Enlightenment from the West

Thanks to this link from the Heart of Denver Romance Writers, I'm all clear on genres now.

Happy Friday to everyone.

Genres and Labels

For a little while, my current manuscript and I were hopelessly stalled by the side of the road. Broken down. Not moving. Like a 1973 VW bus being driven from Des Moines to San Francisco with one and a half of the dual carburetors on the fritz. Seriously.

Thanks to a little NanoReviseMo mojo and the help of some friends and my critique partner, I'm unstuck and finally beginning to understand the tenets of goal, motivation and conflict in literature. Who knew that I didn't fully grasp the concept when I was taking all those literary theory classes at Jesuit university? Now that I do, things are looking up in terms of being able to pinpoint not only a description, blurb and elevator pitch for my tale, but I think I might even have drawn a bead on the genre.

What's that you say? How could you not know what GENRE you're writing! The horror!!! Well, you try figuring out if it's science fiction/fantasy with romantic elements or a historical paranormal romance. To top that off, what if it's single title (still not quite clear on that, someone PLEASE help) or Category. Here I thought, I'll just write down this story that keeps screaming inside my head but no, I have to tell you what it is. IT'S A STORY I MADE UP. Please stop confusing me. Or frightening me a little, in a good way by educating me with complex publishing-related math like Moonrat did over at Editorial Ass today. I mean your accountant might need an accountant to keep up with what's what in terms of earning out an advance. If you ever get one. Fortunately for me, I do already know that zero times any number is ALWAYS zero.

But thanks to publishing glossaries such as this one posted by blog fave, agent Nathan Bransford here or the anti-fairy version featured on fave 1.0, agent Janet Reid's shark infested waters here, I'm a little bit closer to the mark. Highly entertained though, but not necessarily as clear as I could be.

Please send chocolate.

Inspiration and Adulation

Happy Monday! Things are busy as always here at the homestead. June and I are down to the wire with getting the Spring Fling 2010 conference brochure, registration forms, editor/agent lineup, workshop presenters, sponsors, etc. all in the upright and locked position. No hyperventilating yet, but it is early, so check back and then check here to see for yourself.

An excellent post on prioritizing and where the theory of the super is demystified by Nancy Parra can be found here.

And blog and fan favorite of the global internet, Nathan Bransford ,posted the results of his Best First Paragraph contest today. Read this piece from top to bottom, especially the critiques of the finalists, because it's full of gems about writing. The man's got serious literary skills. This is the kind of critique that all writers need, I think. Not someone who says 'your writing sucks' because that does me no good. I can't improve anything from those words alone, even if they're true. You have to give me more and in a manner that engages my active listening. Rude and unhelpful doesn't get the job done. Unless of course, you perhaps 'forgot' that I'm the woman with the coke bottle and the stocking cap and a trip to the hospital is on your agenda for that day. Otherwise, I need to know that there was too much exposition or not enough, or that the voice is passive or that I switched point of view (no head-hopping!) or, I think you get the picture now. Be helpful or be gone.

Now that I've fulfilled the rant quota for the day, I thought I'd share some awesome music. This is Trixie Whitley on vocals singing with Daniel Lanois and Brian Blade in their band Black DUB. Enjoy!

Doing the Highland Fling

The Spring Fling 2010 website went live here today and I thought that the warm-up dancing should begin. There's still a little bit of tweaking to be done, but we thought that we would give the masses a peek at what've we accomplished so far. Once registration opens on November 1 (Samhain on some calendars) which is appropriate because we're lucky enough to have Lindsey Faber from Samhain Publishing as one of our editors taking pitches, then we hope to have everything confirmed and the line dancing can begin in earnest. Though I won't be joining in the electric slide, sorry ;-).

Speaking of dancing, Wikipedia tells me that the Highland Fling (that'd be a cool name for a conference focusing on Celtic/Scottish romances, wouldn't it?) is a dance that warriors did when they returned victorious from battle. It involved very precise leaping and prancing on a targe, a small round shield with a steel spike in the middle. Um, I don't know about you but I think that should I have made it back from battle with my feet intact, I wouldn't risk driving a spike through them by dancing on my shield, spike side up. What if you bent it or once the single malt started flowing and you know it would, someone landed on it? What was wrong with a dance floor or the ground? Well, anyway. Though I don't like the idea of the Highland Fling as a dance after battle, it's still nice looking done on a stage like this.

Release Day!

Today, my dear friend and Chicago North-RWA chapter mate Marilyn Brant celebrates the release of her debut novel, ACCORDING TO JANE.

If witty banter, sparkling dialogue, an intriguing plot and oh so tight writing is your cuppa, then rush out to a bookstore near you or the nearest online retailer and look for this awesome work. Another Chicago North chapter mate, the erudite and hilarious Liz Evans is hosting an interview with Marilyn and also rewarding a lucky commenter with a copy of the book. And the clever and troubadour-savvy Pamela Cayne is at the tail end of Marilyn Brant week where Marilyn shares her love of the Big 80's. Definitely a worthwhile and hysterical effort leading up to Marilyn mania and According to Jane's debut.

Click on the links, please. I'm so proud of myself for finally figuring out how to do that--the linking, I mean. Because visiting the other sites not only gets you a chance to win an awesome book and read about an author who's extremely talented, there are recipes for sinfully delicious things to be had. That, my friends, is what I call starting the day covered in milk chocolately awesome sauce.

Watch out for that Giant Boulder or Nevermind....

I can explain the radio silence. Really I can.

I have been a very busy bee gathering workshops, speakers, editors and agents for Spring Fling. But that wasn't my only time sink.

Back to school loomed large and there was supply shopping that had to be done. Evil, evil supply shopping that strikes terror in the heart of procrastinators like me. I never win with the shopping. If I try to get ahead of the curve and shop right after the list comes out at the end of the school year, then they haven't stocked the items yet. If I hold true to form and wait until the very last possible minute, then I get the sneer of derision from some pimply, disinterested youngling who takes what seems a vast amount of pleasure in telling me that they're 'out.' Out and never getting any more, okay lady? That's what I hear when they roll their eyes, sigh heavily and tell me that yes, that's exactly where the obscure thingamabob the teacher asked for just to see if I would buy it, was housed but it's now gone. Anyway, today was the first day of school and I am totally willing to bring the pain if either teacher gives me any flack about 'missing items.' Because outside of paper, pencils/pens and maybe a zip drive, I consider all that other stuff they force us to buy as nonsense.

On a happier note, I've been browsing this awesome site for graphic tee shirts that openly encourage submissions for ideas for new tees. The site is called Threadless and they have many wonderful shirts on offer. My new favorite says something like (and I'm totally paraphrasing) 'dude, if your pants are on fire, then being a liar is the least of your concerns.' Or something to that effect, but there are many, many brilliant choices.

I might offer up one that says WILL WRITE FOR FOOD. Let's see how far that gets me.

Ode to Gregarious Loners

Just the other day, literary agent extraordinaire Nathan Bransford blogged about what authors can and should do to promote themselves. This was framed in relation to the amount of publicity provided by publishing houses. The central message being that God helps those who help themselves, in a manner of speaking. Nathan is always erudite, sparkling and witty and this post was no different, ending with a reminder that even Cormac McCarthy went on Oprah.

Yeah, that Cormac McCarthy--self described "gregarious loner," author of All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, the Stonemason and The Road, to name a few of his works. Is that not the BEST description you've ever heard??? I love that description. I'm absolutely barking mad about it. I mean, it lends itself to so much wonderful contrast and conflict in an oxymoronic kind of way. But I'm swaying off topic here in my word-induced state of glee. The reference to Cormac McCarthy started me thinking about other gregarious loner author types. Sometimes they're gregarious or sometimes they're just loners, that's key--the loner part. A few names immediately sprang to mind: Charles Bukowski, J.D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, and others of the ilk where their literary notoriety isn't tied to any of the current media outlets. A paraphrase of a quote usually attributed to Bukowski is one of my favorites: "It isn't that I don't like people, I just like 'em better when they're not around." People, that is cash money gold-level genius even if it is a screenwriter's interpretation of the man.

The question that's been raised, by Nathan's excellent post, is what level of success is achieved if you don't press the flesh and help the process along? Is it possible in this day and age for the brilliance of the writing to make up for a multitude of other shortcomings? Or do you have to listen to the tune and then get your dancing shoes on?