I AM reading

First of all, thank you very much for the good wishes – I’m sure Liz and I will cheer each other on tomorrow at the Festival of Romance Awards, and we’ll post pics afterwards whatever happens!

Autumn - great time for reading!

Now on Monday Anna was saying “I wanna read!”, whereas at the moment I can definitely say “I AM reading!”  And how!  In the last week alone, I read six books, (although some of them were fairly short).  Autumn is a great time to curl up with a book, but the reason for me is not that I’ve gone on an autumnal reading "bender" (if there is such a thing) or taken time out.  It’s just that I help organise a literary award and this time of year the long list is more or less finalised.  And as the organiser, I sometimes have to talk about the award and the books that end up on the shortlist.  Which means – I have to read them so I know what I’m talking about.  Good excuse, right?

It is in no way a hardship reading these particular books as they’re all romance and, having ended up on the long list, great stories.  But it’s made me think about WHY these particular books have done better than the other entries.  What is it about them that gives them page turning quality; what keeps the reader hooked?

There are all the usual reasons of course - first of all (and most obvious), there has to be a great love story, one that stays in your mind long after you finish reading.  The chemistry between the hero and heroine has to be amazing throughout, even if they themselves don’t notice it to begin with perhaps (or they try not to).  The dialogue has to be just right – a sassy heroine and a hero with a sense of humour is always good and makes for some interesting conversations.  And the conflict between them must be believable.  In some cases it’s the fact that the story is unusual which makes it stand out, or if it’s not, the plot has been given a new twist and made to feel original.  The writing has to be just right too – fast moving and entertaining in an effortless way.

All this makes for a great story potentially.

But ... we’re all different and what we look for in a novel may vary wildly, as the readers for the award demonstrate every year.  What one person finds wonderful, another says is utter rubbish.  Thankfully, each book gets read several times and the ones where all the readers agree come out on top.  Those are the ones I’m reading at the moment.  

For me, personally, the thing that always makes or breaks a book is the hero.  If I don’t fall in love with the hero, the story is doomed.  I don’t really care what he looks like (although hotties are always welcome of course :) ), but he has to be charismatic.  He has to charm me (and the heroine) in every way.  Then, and only then, will I consider the book a winner or keeper for my shelf.

What makes a book a keeper for you?

Please come back on Sunday/Monday to hear from Liz – she might have photos from the Festival of Romance!

I wanna read

As usual, I find myself wanting to start my post with references to others.... Congratulations, Liz and Christina!  You and me both, Susanna!  And sympathies and respect, Julie.

As for me... life's been pretty busy here.  It's an overused complaint, but it's not exaggerating to say that life consists of up at six, off to work, no breaks, no lunch (except that eaten in the car on the way to another meeting), home at seven, cook, eat, DIY, housework, household admin, bed.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Apart from the weekends, where it's up at six, housework and DIY and household admin, bed at ten.

All the above being carried under the stress and emotional strain of wholesale reorganisation/redundancies at work - my job no longer exists, I will be applying for new ones in the coming weeks -  and a Big Thing (but a very, very good one) happening at home.

I'm not complaining!  It is what it is, and it's mostly right and proper. What's fascinating me is my reaction to it.

In the midst of this, two things are happening.  I'm scribble-writing more than I have for years, and I have  one significant craving.  It's not for someone else to do dinner, it's not for a hot bath, or a massage, or an afternoon off (although all of these would be nice), it's for guilt-free time to curl up with a book.

I'm not even sure which book.  Just me, comfy chair, no phones, no internet, a book and an hour or so.

And the fact that, because of that Big Thing, there is little prospect of that happening in the short, medium or long term future is making me grin like a loon.

sorry, Ma, that there well done gone run dry

photo by f_shields on creative commons licence for flickr

At the end of September, I finished a book a month early. I sent it to my agent, who sent it to my editor. I took two days to go house-hunting and do laundry. I then immediately launched into writing another book, a 30,000-word novella, which I wrote in three weeks. I revised and submitted that to my other editor. We also sold our house, made an offer on another, found a solicitor and a mortgage advisor, consulted our accountant and the taxman and booked surveys and checked insurance. By this time, my editor had come back with revisions for my big book. We agreed a deadline of two weeks would be about right.

I went on retreat with some wonderful writers, to talk writing. I came up with an idea for my next book. I went to lunch with other writers, to talk writing. I went to dinner with other writers, to talk writing. I came up with an idea for another book. I went to a book launch with other writers, to talk writing.

On Thursday I sat down to write a new scene for my book that I'm revising. It's not a long scene, but it's an important one: a flashback to a time in my characters' lives when the foundations were set for their current conflict. I wrote the scene in a couple of hours.

The insightful Emma Darwin mentioned at one of those talking-writing events how sometimes writers who have written a lot can come up with something that is technically competent, but not at all exciting. It was that. It ticked the boxes, but it was lifeless. I can't possibly put it in a book that I care about, not as a key scene.

As usual, I've been beating myself up about this. Have I lost the joy of this story? Do I not have enough imagination? Does the story just not carry the depth I want it to?

But it has occurred to me that it's none of these things. I can't write a good, fleshed-out, emotional, complex scene because I am just too tired. Not physically, but mentally. I've done too much creating and talking and thinking and writing in the past two months. And I've also bought and sold a house.

My well is dry.

Yesterday, I spent the whole day reading a book. Today and tomorrow, I intend to spend playing with my kid and watching films with my husband. Monday...well, Monday I'm not so sure. Maybe the well will be full enough by then to come up with something worthwhile. Maybe not. Maybe I'll have to move my deadline forward a week or two, but that will be okay.

I have enough experience now to know that that there well will full right up again, Ma. And what a wondrous and exciting thing to know that it will. Just give it some time.

Look out for Anna's post, coming soon. My grammatically-problematic title is in homage to Susanna's post on copy-edits, below.

Kudos and Copyedits

 © Yellowind | Dreamstime.com

Before I do anything else, I must brag for a moment, and let you all know that not one, but TWO of our very own Heroine Addicts have been shortlisted for 2012 Festival of Romance Awards:

Liz's THE CORNISH HOUSE is up for Best Romantic Read, and Christina's THE SILENT TOUCH OF SHADOWS is up for Best Historical Read! (Liz's agent and Christina's publisher are up for awards as well, as are several of our RNA friends, so lots to celebrate on this list).

Right then, on to the rest of the post.

You'll see, by the date, that I'm late again. I was supposed to have this up on Sunday, but in my defence I was working all weekend (and through most of Monday) reviewing copyedits of my book The Firebird, which I'd promised on my honour that my editor would have by end-of-day on Monday afternoon.

Copyedits very often are, to me, a Labour in the Herculean sense. I have a writing style that drives Grammarians to drink. I  like to boldly split infinitives. Write fragments. I don't think that prepositions are bad words to end a sentence with. And I can sometimes be stubborn, when it comes to commas.

© Tom Schmucker | Dreamstime.com

One of my early copyeditors, some years ago, hated my commas so much she took most of mine out and put her own ones in, where she thought they should go. In one memorable sentence describing a courtyard my characters had just come in to, I'd written: "The air was still, here." Meaning it was not moving. She took out that comma, too, leaving a sentence that still makes me smile (though it doubtless came as a relief to the characters to learn the air hadn't gone someplace else...)

The thing is, we have voices, as writers. And writing is made up of rhythms and structures and cadence and emphasis, things that won't always be bound by the strict rules of grammar. So the copyediting process, for me, usually begins with some poor copyeditor probably hitting the whisky and burning the midnight oil somewhere while trying to "fix" all my errors, and ends with me hitting my own whisky bottle and muttering into the night while I "fix" them all back. 

Well, all right, to be fair, I "fix" most of them back. I've been known to make actual errors, and good copyeditors find them and save me embarrassment, for which I'm grateful. And most copyeditors, after they've worked on a few books by one author, do start to "hear" the voice, and let it be. 

But I do wish they'd lay off my commas.

Do come back tomorrow, to read Julie's (always grammatical) post. 

Procrastinator… Thy Name is Brigid

Who you find when you Google "Procrastinator" (photo - Liz Fenwick)

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo. I have signed up. I know what I’m doing and I’ve had a whole day to do my almost 2000 words. So it is amazing how many other things I have found to do instead. I will take you through my day and you can marvel at my ability to NOT NaNoWriMo. I have a funny feeling this could be what the whole of November could be like.

I woke up and checked Twitter as is my habit. Who knows what wonderful tweets could have found themselves on my timeline overnight? I mean there could be a cute otter photo that is just begging to be retweeted or maybe Disney has brought LucasFilms and Twitter is melting down about it… (such an unlikely scenario but you have to check JUST IN CASE!).

I then leapt out of bed ready to face this first day of NaNoWriMo, put on my running gear and went out into the rain and ran 2 miles round St James Park. Glowing I returned and threw myself wholeheartedly into a Jillian Michaels DVD… well you have to do strength and abs with the cardio! Don’t you know anything?

After refuelling and my daily ablutions I head to the cinema for a bit of NaNoWriMo research and inspiration. Skyfall! What better way to fire the creative juices than looking at a half naked Daniel Craig (the sacrifices I make). Who knew that the adverts before hand went on so long? So by the time I made it home it was time for a late lunch and a bit of prep for a work related phone call. Gotta earn the money sometime.

Then I realised that I needed to register at the gym. My sister has given me a six week gym pass for my birthday and she activated it yesterday so I didn’t want to waste it! Half an hour in the pool (Mr Bond in the pool in Shanghai was my inspiration) and I’m feeling smug and a tad tired.

As I walked home the sun was setting and I realised that I had yet to actually sit down and NaNoWriMo…

So now here I am on my sofa, writing a blogpost and googling the best abs exercises to do in the pool. Obviously having set myself a writing goal I am trying to do anything to avoid itt, might even end up fit instead. Maybe if I set the goal to run a marathon I might write a book. Of course I would then run said marathon collapsing somewhere around mile 12 and having to be removed from the course.

I am of course counting this blogpost towards today’s word count (hey it is writing and vaguely creative). Only another thousand words before bedtime. But maybe I can fit in a bike ride before that.

I think November is going to be a long month.

Come back on Sunday to find out how Susanna is getting on...

*edit* I managed 1731 in the end... 

NaNoWriMo

That mad time of year is almost upon us...no, not Christmas but National Novel Writing Month. It's the time of year that makes agents fear for their slush pile in December. It's that time of year when many people who aspire to write - try it for the first time. It's the time of year that I love. It comes at the worst possible month for me - always. November never fails to be one of my busiest months...personally and as a writer but I long for NaNo every year....

Why? It means freedom. It means stretching the writing muscle, writing for the sheer joy of it. Writing without thought to publication. It is the one time of year I can truly turn the internal editor off and write what ever comes into my mind. I write for me.

The first of November begins a month of just writing...bliss. It is even more appealing now that I've been published. The weight of expectation is upon me, but not for NaNo. No one has to see what is written - ever. If on day one I want to write a sci fi gothic tale of medieval chivalry...then I can and if on the second it becomes a dark urban fantasy that's good...on third it may move from first person present tense and on fourth to omniscient narrator...

The joy is... it doesn't matter...it's time to experiment and push the boundaries. Each day is nothing more than a creative writing assignment and it is so good for the writing soul. Two years ago I wasn't going to do NaNo but I woke on the first of November and began only with a title and not a clue of where I was going....bliss. The Summer of Black Hare was created and I wrote a long piece of fiction for the first time in first person...before I had been to afraid, to afraid of failure, but with Nano the only failure is not writing and that is a gift.

NaNo gives you permission to write what ever comes into your head...even if that is I want chocolate now....it's permission to experiment, it's permission to be total crap, to try all the techniques you have read about but were afraid to ruin the work in progress. NaNo means give it a go...

What NaNo doesn't mean is that you have a perfect work ready for the world - you won't. At best you will have a very dirty draft and worst you will have 50,000 words of drivel....but you will have used your writing muscle in a different way and have grown as a writer because of it. You will be stronger when you write your next proper book....

Are you doing NaNo this year? Even though I am doing edits on A Cornish Affair I'm hoping to wake on 1/11/12 and begin something fun but I just don't know what yet!

Good Bad Guys

(Photo from www.imdb.com)

I’ve just been catching up on some of the vampire stories that have been made into TV series – True Blood and The Vampire Diaries – and I’m also eagerly awaiting the final instalment of the Twilight films.

Something struck me about all these though – the fact that I don’t like any of the heroes!  I much prefer the other guy (in the case of Twilight) and the bad guys in the other stories.  I have to admit I thoroughly disliked Edward Cullen with his controlling ways and strange supposedly protective measures when it came to his girlfriend; Jacob Black is so much more passionate (and yes, alive!).  I find Bill Compton deadly dull (sorry, bad pun), while Erik Northman, the Viking vampire, is mischievous and fun in comparison.  And I can’t for the life of me like Stefan Salvatore.  His brother Damon may be evil, but he’s never boring!

Erik Northman (Wikipedia photo)

So is it just me, or does this seem wrong somehow?  Surely in a story we should be rooting for the good guy, the one who is trying to do the right thing (and in this case, abstaining from drinking human blood in order not to hurt anyone)?  Of course we all love a really well written “bad boy” story, but those normally end with him being reformed by the heroine and turned into the good guy at the end.  Or the reader is shown from the beginning that he’s just hiding his true colours behind a façade and needs to fall in love in order to be saved.  But that’s not the case with these vampire stories as far as I can see.

It could of course have something to do with the fact that I personally find the actors portraying the bad guys more attractive, but I read the books first and felt the same way.

Jacob black (Wikipedia photo)

I don’t really have an answer here, I guess I’m just kind of thinking out loud.  But I’d love to hear everyone else’s take on this – discuss please?

And please come back on Sunday to hear from Liz