RT 2010: day two

by Marie-Claude Bourque

Things are so busy at RT that it’s hard to remember which day is today!

Yesterday morning for me was workshops. First a great workshop/panel on dialog with Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich. There was some talk on how men talk very differently from woman and advice to cut on phonetically spelled dialog. The bottom line is “don’t do it, anything that has the potential to pull the reader put of the story is risky, so spelling words differently is not worth the risk.” The panelists also advised to write freely at first, not thinking about it, then go back and revise.

The next workshop I did was with the fantastic James Scott Bell on structure. I took lots of notes which I will share here in a later post.

I was able to attend the editor paneling the afternoon and took lots of notes for you Musetrackers. It will have to wait until I get home and full computer access to give you the lowdown on who wants what.

Later was the award ceremony which was lovely with all the recipients giving speeches that were very moving and where Alicia Condon, editor with Kensignton, announced a new contest for aspiring authors who write sensual romance. The process is similar to the American Title. So get ready to enter in July. The winner will win a publishing contract with Brava.

Our evening saw us into the Fairy Ball with some amazing costumes. Sorry I have no pictures. I was very tired and spent most of the evening sitting back and chatting with Alyssa Day and Cindy Hodge. Despite my promises of going to bed early, I still didn’t get to bed until 2 a.m.

RT is tiring!

I now must dash to rehearsal…will tell you why tomorrow!

Authors Jessa Slade and Delilah Marvelle

RT 2010: The first day.

by Marie-Claude Bourque

So here I am, finally, at the RT Booklovers convention in 2010. It started pretty good.

Wenesday, fighting jetlag, I headed to the welcome party which was also a tribute to the late Kaye Duffy. The speeches were very moving and reminded of why we are here. Write, share stories.

I struck a conversation with Mr. Romance 2009 Charles Paz who won last year when I won the American Title and yes, it’s confirmed, he will be visiting Musetracks May 17 to help me launch my blog tour! We’ll have special prizes just from him

Hanging out at the back of the room with the fabulous Jessa Slade and Delilah Marvelle, I then talked to Franco DiAngelo who was a Mr. Romance contestant last year and also this year. He described to be the Dorchester hero he will portay during the contest and guess what! He will be my Gabriel from Ancient Whispers! Franco is a professionnal wrestler and looks very hot with new hair cut. I shall share pics if I can.

A little later, I took a great workshop on voice with Christie Craig and Faye Hugues. Christie made me cry when she filled an entire suitcase with her rejection letters in front of us. The message: folks don’t give up until you have as many rejection as she did. Christie later share with me that she is starting a new YA series, which should be a lot of fun!

Charles Paz Mr. Romance 2009

Hump Day Kick Start

Song of the Day: Drowning (Face Down) by Saving Abel

Here’s a picture to start your day.  Who would he be in your story? Is he the hero or protagonist? A secondary character? A botanist? A groundskeeper? An undercover DEA agent infiltrating an elaborate illegal medicinal marijuana ring?

What’s his story? What is he thinking?

Just look at him pruning . . .the way he holds the plant . . .

Come on. Let me hear from you.

And~

Don’t forget Agent Shop is coming this weekend featuring agents of Scott Eagan of Greyhaus Literary Agency

and

Emmanuelle Alspaugh with Judith Ehrlich Literary Management.

Get those pitches ready and wait for the ‘GO’.

Agent Shop – May 2nd!

Howdy all!

So, I hope everyone is ready for May’s Agent Shop.

Our visiting agents are:

Scott Eagan of Greyhaus Literary Agency

and

Emmanuelle Alspaugh with Judith Ehrlich Literary Management

Check out each agent’s interests, and if you’ve got a pitch that falls in their category of interest…be here Sunday, May 2nd, at 10:00 a.m. e.s.t. for the word GO post. As soon as you see the word go, you can E-mail your pitch to me at candi_agent_shop@yahoo.com . If your pitch follows the blog rules AND is one of the first 30 viable pitches, you’ll see it up on the blog Monday for our visiting agents to read.

Good luck!

Writer Inspiration: Tracy Madison

 by Marie-Claude Bourque

 Hi everyone.

Today we have author Tracy Madison at Musetracks. Her latest magical romance  A BREATH OF MAGIC releases tomorrow with Dorchester publishing (congratulation Tracy!) Today she talks about creativity and how life’s hurdle can seriously affect our creativity and will give away a copy of  A BREATH OF MAGIC to a lucky commenter!

The Want to Create

Creativity can be very, very fickle. This is a lesson I’ve learned in the past, but one in which I am now a graduate student of. Sometimes being productive is easy. Other times? Not so much.

Life events can halt creativity in its tracks. Whether we’re ill, extraordinarily busy, down in the dumps over some bad news, or over the moon from some good news, life can, does, and will rear in and stop our forward motion. Luckily, times like these pass. Life begins to find a normal rhythm again, and creativity returns.

Rejections can also suck that creativity away in a heartbeat. Before I was published, when I was going through the agent submission process, I’d received quite a few positive, glowing, highly personalized rejections. But guess what? At the end of the day, they were still a “No.” A few of these rejections hit way harder than all of the others. A few of these threw me for a big-old loop.

I stopped writing for a while, not too long in the scheme of things, but still a while. I stopped reading industry blogs. I stopped researching agents. I stopped creating. I stopped writing. I just didn’t have the heart at that time to push forward.

I have an awesome support system, and they were all there for me in one way or another. And the creativity once again returned and I returned to writing. It was in this time frame that I entered a few writing contests and had excellent feedback from the editor who would become my editor (not that I knew that then!), and all of this continued to keep the creative fires burning bright and my dreams alive. 

But then, real life came calling again. This time in the form of an  illness that had  me in the hospital for a long while. When I came home, I didn’t feel even the slightest creative, at least so far as writing went. I focused on getting better, focused on the day-to-day activities of life, and that was about it. I was happy to be with my family. That, at the time, seemed like enough of a dream.

Though, of course, as I healed and grew stronger, my creative energy returned. Oddly, I’m not sure if I’d gotten to the point I’d missed it yet, but I was very grateful to begin writing again. And then, one day many months later, I received “The Call.” It was the best HEA ever, and I was sure I’d never fight my creative demons again. This was it. I was a writer. 

Oh, was I wrong. So wrong. In the year-and-a-half that followed the sale, the economy took a swift downward turn, affecting my family to a large degree. My grandfather and then my aunt passed away. Other people close to me became ill. It was truly a difficult time in many different ways.

This impacted my creativity. So much so that writing my third contracted book, A BREATH OF MAGIC was incredibly hard. I fought for every word, for every scene. There were times that I was sure that the book would either never get written or that, if it did, it would be horrible. 

I was no longer a writer, I was sure. Two books and I was done. I was positive that I was going to let everyone, including myself, down.

But I had a contract. I had an editor and an agent who believed in me. I had readers who were excited about the series e-mailing me. These things meant something to me. They meant a lot, and that meant I couldn’t give up, even if somewhere deep inside, I wanted to. So I sat at my computer every day and fought for the words. I struggled to find the story. I did everything I could to connect with my heroine, with the journey she needed to take, but still I struggled.

But each day that I sat down and wrote proved something to me–I am a writer. This is what I do. This is what I want to do. Slowly, way-too-slowly, the story began to come alive, and the words finally started coming easier. My editor was a huge help. I also owe a lot to my amazing critique partners for sticking with me, to my friends for standing beside me, and of course, to the readers, whose e-mails reminded me of how much this series means to them.

So I did it, with the help of everyone above and my own fair amount of stubbornness. And guess what? I am so proud of this book. I think it’s my strongest book yet. In a strange way, getting through this process, as difficult as it was, has given me something I wouldn’t have if the book had poured out of me. For that, I’m grateful.

Creativity–the want to create something–is fickle. Sometimes it’s there in huge, blossoming, beautiful ways that make every word you type a joy. But I’ve learned that even when it isn’t there, when the want to write has left me for whatever reason, that I can still create.  

You can too.  

Thank you for this Tracy. We definitely have moments where we just can’t keep going forward and wonder “Am I kidding myself? I can’t do this” It’s nice to be reminded that we can!

And everyone, you can visit Tracy at http://www.tracymadison.com  to learn more about her writing and the month long contest she is running to celebrate her new release. Again don’t forget to comment for your chance to win.

Tell me, have you ever had moments where your creativity was just not there? How did you push forward?

To Be or Not To Be – Politically Correct

Song of the day: Say What You Will by Fastway

Political correctness hot button — Press here.

Zip it, honey.

We live in an age of vast technology, social networking and incredible free creative thinking. We’ve made leaps and bounds in what is socially acceptable within our culture. Entertainment media has pushed the envelope in nudity, violence and sex. The longer exposed to these moral deviants, the more society deems it acceptable. What was once considered outrageous even twenty years ago, when I was but just a wee girl, has become a part of the normal western social fabric.

I pledge alligiance to the flag. Yes I do.

Yet there is a certain hush about specific topics. Same gender relationships, race, religion and wild, kinky sex are to name a few. Now I won’t go into what is right or what is wrong. I have my opinion and then there is everyone else’s. We may not do the same hand jive. We may not see the same color horse. But our laws say we are free to express ourselves as we see fit. You got to love this country.

As writers, most of us probably don’t give this a second thought. We read what we like and we write what inspires us. At least not until we stumble upon our own unchartered territory in freedom of expression. We’re moseying along, weaving the next best seller, and suddenly we’re finding ourselves mired in a muck of political correctness. A critique partner, contest judge, maybe a beta reader suggests a scene too controversial, a bit of dialogue too divisive, or a character too steeped in bigotry.

Should we limit our creative harvest if something we pen may hurt someone’s feelings? Should we compromise a character’s foible, motivated actions and reactions, theme, or even a plot for the sake of sparing hurt or anger? Did Faulkner or King?

Watch your step. Ahhh!

I write historical tales. History, by default, is filled with atrocities. People were persecuted for their beliefs, race, economic status, ignorance, where they were born or for simply breathing their first breath. It’s sad and ugly. But out of these monstrosities arose tolerance, faith, love, greatness and lessons learned.

When I told my history professor whom I greatly admired that I wanted a degree in History, he groaned. Don’t take it to education, he had said. “You’ll never be able to teach it how it really happened. They won’t let you.”

Isn’t that a shame?

The American Civil War is taught in a terribly bias manner. People were either sympathetic to the South’s “peculiar institution” or they sided with the North’s abolitionists. The Civil War was not so much about slavery as it was about unfair economics. Yet slavery is seen as the motivator to the war. Seems there is a political correctness on equality still fueling debates today. No doubt slavery is an abomination. Unless . . .  Is it wrong to keep a hot, delicious man as a slave cooking, cleaning and performing hard labor seeing to my every whim?

Couldn't resist.

I’m well into my third WIP of my romantic sea-faring adventures where all my heroes are pirates. Historically speaking, pirates were one of the vilest derelicts of humanity. Thanks to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Walt Disney and Hollywood films featuring Errol Flynn and Johnny Depp, pirates have found a place in our hearts. That didn’t stop one industry professional from passing on my manuscript citing the politically correct responsibility of romanticizing pirates in light of the recent attacks by Somalian bandits. I respectfully disagree.

We shouldn’t omit the truth in history or ignore its injustices for fear of affronting another. Nor should we omit other sensitive more contemporary issues to avoid being politically incorrect. Because we are gifted with immense freedoms, so do we have the freedom to dodge that which may make us uncomfortable or insulted.

But hey, this is just my unsolicited hand jive.

Are you afraid of offending someone? Do you tiptoe around touchy subject matter or do you wade right through it? I love to hear from you.

Writer Inspiration: Donna Russo Morin

by Marie-Claude Bourque

Hello everyone,

Today I am hosting author Donna Russo Morin who writes historical novels for Kensignton. She has some great advice for aspiring (and published!) authors!

Make No Excuses; Take No Prisoners

Since becoming a published author, the tables have turned, and I’m often asked for advice from unpublished authors. My first tendency is to answer them as I would when one of my sons comes to me, weighed down by the challenges in their life…I want to encourage and motivate, I want to tell them anything is possible if you work hard enough and believe in yourself. All of which is true, but it’s not the whole story.

Writing (or for that matter anything in the arts) is unlike most other professions; it’s the thing we do while we’re doing something else. Some of modern day’s best sellers were doing something else while they wrote those first books…Stephen King and Dan Brown were teachers, John Grisham was a lawyer, and Mary Higgins Clark was a widow with five children who worked in radio.

And there in lies the rub. It becomes so easy to make excuses for not writing…my day job wore me out, the kids needed too much of my time, the house was a mess, the laundry, my parents, the lawn…on and on and on the list can go. And for most of us, there are often real hardships that crop up through the course of life; few are ever spared.

So my kids have gotten a bit older (20 and almost 17) and I now tell them what I’m about to tell you…get over it and work.

(I laugh a little as I write this. As the author of historical fiction, my ‘voice’ tends to be very formal and yet here I am spouting sage advice with the cutting edge of a hunting knife. But it is a chance for me to be nakedly honest, and I’m shedding my clothes with grateful abandon.)

If writing is the thing you need to do; if the longing to do it eats away at you like the lust for that one lover who haunts your dreams day and night, then get over whatever may lie in the path between you, and do the work.

While writing my first published novel, The Courtier’s Secret, my father was dying from cancer and I had just been diagnosed with Lyme disease after a two and a half year battle with undiagnosed pain and fatigue. I wrote my current release, The Secret of the Glass, while my twenty year marriage was falling apart and my condition had become a chronic auto-immune disease. And I’ve just completed the first draft of next year’s release, To Serve a King, during one of the nastiest divorces imaginable.

It was in these last few months that I actually wondered if I could write anymore. Though I have been writing since grade school, the harshness of the divorce made me hollow, perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a writer. Unlike a nine-to-five job, a writer needs their heart and soul to put word on paper, and I feared mine were lost. I had become prisoner to my own sadness and self-doubt. But I was under contract and had no time to wallow in my own dark self-pity.

On January 6 of this year, I took to my keyboard and forced myself to write. As of yesterday, the first draft of the 110,000 word novel is complete and I am thrilled with what I’ve produced. Yes, there is a bit of my angst on many of the pages, but it works. And most of all, I kicked the excuses to the curb, and released myself as prisoner.

If writing flows in your veins like your life’s blood, then let the laundry pile up, let the lawn grow, let the house fester with dust, and write. If like so many, life has thrown down gauntlets of hardship, then put them in your work, allow whatever emotion you may be suffering to add depth to your characters and their own pain and hardships. Set yourself a firm schedule of when you’re going to write—even if it’s only Friday night from 8:00 to 9:00. Give yourself that gift; silence the excuses, release the prisoner, and write.

Thank you so much for such a great post Donna! I agree with you. There will always be something! I was gping through various hardship while competing for the American Title and I forced myself to just “do it!” Everyday, willing away the negativity to focus on the task at hand. There is always something! But writers write!

For more information on Donna’s life and work, and for excerpts, please visit her website, www.donnarussomorin.com. Donna’s books are available at all major and independent bookstores and at all online outlets. And make a new friend on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/Donna.Russo.Morin?ref=profile.

Hump Day Kick Start

Song of the day: I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing by Aerosmith

Courtesy of Raphael Lazzini www.rlazzini.blogspot.com

So, folks. Will this picture inspire you? What’s this couple’s story? Where are they at? Did he dare her? Or did she place a bet with him? Maybe they are playing Strip Cricket.

I’d love to hear what this photo says to you.

Writer’s Inspiration: Barbara Monajem

Hi everyone,

I am delighted to host Dorchester debut author Barbara Monejam today. She talks about writing the “perfect” book!

Marie-Claude asked me to write something inspiring for writers. So, here goes:

In order to be a successful author, you have to write a perfect book.

 (Marie-Claude shrieks and drags me off the stage. Uh, off the blog, I mean. You couldn’t pay me to get up on a stage.

 ”You’re supposed to give writers inspiration!” she hisses. “Not desperation! Are you deaf?”

 Um, actually, yeah, a little. When it’s convenient, at least. “Unhand me!” I cry. “I’m not done!”

 So, because Marie-Claude is such a sweetheart – I’m steadfastly ignoring her muttered threats – she lets me have another try.)

Deep breath.

First, let me qualify that statement: there is no such thing as a perfect book; or, to see it from another angle, there are many, many perfect books. What keeps one person glued to her chair reading until the candles gutter makes someone else yawn or toss the book into the fire. We all have it in us to write a perfect book; we just have to learn, for each of us as writers, what perfection means. 

Second, I’m not talking about financial success, which is elusive for most of us and unreliable for almost everyone. I’m talking about producing a work of art.

Writers of genre fiction are in the entertainment business, and business and art are somewhat at odds, because the goal of business is to make money, while art is an expression of something the artist considers significant, and often the goal is to make an impact, whether esthetic, emotional, or both. Business concerns can lead us to focus too much on the craft side of writing and to minimize the art. Which is unfortunate, because when it comes right down to it, a really, really good book is primarily a work of art.

Not that we should ignore craft. On the contrary: you don’t become a Shakespeare without mastering the basics – grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and so on. Then there are the more advanced aspects of craft – plot, subplots, turning points, scenes, beats; narrative and dialogue; characters, their goals, and their arcs; and on and on. Most writers excel naturally at some aspects of writing craft and have to work hard at others. (Plot is often difficult for me, especially endings. I’m on the third try at a satisfactory ending for a book that’s more or less overdue, and I’m SO thankful I have daughters to brainstorm with and a laid-back editor with great ideas. But I digress.)

Above and beyond craft, and in spite of business (which has a tedious but understandable tendency to want to repeat what worked before), we have the other aspect – the art of writing. Voice is probably the most obvious manifestation of art. Your voice is a combination of your world view and the way you express it. (If you get a chance to take one of Barbara Samuel’s workshops on voice, do so. I only took a short workshop, but it was amazingly revealing.) The more you discover and accept who you are and what you want to say, the more your voice will ring true. 

The more craft you learn, the more you know which craft guidelines work for you and where the art aspect fits into your writing. (Jennifer Crusie’s guidelines are my favorites by far.) Because plot is difficult for me, I try (with a certain amount of resentment) to do some plotting ahead of time, even if it’s just first turning point, second turning point, and black moment. You’d think that would be easy, wouldn’t you? Nope. Not for me. I want to fly into the mist and see what happens. So I compromise by starting with a vague idea, writing a few chapters, and then forcing myself to figure out at least the skeleton of a plot before leaping into the mist again, this time (hopefully) with a flicker of fog-light to guide me.

I refuse to do this with characters. Some writers do spreadsheets where they figure out every detail about a character before they even start writing. I’m not dissing this approach – obviously it works well for some authors – but frankly, it bores me silly. My characters just walk onto the page and start doing stuff. They’d scoff at a spreadsheet. They aren’t easy to control, but they’re exciting to work with and full of surprises. I love those surprises. For me, working with what just comes – rather than with what I plan – is the art part of writing. Eventually, I have to make sure the character arcs make sense and that the secondary characters don’t muscle in and make the story theirs, but at not at first, when there’s too much risk of losing something that really pops.

I guess what I’m saying is that for each of us, some aspects of writing come on the wings of a muse. We should treasure that. We can’t afford to let business and craft get in the way as we strive to write perfect books. Obviously, perfection is relative. What’s the acme of accomplishment for you or me right now might not be so a year or five years hence, but that doesn’t matter. Work with your craft, but allow your muse, your voice and your world view free rein through your art, and you will write *your* perfect book – something you can stand back and look at, like an artist with a finished painting, and feel the joy and satisfaction of knowing you got it right.

 Thanks Barbara.

This is something I struggle with. I want so much to write a perfect book that I forget that it has to be “my” perfect book.

Please everyone, let us know what is your own definition of your perfect book for a chance to win a copy of SUNRISE IN A GARDEN OF LOVE & EVIL.

Even Grandma’s perfect sauce needs to simmer!

 

You have the recipe.

You have all the ingredients.

You have the skills to put together a brilliant, palatable concoction that is sure to delight the masses.

You blend, sift, stir, and shape until each ingredient mixes together perfectly and your senses are alive with what you’ve created.

Surely it can’t get any better…

OH-IT-CAN!

Ever watched your Grandmother work over a stew or spaghetti sauce ALL DAY LONG. Jeez, it’d be sooooo much easier just to pop open a jar of Ragu. Instant dinner!

But compare the two.

Grandma’s sauce melts your taste buds. The perfect balance of tang and spice. The perfect consistency, with just enough texture to make it fulfilling. There’s a mixture of herbs and that delight and tease the senses both in aroma and the beautiful contrast of the sauce over noodles.

*

Ragu looks thin, limp, and bland over the noodles and the taste, well, let’s just say in a pinch it’ll do, but nothing we’d choose at a restaurant were we laying out our hard-earned cash for a promise of delight.

*Guess what?*

We could all learn a lesson from Grandma’s sauce, or rather from Grandma’s knowledge, that a masterpiece does not happen by recipe alone.

It has to simmer.

In the writing world, where we’re constantly driving one another to meet goals, write everyday, try new genres, try prompts, and workshops and critique groups… well, you get the point. In that world of write, write, write, edit, edit, edit, there’s a place to take a break as well.

When?

As soon as you thump out THE END. Okay, so that might not be the exact time. But you’ll know it. Usually around the end of the first edit, as much as you love your baby, you need to take a break from it. You’ve written it, edited (in your own formula) and now it’s time to set it aside.

Don’t stop writing, certainly not. But set THAT manuscript aside and get back to writing. Time to do one of the numerous things we as writers do to keep the pen/keys moving.

While you play with new ideas, and go to conferences and meetings, while you crit someones work, or start a new WIP, whatever it is you find to fill the empty time, leave that manuscript alone. Two weeks – great. Three weeks - even better. Don’t let it simmer until it burns, just long enough to take a taste and see what spice needs to be added.

You’ll be amazed at what you created when you go back to it. Probably as much forehead slapping moments as sighs of satisfaction, but that’s the idea. Ever let a book sit in a folder/box for three months? It catches your eye, and you can’t resist taking a peek. You open it and start to read. Five, ten, thirty pages in, you’re either saying “wow, I forgot this was so good”, or “goodness what was I thinking”.

Same thing will apply to that manuscript you set aside. When you go back, you’ll be able to see it and all its issues/miracles with new eyes. Of course, you should leave the miracles you penned and clean up the stuff you knew better than to write in the first place.

Like Grandma’s sauce, your senses are on overload from the creation of the sauce.

Once it simmers, you can easily see what’s missing.

Okay, now I’m hungry!

Do you let your work simmer between edits?