Conference Recap

Since I know you all are dying to see the boots from yesterday, you can see them here at newrockstore.com.  You'll have to enlarge the image to get the full effect.

In all the discussion of footwear in the last post, I just had to go shoe shopping yesterday.  Not for boots, unfortunately.  I bought running shoes.  Pink running shoes.  My two year old son, with me at the time, was not impressed, but he eventually decided it was okay for Mom to wear them. 

But I have to stop talking about shoes or I'll end up buying more today.  Instead, I'll talk about some of the things I learned at the conference.  Since I didn't JUST stare at people's shoes.

First of all, boring talks are much better when sitting with friends:

Bree Despain, me, and Chersti Nieveen

It probably wasn't the talk so much as the fact that we were starving.  Nothing is that interesting when you're hungry.  

Random bits from the agents:

-Honesty is best.  Both the agent and the writer are looking for a long-term relationship.  Don't start it off with lies.  Especially not lies like, "My manuscript was a little longer than I expected."  1800+ pages is not just a little longer.  

-In email queries, do not say that you've enclosed a self addressed stamped envelope.  Just don't do it.

-Don't query about your 12 book series.  Sell the first one first.  Pitch it as, "This has series potential, but can also stand alone."  And make sure it can stand alone. 

-One of the points of a synopsis is to determine if the writer can actually finish the book.  Apparently endings are important to the book or something...

-Laura Rennert's best advice:  believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you and your writing.

Other comments that amused me:

Aprilynne Pike:  I don't want to read anything unless it has kissing or magic, and preferably both.

Rachel Ann Nunes:  Don't be afraid to act out parts of your book, just close the curtains first.

 

From the agent/editor panel:  You can't make up history in a historical novel.  No fake history!

Some things I learned:

-Write down everything you decide about a character.  Things like eye color and stuff usually don't change much.  

-In a critique group, if someone makes a comment that you've thought about and made your decision on, don't tell them that you've already thought about it and don't care about their opinion.  Just don't.  Try something like, "Thanks."  (No.  I'm not bitter.  What makes you think I'm bitter?)

-Elana Johnson recommended making separate files for the parts of a query letter.  I have to say, if you're thinking about querying, her class is an excellent one to take if you get the chance.  Plus, she's a lot of fun.

-Dialogue is not like real speech; it's the imitation of real speech. 

Overall, I think it was a terrific conference and one that I'd like to go back to next year.  And hopefully next year, I'll manage to keep my eyes away from people's feet.  

 

But what about you?  What have you been up to lately?

In Which I Accidentally Take Up Stalking on Account of a Pair of Awesome Boots

On Friday and Saturday I attended the LDStorymaker's Conference.  In one of the addresses, the speaker said something about how to make contacts that sounded suspiciously like stalking.  We had a good laugh about it at our table, but none of us took the stalking idea seriously.

Not until I accidentally became a stalker.  All with the best of intentions.

My friend, Chersti Nieveen, should have known better than to leave me to my own devices, even for just a few minutes.  But there I was, alone and hovering the hallways, when I saw them:  The Boots of Awesomeness.

Since I'm trying to be more positive in life and compliment things I see that I appreciate, I informed the owner that his boots were awesome.  Really, really cool. 

(As a random side note, the owner of the boots, Howard Tayler, was on a panel a couple years ago where they were discussing dialogue.  He mentioned, in a lovely Scottish accent, that Scotsmen wouldn't use the word "perambulate."  And now I can't think of that word without it being in a Scottish accent.)

But back to the boots.  Since I was the first person to comment on The Boots of Awesomeness, he showed me the rest of them.  They had an articulated shaft with individual buckles on each shaft.

I stared, awestruck almost to the point of speechlessness.  You see, I have a bit of a shoe fetish.  You'd never notice it since I don't actually OWN cool shoes, but I always pay attention to them.  (For example, I could tell you what all the girls in my class were wearing yesterday, but I won't submit you to that...)

He even told me where to purchase Boots of Awesomeness, but I foolishly forgot to write it down.  Sigh...

Anyway, I was so impressed with the boots that I made Chersti (once she returned from leaving me alone so I could accost men and be shown their boots) go ask to see the boots.  He showed them to her, but gave us really strange looks.

And that's when I first realized that I was turning into a stalker and fled the building before I noticed anyone else's footwear.  Chersti and I stood together talking next to my car for a few minutes while the parking garage.  While we were there, who should go to his car that happened to be parked next to mine?  And not just once, but twice?  I believe it was the second time that I started joking about stalking him.  It was that or put a bag over my head and who knows what sort of trouble that would have gotten me into.  

Also, there may or may not have been pictures taken of us by his car to commemorate our advent into stalking, but if that actually happened, it should properly be blamed on the fumes in the parking garage.  Or maybe my migraine.  Or just plain exhaustion.  Or all of the above.  

In any case, Howard, should you ever read this, I apologize.  I am not really a stalker--I just really like your boots.

The Scariest Thing

I just came across something that actually scared me into yelping at the computer.  Check it out here. 

Isn't it terrifying?  Now, imagine it for all eternity?  Yeah.  It's bad.  Zombies I can possibly kill, but that is going to haunt me forever, I think. 

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse

I recently read The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. 

This is a sequel to her first book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, both of which are about zombies, and what is going to happen after they take over most of the world.  And how can you get cooler than zombies and those titles?  I really dig the titles.  The more I write, the more impressed I am with excellent titles.

I also love what Carrie Ryan does with world building in these books, and the fact that she manages to do it without dumping information or descriptions on people.  It all feels so natural, and so true to life.  In fact, if I didn't already have far more weapons in the house than I care to admit to, I'd probably start stock-piling them, just in case zombies really do take over the world.  (And yes, most of the ones actually inside the house are mine--the big scary ones in the garage are my husband's.)

I've also been plotting with a friend of mine how we're going to protect our village from the zombies.  Probably because we're both writers and crazy.  But we won't be regretting the craziness when the zombies come . . .

Awesome Contest!

Sarah Wylie, author of All These Lives, is hosting a contest to celebrate her new book!  She has some amazing prizes for the winners, including partial critiques, query critiques, and lunch with Janet Reid and Suzie Townsend in NYC.  Who doesn't want to win one of those? 

On Writing and Lying

On Wednesday night, we took our kids to see How to Train Your Dragon, which I loved.  I don't know how many people have seen it and I don't want to spoil it too much , so I'll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my husband and our kids.  (And yes, I did think that magpie was possibly a dragon as we drove home.  And, no, I do not actually believe in dragons, but it did fly like the dragons in the movie.)

Anyway, as we were waiting for the movie to start, advertisements flashed across the screen.  I don't remember most of them, but one of them had a quote by Johnny Depp:

"With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it.  There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting.  It's lying." 

I think it's the same with writing.  There has to be something of you in all the characters.  Even the villains.  You might never do some of the things the villain does, but you need to understand them.  Because if you don't understand and sympathize with your characters, what reader will?

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Can you write characters that you have nothing in common with?

You Can Eat the Cone??? and Other World-View Shaking Questions

The other day, I took a serious plunge into hedonism.  I went to the mall and bought clothes.  Crazy, huh?  My four year old came with me and, as a treat for being so long suffering, I bought her an ice cream cone.  After a while, she told me she was done. 

"But you haven't eaten the cone."

In tones of deepest shock, she replied, "You can eat the cone???"

Um, yes.  And I thought she knew that.  I thought everyone knew that.  But then I realized that she's never actually had an ice cream cone.  We usually go for shakes or something more containable, and it never occurred to me that she wouldn't understand how ice cream cones work.  I made assumptions about her world view based on my own understanding.

Here's my question:  How often as writers do we neglect to put in enough information, assuming that our readers will understand how our story (or ice cream cone) works it since it's so obvious to us? 

I know I do. 

For example, in the novel I had critiqued a couple of weeks ago, everyone thought that the main character chose the wrong guy.  And the readers were not happy about it.  The main character had good reasons for doing it, reasons which were very clear to me, but apparently less clear to my readers.  This earned me comments like, "If this had been an actual book, I would have thrown it." 

The hard thing about this is that you can't often tell where you're not giving enough information unless you have someone else to critique it.  And probably not someone that you've forced to sit down and brainstorm with you (like my husband gets forced to do). 

There is lots of advice about critique groups out there, but my personal opinion is to find what works for you.  Find out if you are someone who likes critiquing as you go or if you only want it when you have more of a solid manuscript.  Or you might be someone in between.  Each writer is unique and you have to find what's best for you. 

Antagonistic Tendencies

I've decided to be the antagonist in the story of my life.  At least for today.  Productivity will be taking over the role of protagonist, but not even Productivity can stand against me.  I'm far too slothful, lazy, and indolent.  I slept in until nearly 8 a.m.--an unheard of hour since the advent of children in my life.  Also, I'm bound and determined to stay in my pajamas today until after noon, possibly even later, but I try to be reasonable in the goals I set.  I'd set even more laziness goals, but that just takes so much effort . . .

My oldest just announced that today is the worst day of his life.  I should probably tell him that that's what happens when you encounter the villain of the story.  Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

Three Year Olds in My Head

I once heard someone liken writing a novel to having a three year old running around screaming in the writer's head. 

Right now I have two of them running around in my head.  And it's not making for a peaceful existence. 

I didn't mean to be revising two novels at a time.  In December, I put the first one away, intending it to stay away for at least a year or two, if not forever.  I started working on another novel and had so much fun writing it.  But when it came time to submit for the full novel critique, I realized I just wasn't ready to have the second one critiqued yet.  So I sent the first one, thinking it would help me decide if I should fix it or throw it out all together. 

The group was very positive about a lot of things (despite my post laughing at myself and all of the mistakes and issues in the book), and through their comments about what was wrong, I realized what I needed to do to fix most of those problems. 

And I know how to fix the other one too.

So now I have two projects that I love both clamoring for my attention.  Both with different problems that need to be fixed and I just don't have enough time to fix them both RIGHT NOW!!  And, just like any real three year old, those three year olds think they need my attention now. 

I'd heard other authors say that you shouldn't divide your attention between books, and others say that they always did.  I wasn't sure what to believe and didn't worry about. 

I'm thinking now that I'm in the "don't divide your attention" camp.
 
Anyway, I have solutions for both novels and neither of them will stop screaming at me.  Sigh. 

Any suggestions?