
- planned out and wrote an outline for a young adult novel
- saw my work featured in both Publisher's Weekly and Hustler Magazine
- wrote at least 85,000 words that I can conveniently count (somewhere along the way, I stopped tracking my word counts quite as religiously)
- wrote 53 blog entries
- wrote guest blog entries for a few well-known erotica writers
- worked out a rough idea for a project with fellow-writer and best friend, Elizabeth Brooks
- wrote a chapter in a collaborative novel project (more on that tomorrow, since it's finally "revealed" tonight)
So, while I accomplished almost nothing that I'd intended, I did a lot of good work on other stuff, and I am quite pleased.
2012 has been a good year.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Know ThySelf
One of my writer friends asked a question the other day.
"How do you decide what project to work on next?"
It's been, for a while, pretty easy for me. I work on whatever project is due out the door first. I also know what I'm capable of doing, as far as writing goes, and that's where I think is the important work.
Yes, I CAN churn out a 50,000 word crappy novel in a month. But what I don't seem capable of doing is bothering to rewrite the thing. It's so bad I may as well just start over...
What I can do, generally, is write about 500 - 2,500 words in a week, that are GOOD words. Sometimes I feel I should do more, sometimes I feel I should do better, sometimes I feel like I should sit my butt down in the chair and work-work-work.
But I don't.
And so, when I'm planning... I plan for what I know I can and WILL do.
500 - 2,500 words per week.
So, if a call for submissions is due on, let's say February 1st. And they want stories between 2,500 words and 5,000 words... well, typically my stories are about 3,300 words, unless they're longer stories, in which case they run between 8,000 - 11,000... And I assume that while I'll have some good weeks, I'll also have some bad weeks. So, for a short-short, I try to start about four weeks before the story is due. That gives me three weeks to write it, a week to review and fix things (and extra oh shit time). And a longer story - for some reason I find it easier to be productive on longer pieces... I have more 2,500 weeks rather than 500 weeks. I try to start around five to six weeks ahead of time.
But this year, I really want to try to work on some longer pieces. I have a couple of novellas burning around in my brain, and one full-length novel.
So what do I start with?
Is it the characters that yell loudest? Not really. I have some really loud characters that have already had their stories told and they refuse to move the fuck out. (I'm looking at you, Master Hooke.) And sometimes the characters that talk to me least - at first - turn out to be the most interesting...
I put together soundtracks to get me into the mood for writing... and I write up my outlines (sometimes that happens on paper, sometimes that happens almost entirely in my head) and then I work on whatever piece I have the best foothold in. I'm not a pantser. I struggle with the whole NaNoWriMo process because if I just *write* my characters wander off thataway and I have no idea where they're going or what they're going to do when they get there. Which, I know, works really well for some people. I'm more of a "if we're going to my dad's, I know it'll take about four hours to get there, and I'm likely to be hungry, and shouldn't we stop for gas somewhere along the way?"
So, I write whatever I think I can make the most progress in before I'm back at that blank paper going "Oh, fuck me sideways, what now?"
PS - Don't forget to stop by the Smutty Advent Calender. Only a few days left before it's over!
"How do you decide what project to work on next?"
It's been, for a while, pretty easy for me. I work on whatever project is due out the door first. I also know what I'm capable of doing, as far as writing goes, and that's where I think is the important work.
Yes, I CAN churn out a 50,000 word crappy novel in a month. But what I don't seem capable of doing is bothering to rewrite the thing. It's so bad I may as well just start over...
What I can do, generally, is write about 500 - 2,500 words in a week, that are GOOD words. Sometimes I feel I should do more, sometimes I feel I should do better, sometimes I feel like I should sit my butt down in the chair and work-work-work.
But I don't.
And so, when I'm planning... I plan for what I know I can and WILL do.
500 - 2,500 words per week.
So, if a call for submissions is due on, let's say February 1st. And they want stories between 2,500 words and 5,000 words... well, typically my stories are about 3,300 words, unless they're longer stories, in which case they run between 8,000 - 11,000... And I assume that while I'll have some good weeks, I'll also have some bad weeks. So, for a short-short, I try to start about four weeks before the story is due. That gives me three weeks to write it, a week to review and fix things (and extra oh shit time). And a longer story - for some reason I find it easier to be productive on longer pieces... I have more 2,500 weeks rather than 500 weeks. I try to start around five to six weeks ahead of time.
But this year, I really want to try to work on some longer pieces. I have a couple of novellas burning around in my brain, and one full-length novel.
So what do I start with?
Is it the characters that yell loudest? Not really. I have some really loud characters that have already had their stories told and they refuse to move the fuck out. (I'm looking at you, Master Hooke.) And sometimes the characters that talk to me least - at first - turn out to be the most interesting...
I put together soundtracks to get me into the mood for writing... and I write up my outlines (sometimes that happens on paper, sometimes that happens almost entirely in my head) and then I work on whatever piece I have the best foothold in. I'm not a pantser. I struggle with the whole NaNoWriMo process because if I just *write* my characters wander off thataway and I have no idea where they're going or what they're going to do when they get there. Which, I know, works really well for some people. I'm more of a "if we're going to my dad's, I know it'll take about four hours to get there, and I'm likely to be hungry, and shouldn't we stop for gas somewhere along the way?"
So, I write whatever I think I can make the most progress in before I'm back at that blank paper going "Oh, fuck me sideways, what now?"
PS - Don't forget to stop by the Smutty Advent Calender. Only a few days left before it's over!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Me Me Meme'd
So, unshockingly, I've been tagged by Elizabeth Brooks for this meme I've seen floating around for the last few days...
Rules: Go to page 7 or 77 of your latest work. Read down to the seventh line and then post online the next seven lines or sentences. Then head off and tag seven more writers.
So here's 7 lines from my most recent story out the door, Big Trucks:
swinging loose over her back, eyes closed. She licked her lips in appreciation, a few low groans passing between her lips as he massaged first one hand, then the other. He moved closer, holding her arm to his chest as he worked his thumbs into sore muscles. "You slipped up, today."
"Hmmm?" He wasn't exactly listening, too busy watching the play of sensual response on her face, his body heating from her nearness.
"How about we not play this game anymore?" Amy opened her eyes, a rich cream smile painting her mouth as she took note of how close he was, their faces separated by nothing more than the merest whisper. "Let's just admit we like each other, and see what happens."
And to tag seven more writers... that's going to be a bit tricky... How about Richard Crawford, Ada McEwan, Leanna Gagnon, Sara Reine, Shannon Butcher, Charlotte Stein, and Kristina Wright.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Hippo Gnu Deer
I felt a bit alone this New Years, which is funny, since I think this year I was surrounded by more people on that occasion than usual. (Admittedly, I spent at least an hour and a half of it attempting - and failing - to keep an elderly Jewish woman from completely losing her shit, but hey...)
I felt alone because I was the only one mourning the passing of 2011.
2011 was the best year of my life, bar none.
I remember, way back in 5th grade, when the most interesting thing about me was that my name was longer than I was, I was introduced to a strange concept; People write books. Actual, real people. Someone I could talk to had written books. And other people read them. Hey, I was a kid. I suppose if you'd asked me before that, I would have acknowledged that people wrote books, but I hadn't really glommed onto the concept... that year, my teacher had us write short stories. Each student wrote a short story, mine was called Alona and the Blue Ribbon. After we wrote - and then revised - the story, we made bound copies by writing the words carefully on paper, sewing the pages together, and pasting them inside cloth-bound cardboard covers.
I still have mine. (It was bad. Terrible in fact. Fire drakes and fantasy, weirdly not-nice fairy godmothers... those fairies, always creep me out just a little bit... adventures and learning to deal with magic.)
From that day forward, I've wanted to be a writer.
And to some degree, more or less, I've been one. Or, at least, in the strictest sense. I was a writer in that I wrote. Along the way, I had one short story picked up by a Young Authors magazine (I was supposed to get 2 contributor copies, the magazine went out of business shortly after my acceptance, and if they ever printed my story, I never got a copy, and never saw it in print.) and one play picked up by an underground lesbian indie magazine. (I didn't submit that one, my professor did in college, and I suppose I should be grateful that she submitted it under my name instead of her own, since there's no way in hell I would have ever known about it otherwise. I don't count that, really, because that's not a piece of work I would have wanted to publish on my own.)
I don't actually have the "stack of rejection letters" that a lot of writers talk about having. Oh, I've received a few of them. About 10 years ago, I sent out a string of inquiry letters to agents, trying to sell my co-authored book, Circle in the Sand. I got back 3 "no thank yous" and never heard on the rest of them. Really, if I send out a SASE, is it that much trouble to say no thank you? I never kept any of them; or at least, I don't think I did. If I have any, I have no idea where they are, and that's about the same thing, right?
2011, things changed.
I finally found my groove for writing; and honestly, if I'd been paying attention, I'd have found it a lot earlier. I took Creative Writing in college twice which meant I wrote four short stories for critiques over the course of two semesters. I wrote two horror stories, one sci-fi and a modern-day romance about a woman who runs into her ex-husband while at a bar in the Bahamas. The one story that got any approval AT ALL from my classmates (now, don't mind me, but I will still say that 95% of my classmates were a bunch of snotty, stream of consciousness, look how stylistically I'm writing mom! assholes who were more interested in how obscure they could be rather than in learning how to tell a good STORY) was the one romance I wrote.
For decades now, I've been writing romance stories and trying to market them under a different genre. I've written horror romance, fantasy romance, and sci-fi romance. And when I was done writing, I'd go back and edit out all the sex, most of the romance, and end up with a bare-bones plot that just wasn't that interesting. What I'm most interested in is romance. My favorite sci-fi stories are the Liaden Universe novels, written by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. (Start here and move forward.) I like Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer stuff best of all her work; if you look at them, they're very, very romantic. I read and re-read, obsessively, Clan of the Cave Bear, which was one of the first novels I was introduced to that had graphically described sex. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan (I even have a Jane Austen action figure that is pinned to the wall near my monitor).
So... eight short stories written and submitted in 2011. Three accepted.
34,356 words written that have been submitted (slightly more if the fact that I had to submit On the Fly twice!)
One novel written. 50,059 words.
And one semi-completed short story that will be done within the next 2 weeks, for a total of 91,415 words written this year. (That's not including the 20,000 words I've edited OUT of Marked Man... or blog posts. Or flash fiction, of which I have written a TON....)
2011 has been the best year of my life. Bar none.
Except that I want to raise the bar.
Yes, yes, eventually I'm getting to the point, hold onto your butts.
2012 (it's the end of the world as we know it....)
I would like to write over 150,000 words.
I would like to submit one short story per month (with the average word count of 4,000 words submitted, so if I submit a longer story, say 10,000 words, that counts as 2 stories...)
I would like to finish editing Marked Man and get it out the door.
I would like to plot out and begin re-writes for Circle in the Sand
I would like to finish Blood Sight and begin edits for that
I would like to start writing Hunter Moon (perhaps as my NaNoWriMo project)
I would like to start writing The Wormwood Trade
So... that's my broad plan for 2012...
More detailed plans:
Finish writing Blister Effect (a 10-15k short story) by Jan 15th, get to betas and get submitted by Jan 31st
Plot out and write Roll, a 3-5k short story and submit by Feb 29th
Plot out and write Alive and Kicking, a 3-5k short story and submit by March 15th
Plot out and write a tentacle sex story, 20 - 25k, due for submission March 25th
Plot out and write Picking up the Pieces, a 15 - 20k short story, due for submission March 31st
Plot out and start writing Nocturnal Equations, a 10k short story, due April 30th
(I'm not committing myself to both of the March longer stories; I'm mulling them over and trying to decide which one I want to do more...)
I felt alone because I was the only one mourning the passing of 2011.
2011 was the best year of my life, bar none.
I remember, way back in 5th grade, when the most interesting thing about me was that my name was longer than I was, I was introduced to a strange concept; People write books. Actual, real people. Someone I could talk to had written books. And other people read them. Hey, I was a kid. I suppose if you'd asked me before that, I would have acknowledged that people wrote books, but I hadn't really glommed onto the concept... that year, my teacher had us write short stories. Each student wrote a short story, mine was called Alona and the Blue Ribbon. After we wrote - and then revised - the story, we made bound copies by writing the words carefully on paper, sewing the pages together, and pasting them inside cloth-bound cardboard covers.
I still have mine. (It was bad. Terrible in fact. Fire drakes and fantasy, weirdly not-nice fairy godmothers... those fairies, always creep me out just a little bit... adventures and learning to deal with magic.)
From that day forward, I've wanted to be a writer.
And to some degree, more or less, I've been one. Or, at least, in the strictest sense. I was a writer in that I wrote. Along the way, I had one short story picked up by a Young Authors magazine (I was supposed to get 2 contributor copies, the magazine went out of business shortly after my acceptance, and if they ever printed my story, I never got a copy, and never saw it in print.) and one play picked up by an underground lesbian indie magazine. (I didn't submit that one, my professor did in college, and I suppose I should be grateful that she submitted it under my name instead of her own, since there's no way in hell I would have ever known about it otherwise. I don't count that, really, because that's not a piece of work I would have wanted to publish on my own.)
I don't actually have the "stack of rejection letters" that a lot of writers talk about having. Oh, I've received a few of them. About 10 years ago, I sent out a string of inquiry letters to agents, trying to sell my co-authored book, Circle in the Sand. I got back 3 "no thank yous" and never heard on the rest of them. Really, if I send out a SASE, is it that much trouble to say no thank you? I never kept any of them; or at least, I don't think I did. If I have any, I have no idea where they are, and that's about the same thing, right?
2011, things changed.
I finally found my groove for writing; and honestly, if I'd been paying attention, I'd have found it a lot earlier. I took Creative Writing in college twice which meant I wrote four short stories for critiques over the course of two semesters. I wrote two horror stories, one sci-fi and a modern-day romance about a woman who runs into her ex-husband while at a bar in the Bahamas. The one story that got any approval AT ALL from my classmates (now, don't mind me, but I will still say that 95% of my classmates were a bunch of snotty, stream of consciousness, look how stylistically I'm writing mom! assholes who were more interested in how obscure they could be rather than in learning how to tell a good STORY) was the one romance I wrote.
For decades now, I've been writing romance stories and trying to market them under a different genre. I've written horror romance, fantasy romance, and sci-fi romance. And when I was done writing, I'd go back and edit out all the sex, most of the romance, and end up with a bare-bones plot that just wasn't that interesting. What I'm most interested in is romance. My favorite sci-fi stories are the Liaden Universe novels, written by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. (Start here and move forward.) I like Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer stuff best of all her work; if you look at them, they're very, very romantic. I read and re-read, obsessively, Clan of the Cave Bear, which was one of the first novels I was introduced to that had graphically described sex. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan (I even have a Jane Austen action figure that is pinned to the wall near my monitor).
So... eight short stories written and submitted in 2011. Three accepted.
34,356 words written that have been submitted (slightly more if the fact that I had to submit On the Fly twice!)
One novel written. 50,059 words.
And one semi-completed short story that will be done within the next 2 weeks, for a total of 91,415 words written this year. (That's not including the 20,000 words I've edited OUT of Marked Man... or blog posts. Or flash fiction, of which I have written a TON....)
2011 has been the best year of my life. Bar none.
Except that I want to raise the bar.
Yes, yes, eventually I'm getting to the point, hold onto your butts.
2012 (it's the end of the world as we know it....)
I would like to write over 150,000 words.
I would like to submit one short story per month (with the average word count of 4,000 words submitted, so if I submit a longer story, say 10,000 words, that counts as 2 stories...)
I would like to finish editing Marked Man and get it out the door.
I would like to plot out and begin re-writes for Circle in the Sand
I would like to finish Blood Sight and begin edits for that
I would like to start writing Hunter Moon (perhaps as my NaNoWriMo project)
I would like to start writing The Wormwood Trade
So... that's my broad plan for 2012...
More detailed plans:
Finish writing Blister Effect (a 10-15k short story) by Jan 15th, get to betas and get submitted by Jan 31st
Plot out and write Roll, a 3-5k short story and submit by Feb 29th
Plot out and write Alive and Kicking, a 3-5k short story and submit by March 15th
Plot out and write a tentacle sex story, 20 - 25k, due for submission March 25th
Plot out and write Picking up the Pieces, a 15 - 20k short story, due for submission March 31st
Plot out and start writing Nocturnal Equations, a 10k short story, due April 30th
(I'm not committing myself to both of the March longer stories; I'm mulling them over and trying to decide which one I want to do more...)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Put a Bow on It
Merry Midwinter Spending Holiday.
(That fits everyone's beliefs and offends as many people as possible.)
I'd say I'm sorry I've been MIA, but I'm not. I spent 10 days in Orlando, Florida, which was excellent, and I'm not sorry about that. Here, have a picture!
The weather was almost ideal the whole time - it was a little chilly and rained a bit one day, but that was it. I had a great time. The husband had a great time. The child had a great time, with only a few tears. She reached MFQ a few times.As I had to explain this while down in Florida, here's the quick and dirty: MFQ = Maximum Fun Quotient. The time after MFQ is reached, no matter how fun an activity, no matter how much you've been looking forward to it, etc, you just cannot have any more fun. You are tired, or overloaded, or both. Toddlers reach MFQ fairly quickly.
As one of the bout of tears had to do with the fact that we cannot take live baby ducks home, I sort of wrote that off as MFQ.
In the real, non-Disney world: One of my stories returned home to me, unpublished. This is not because it wasn't good; in fact I am assured by the editor that it was, actually, very good and would have been accepted for publication except that the editor is having a hard time of things and just doesn't feel she can get the book out any time soon, so has put the project on permanent hiatus. I'm mildly sad about this, since I really adore this editor, and I would have loved to have a project with her name on it. On the other hand, I'm delighted that she liked my story, even if I can't, in the interest of politeness, tell you who she is. I did some looking around and turned the story around to someone else; hopefully I'll find a home for it. If not, I might offer it up as a free-read or a 99cent Amazon deal. We'll see. Amazon's stuff confuses me.
I'm deep into the "I hate Christmas" part of the year. My hand to god, one year, I'm just gonna snap and there will be Rudolf guts everywhere. My family drives me crazy in the most well-meaning sort of way. I never feel like I've done enough, or can buy enough, and those feelings in and of themselves make me crazy because that's NOT what it's supposed to be. And hell's bells, I'm not even Christian, so why am I doing this anyway? Except that I would feel MORE bad if I didn't, and honestly, I have enough guilt to lug around without deliberately adding to the stack.
My writing schedule is finally Not Whack, which is good.
I have 2 more chapters in Blood Sight to write, and then it'll be time to dig into the re-writes and edits. I have cut 20,000 words out of Marked Man so far, with another 30-45k to go. I am almost done writing Blister Effect (6k out of 9-10k). I have detailed out the plot for Wind Counterclockwise, a B&S Menage piece, expected to run 15 - 20K. I have re-read and started plotting for the rewrite of Circle in the Sand, a co-written Menage novel with my dear friend Elizabeth L. Brooks. I have plotted out the story for a 10 - 15k m/m novelette called Roll. I have plotted out the story for a f/f short 3,500 - 5k words story tentatively called Alive and Kicking. I also have tentatively decided to write a 10-20k novelette for an End of Days antho.
Out in the wild, I have PBEM, Snake Dance, Which Way the Wind Blows, and Ripped, still waiting to hear; and On the Fly has been submitted elsewhere. Lustfully Ever After has achieved cover-art.
I'll see you all next year!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Setting Myself Up
I might have bitten off more than I can chew.
To be honest with you, I didn't expect it to be the 29th of November and for me to have anywhere close to 50,000 words.
I rather expected that, much like I've done several times before, I'd start up the NaNoWriMo project with the best of intentions and sputter out somewhere around week 2. I've only once ever completed the project (and then I lost it all in a titanic hard drive failure), even though I've attempted it at least five times previous.
I don't know what happened this year. I have 2 more writing days in the month and I'm currently at 47,400. (I'm not done for today, mind you, just taking a break.)
However, I do have a project I want to do that's due to the editor by December 15th - a 3-6k short erotica with a fantasy theme. Which would probably be doable if (BIG if!) I wasn't going to Florida for a week, starting on Friday. However, I have the outline for Dragon Maiden written up and I'm going to take my laptop with me to Florida. Give my parents some grandchild time and I'll stay one or two mornings in the resort and get some work done. Ha. Ha ha ha. I foresee my writing like a fiend on the 11th and 12th when I get home and then badgering my beta to do a forced review. (Hi, Liz and Greg. You are warned!)
And this one? I'd love to do this project. I even have an idea. But to get it done in less than a month. Well, I might be able to. If I didn't have any other social engagements.
And I promised myself I'd finish Blood Sight, which is my NaNoWriMo project. I'm about 50K words in which will give me a technical "win" for the project, but I'm not actually done. I'm expecting the rough draft needs another 15,000 words to be actually finished.
And I have two old novel projects that I've told myself I will finish and get out the freaking door, A Marked Man is finished. I need to edit a few things in Chapters 9 - 11 and cut out about 50,000 words. (I even know where about 35,000 are going to come from!). Circle in the Sand - a VERY old project - could use some edits, have the sex scenes put back in, and then polished.
And I have the sequels/companion stories for Shadow of Kenfig to work on. I keep changing the titles, but at present they are Blister Effect (10k words estimated, 6k of which are done), Lunar Equations (10k estimated, outline drawn up), Umbral Theories (10k estimated, a one sentence hook written) and Wind Me Counterclockwise (20,000 words, outline drawn up). After Blister Effect, I think I may work on Wind Me Counterclockwise, since that premise has the most excitement for me, at the moment.
I also have a lesbian story in mind, Stealing Third, 3-5k words.
And a boylove story, Roll in the Hay, which will probably be about 10k.
And then there's the novel ideas: Blood Sight is the first of four stories that I have planned for that particular series; Blood Sight, Hunter Moon, Bad Intentions, and Grave Magic. (ish 80k words each!)
Also, I have a steampunk romance idea, The Wormwood Trade.
And that's not even including the fact that I haven't been looking for any more submission calls...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Blood Sight
I'm trying to decide what project I want to work on for NaNoWriMo. Here's the opening idea I have for Blood Sight.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Flash Fiction; The Further Adventures of...
A few weeks back I asked for some Flash Fiction prompts. I did several in one day, and then had some other life stuff happen. Continuing on with that theme, here's Lenora's request: tryst, petticoat, morose and bonded.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
NaPlUrNoMo
Ok, I think everyone in the writing world knows about NaNoWriMo. I love saying that. Hate typing it, but I love saying it. NaNoWriMo. Just sort of falls off the tongue after being rolled around in your mouth like an everlasting gobstopper. With a trail of multicolored saliva following it. Ok, unattractive mental image. Sorry.
If you don't, go look it up.
I have done NaNoWriMo successfully (well, finished a project, wrote the 50,000 words, etc) once; that Draft Zero crock of steaming crap was so bad I didn't even show it to anyone. And then my hard drive crashed in January and I lost it anyway. Talking about the Bad Novel later with a friend, I got an insight into my hero - I could never quite figure out why he liked the heroine, although he insisted that he did. With my friend's comments, I was able to get a handle on him, figure her - the character, not my friend - out, and I rewrote the whole thing. Since I didn't have the draft to work from, this was a complete revision. And that was a much better story. Took me about five months to write. Marked Man, as I ended up titling it, is now in secondary revisions that I hope to complete by the end of the year.
I've tried a few times since then to do NaNoWriMo and sometimes I go for a week or so, and sometimes I don't even get started!
Well, I'm going to try AGAIN this year. I have several novel-ish projects percolating on back burners. (How is it that my kitchen has 2 back burners and 2 FRONT burners and my brain has 1 front burner and 5,000,000 back burners?) I have a series of urban supernatural romances; Blood Sight, Moon Shadow, Bad Intentions, and Death Magic. I have a steampunk romance, The Wormwood Trade. I have a zombie novel; Zom and the art of Undead Maintenance. I'll pick one and run with it.
Which brings me to the title of this blog entry.
NaPlUrNoMo
NAtional PLan yoUR NOvel MOnth.
I know, NaNoWriMo isn't supposed to be about planning. It's supposed to be about bashing your head in and hoping something useful leaks out.
Well, you know, NaNo is a like an RPG. And the first rule of an RPG is "If you don't like the rules, change 'em."
So, for the rest of October, in between looking for houses, promoting Steamlust, celebrating the fact that I've managed to not kill my child by neglect or accident for 8 whole years, and other crazy shit on my schedule, I'm going to outline and think about what I'm going to write for NaNo.
And I know this is probably a stupid question, but I would LIKE some opinions anyway; what would YOU like to see?
Friday, September 16, 2011
Flash Freaking Fiction Friday
Well, You asked for it, you got it (toyota! Or am I the only one who remembers those commercials? Nevermind, I'm old. I know.)
I asked for some flash fiction prompts. I've only gotten one at a time thus far. Not this week, no, no... this week I get SEVEN! Holy crap!
So... Keep your eyes on the ball, and I'll get back to you!
Dave B asks for: shards, endless, sundering, tree
Kyra gave me: train, cowboy, run, rainy
Rhonda tells me I should do: chimpanzee, pwn (or own), pioneer, sunset
Lenora gives me: tryst, petticoat, morose and bonded
Zac wants to see what I'll do with mysterious, betrayal, war and flee
Liz likes feline, pinned, stalk and frame (with words like that, this one might be NSFW... we'll see)
and Elliot wants to know about chalice, reproach, honor, and pickling.
I'll let you know as I complete them!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Flash Fic Friday, Redux
So, Richard Crawford (one of my best friends that I've never met) gave me this prompt: Water, Adipose, Jellyfish, Pocketknife.
I had some problems with this one at first. Water, no problem. Jellyfish, EASY. Pocketknife. Workable... but Adipose? Fat? Really? I don't like the word "fat". It has a lot of emotional connotations that I'm uncomfortable with. So, I was pondering, and pondering... I finally made this tweet:
tisfan Working on my flash fiction and trying to find a good place to insert a word... aside from in the trash... oh, WAIT! I got it #mywana
So, here you are... a continuation of last week's story... I'm thinking I might make a habit of this, continuing to make my flash fics looking into Scanlon and Landers.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Flash Fic Friday
I love the concept of flash fiction; given a writing prompt and a variable amount of time, write a story. I've done it a few times (ok, twice!) and found it to be fun to write, funny to read, and sometimes pretty amazing.
My friend and fellow writer (I keep wondering if there are just a lot more writers than I might have thought, or if us weird, wordly types are just drawn to each other because it seems like I have a lot of writer friends) did some flash fiction the other week that I enjoyed, but while I'd meant to send her a prompt, I fell face-first into my own work and never quite got around to it.
Here's what she came up with; (content warning, contains strong language, sexual themes, gay themes)
Yesterday, when I was out to dinner, I was idly skimming through the beer menu and came across this:
The first thing you notice when pouring a glass of this seasonal beer is the color. Samuel Adams® Octoberfest has a rich, deep reddish amber hue which itself is reflective of the season. Samuel Adams Octoberfest masterfully blends together five roasts of malt to create a delicious harmony of sweet flavors including caramel and toffee. The malt is complimented by the elegant bitterness imparted by the Bavarian Noble hops. Samuel Adams Octoberfest provides a wonderful transition from the lighter beers of summer to the heartier brews of winter.
I promptly sent her a text; I found your beer!
I was, however, driving, so I didn't sample it. (The husband had a terrible couple days at work and he drank a Long Island Iced Tea that was making my eyes water from across the table!) But I am seriously tempted to go over to the Total Wine and get some. It sounds lovely; and I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've never actually HAD any Sam Adams, despite being told it's one of the best American beers that exist. (I'm bigoted against American beer.)
Anyway...
Having started thinking about her flash fiction, I followed up with yet another text: Write me some flash fiction! Your prompt: airhorn, hockey stick, sushi, guttermouth. (Confession: I took those from four commercials on the radio, one from each commercial. Except for Tread Quarters, which was the "airhorn" one, I can't remember any of the commercials. Advertising semi-fail?)
She gave me a lovely little blurb, and then gave ME a prompt: phone, seashell, caramel, balloon. Tune in - hopefully later today - to see what I come up with (feel free to leave me additional prompts in the comments!). UPDATE! Here is my Flash Fiction...
I give you Liz's flash fic:
(Contains strong language, sexual themes)
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