Sabbatical

I'm taking a sabbatical from writing. Not quitting. Just dealing with a few things that need my full attention.

I will be back when I can.

Polymer Clay Lessons

Ali was nice enough to spend most of her Saturday teaching Nicole and me how to work with polymer clay. We set up two manual pasta machines and lined the table with wax paper. Then we grabbed some clay and started working.

First you condition the clay. That means either kneading it by hand until it's the right consistency or running it through the pasta machine. Usually a little of both. And we blended colors. And rolled beads. And talked. And ate. And baked the beads. And played with Sherman. It was a great time.

What was funny was how some of the lessons of working with polymer relate to life in general and writing in particular. I want to use them in the Bennie books. The one I'll share here is:

It's always important to chill a while.

Nicole made some beautiful dark beads with spots of royal blue. Some had flecks of silver leaf. She'll have a knock-out set when she's done. Ali made all kinds of wonderful things while we worked. She even gifted me with some pinkish marbled beads that go with the green and pink beads I made. I also made green and fuschia for a different set.

Of course, I don't have pictures yet. But I will when they're put together. Promise.

Thanks to Ali and Nicole for on of the best Saturdays I've had in a while.

Not So Cozy

I just finished reading Stalking The Angel by Robert Crais. Great book. Even more, great second book. There appears to be no Sophomore Slump here. The pacing, characters, dialogue, plot and humor of The Monkey's Raincoat did not fade.

At the Pirate meeting on Monday, I talked about the book. That I really enjoyed it. And I talked about finding a series of cozies called the Home Improvement Can Be Murder series. That's right. A series of mysteries centered around a woman who is renovating a Victorian house. I have to admit being taken aback. But Shane said, "Write yours better." Then Jenny said, "Yours isn't really cozy anyway. And you can go less cozy."

Good points. My protagonist is a man who does this as a job. It is a cozy, by broad definition. But it certainly isn't what most people think of when you say cozy. Surprise, right? That someone with my personality isn't writing about a wooly-headed old woman who busybodies her way into solving a murder?

I think that this revelation will help with my own renovations of my book. That's the great thing about the Pirates.

Goal-less

It is hard for me to start a month without any goals. But I think that's what I'm going to have to do. Just let things keep simmering. Keep reading. Only write if I can't stand not writing. And do a little more research.

And complete the UGWP critiques. Almost forgot about those.

Ali is hosting a polymer class later in the month which should be a lot of fun. Other then that, I have no plans.

Scary.

Disturbing Trends

I realize two books do not a trend make. However, something in both of them points to what could be the tip of a nasty iceberg.

In both books the female protagonist owns a small business. So far, so good. They are both experiencing marital difficulties. Nothing original, but not bad as far as it goes. The respective husbands are suspects in the murders the books are about. Saw that coming. But both women are total ditzes. And there are lines like "That would take analysis and emotional stability. Not something for a female to attempt." Spoken by the protagonists! Excuse me?

In the first book, the woman is trying her hand at a small home crafty type business because her children are grown and her husband is burying himself at work. She forgets to deliver an order--twice. She doesn't feel like putting together the second order, but does not call the client to cancel. The whole focus is doing right by her man--who has been alternately ignoring her and treating her like crap for months. The business feels like an author afterthought. "Oh, crafty mysteries are big, let's put a craft theme in it." The protagonist doesn't even figure out the crime, she stumbles into the perp. Great.

The second book is by an author whose other series I like. That one has a strong female lead who is a great business woman and still manages to be a good friend, attractive, etc. The one I'm currently reading is about a woman with a good business but no business sense. She never knows what she has in stock. She doesn't know who she is renting her shop from (hubby set it all up and even though he left her months before, she hasn't bothered to find any of this out). At least she feels like the wronged woman, but the author has set up the description of the husband and his 'dropping out' in such a way that it's obvious our heroine was the one not paying attention or being supportive. That's the most interesting part of the story, truth be told.

But it's the poor dumb helpless female thing that's worrying. I watched the popularity of Sex And The City with confusion. Four supposedly strong, intelligent, successful woman and all they can find to talk with each other about are shoes and men? Gray's Anatomy is populated with whiny, relationship obsessed residents who should not have the time. And too many shows to mention show successful women as harpies.

I thought we'd gotten past all this, but apparently not. All the more reason to celebrate authors who write realistic, well-rounded characters-male or female.

Genres & Subgenres & Sub-subgenres

A lot of writers have trouble categorizing their work. Is it dark fantasy? Urban fantasy? Cyber-punk? I thought I had it easy with mysteries. Either you have a professional detective or not. But then I started reading more. I knew about the craft subgenre. That's where Bennie will fit eventually. But within the craft group there are the knitting mysteries, needlework (other than knitting) mysteries, scrapbooking, etc. By the time I finish Bennie, there may be dozens of jewelry series, but I hope not.

The cat mysteries are everywhere. I have asked the Pirates to shoot me if a talking cat ever shows up in one of my books.

Last week, I happened to pick up the first book in Charlaine Harris' vampire mysteries, Dead Until Dark. Geoff recommended them years ago, but I just got around to it during my reading break. It's a very good read. Sexy, smart, funny and scary with an interesting mystery at the center. Nice. I have since picked up the next two books. I mentioned to Fleur that I read a vampire cozy mystery. She named an author (I can't remember the name right now) who was not Charlaine Harris. I started searching online.

We have a paranormal mystery subgenre. Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity, a ghost who solves crimes, would fit there. But within that subgenre, there are werewolf mysteries and vampire mysteries and who knows what else.

What accounts for these clumps of books with similar storylines? Is it just something that's in the air? Does a writer see that one-legged female hairdressers seem to be hot and jump on the bandwagon?

Here's the big question: If you read a werewolf mystery and like it, will you look for other author's who write about werewolves?

A Rest or A Block

I have been finding it harder and harder to get motivated to write this summer. I'm certainly not ready yet to rewrite HM, and D&D needs much more research before I can continue. I think I may need to take a break. Read a lot. Maybe look at taking a class or two.

Being part of a critique group may help, too. Just listening to the comments last month gave me a lot to think about. I'm sure when I've read the submissions first, they'll make even more sense. I'm just glad it's not a group like the CWC. Deb's been in a tizzy all day, and I'm not ready to deal with that kind of pressure.

I'll continue to post. Mostly about what I'm reading. And about the Pirates, I'm sure.

July Goals

Last week got away from me. There were the end of month/beginning of month duties I normally have plus extra coverage for time off here and there. We all love our extra long holiday weekends, but there is a price to pay for them.

I didn't do well on my goals last month. That is probably an understatement. I did manage to write 20 more pages of D&D and do a lot of research. I also joined the new Sunday group (UGWP) so that I can get better at giving and receiving critiques. It's a bit more work for me, but I think it will be worth it. I also cleaned out the blue room so I can finally organize it as a writing room. That should help, too. There's something about having a signal that says, "It's time to work now."

So, since I didn't make my wimpy goals last month, I'm setting harder ones this month. It seems to work for Jenny, Ali and Deb when they do it.

For July:

--Outline changes for HM. There are a lot and I need to know how I'm going to weave them into what is already there.
--Revise first 3 chapters of HM. My chapters are fairly short so this isn't that much of a stretch.
--Write 25 pages of D&D rough. I am dropping my expectations here. My focus seems to be turning back to HM right now.
--Complete UGWP critiques. I have read all the submissions. I just need to write up summaries for all of them.
--Research 6 yoga positions. I want to be more specific about the research I am doing.
--Research 2 massage techniques. Ditto.

That should keep me busy.

It Has To Be Said

It's a good thing the boss is out of town for a wedding. The last two days all Deb has done is listen to her new GBS album. Every time I go past her office, I can hear it playing. And she's staring off into space with a goofy expression on her face.

And we all know that next week she's going to be complaining that she didn't have any time to write this month. Two days! I mean, they are a good band, but come on.

I don't get some people.

Summer Reading

I have been buying more mysteries over the past few weeks. Even though I haven't read all of the ones I bought last year. Now I have been reading more recently. And some of the ones I bought were overdue. Like Beth's book, some by Maggie Sefton and the first Diane Mott Davidson--all Colorado mystery authors.

But it bothered me that I was spending more money on books, even though many were from Hooked on Books, the used book store near work. Then it hit me.

Summer reading. That's what I did every summer as a kid. I wasn't particularly athletic. Living in the country meant that often there weren't many kids around to play with. So I read. A lot. Now that it's June, my brain kicks into reading overdrive. So it's okay, even understandable, that I would make sure I have a lot of reading on hand.

Is there a particular time of year when you tend to read more or less? Why do you think that is? And when you do get in reading "overdrive", what do you like to read?

Not Too Bad

I received the last of my verbal critiques on Sunday. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. That's not to say that all the feedback was positive. Far from it. But with each negative comment came a good suggestion on how to fix it. There were differences of opinion. Pretty typical.

My next step is to read through the written comments on the pages. I may have time this weekend. Then I'll digest everything, decide what I'm going to change and what to leave alone then start revisions next month.

Thank you to Ali, Deb, Fleur, Jenny, John, Mary and Nicole for their time and comments. You do rock.

Goals

I didn't make my goal of 50 pages for D&D this month. I made it to 29, which isn't bad. I think part of the reason may be the nervous anticipation of my first critique tonight. I know it's probably silly, but I almost feel like I need to wait until I get feedback on HM before proceeding with D&D. Maybe not silly since they are the same genre. If what I did in HM doesn't work for it as a cozy mystery, I am probably doing the same things wrong in D&D.

Goals for June:

--Get feedback on HM
--Write 50 pages of D&D once I process HM feedback
--Leave HM alone for the month
--Continue research

Not Slacking

I haven't updated in a while because there hasn't been much to report on my progress with D&D. There are new pages, but not a lot. A scene here or there in between tasks at work. Not like with the beginning of HM when I generated page after page. Of course, that was during NaNoWriMo. Maybe I should pretend it's November. Might help.

Using Ali's idea of listing what I have accomplished, I see that I haven't exactly been idle. Research seems to be at the top of the list right now. That's not a bad thing. A lot of different things happen at spas that I don't know much about. I need to find out the way those things work so I don't sound like an idiot when I write about them. I have even more research to do about migrant workers for the jewelry series.

The blue bedroom seems to have collected a lot of junk since last year. Saturday was a clearing out day. One step closer to being a lilac writing room. I moved the Spooky's food dish out to the kitchen, but she doesn't like the relocation. I'm giving her a week to get used to it. If she doesn't, I will have to find a Plan B.

Even though it feels like May is just about over, I have almost two weeks to accomplish more. I may get to my page count goal yet.

Bead Weaving

Friday evening was Mary's jewelry party. Imagine two rooms filled with beautiful beaded jewelry. Women wandered back and forth, picking up one thing then another. Five, six, seven times through and I know I missed things that I would have loved. As it was I purchased two necklace/earring sets and two necklaces.

The second part of the evening was the bead weaving lesson. I learned a few things I have been doing wrong. A couple pieces can stay as they are, but one or two will be changed. I picked a moderately complicated piece to use as a template. Mary's clear instructions and drawn pattern helped a lot. Although I was slow, it did make it through with only minor problems. I'll post a picture when I get a chance to take one. And I feel like I can better figure out how to duplicate other pieces I liked.

I now have the fever to do more beading this month. I may have to make time to do that.

Almost May

I'm looking at how I've done vis-a-vis my goals. I may have 15 pages of D&D when I get it typed up if I'm lucky. Not even close to meeting that one. Research, however, has been great.

I guess I need to use Ali's method of looking at what I've accomplished and not just what I haven't. Look for a new section in May with a list of tasks completed. And, I hope, part of it will be more pages.

A Little Help From My Friends

Mary's hosting a beading party in a week or so. She'll be teaching a basic bead weaving technique. Should be a lot of fun. Not only will I get a new set of jewelry, but I'll be learning something I can use in the Bennie books. And spending time with friends. Triple threat.

Ali's also offered to do a polymer bead class. That should be lots of fun, too. I love the stuff she does with polymer.

Now if we can just convince Nicole to share what she's learning in metalworking.

Out Of Order

I wrote a scene out of order. The world didn't explode. Yet.

Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up some research books for the D&D series. It's amazing to me how many different topics I need to read about for one setting. Deb says it's a "groovy" setting. I like it, but might have chosen differently had I known. No, that's not true. I do really like the setting.

The characters are becoming a lot more real to me as I go. I guess that's the nature of the game since the same thing happened with HM. It's one of the things that's so much fun about writing for me. Like making new friends.

One Scene at a Time

Yesterday I picked up a magazine on yoga and another on herbal and holistic medicine. I haven't been able to find one on aromatherapy that is published in the US. There are some from Australian and UK, but they are expensive. Maybe I'll see if an inexpensive book on the subject. Must be one.

D&D is moving slowly, but moving. I don't seem to be able to write more than one scene at a time. What's strange is that I find myself wanting to write them out of order. I haven't so far, but I might get a little crazy and try it. I think it would make for a choppy book that needs much more revision. But it's going to need revision anyway.

Have any of you tried writing out of order? Does it help or hinder?

April Fool?

Deb's enthusiasm for April seems to be catching. Now that I have a working outline for D&D, I think I will be able to write fifty pages easily. I have been prewriting for a few days. That means I can utilize shorter periods of free time to jot a paragraph or two. It's not ideal, but it's what I have right now.

Having completed The Artist's Way, I have become aware of certain "nasty" words. One of which is "should". I used it three times in the original version of the first paragraph. See if you can figure out where.

I subscribed to a couple spa magazines last week. They are really interesting. One of the most beautiful spas I've come across is here in Colorado. Tax deductible, right? I would have to have the money first, but it just might be worth it.

The jewelry book has been eluding me. It seems that once I found Bennie, the rest of it went away. I tried to sign up for a metalworking class, but it was full. Maybe that's part of it. It's not a totally bad thing. One at a time is good. And maybe if I do run into trouble with D&D, that's when Bennie will start telling me her story.

Preparation

Yesterday I figured out why I was having trouble getting beyond the first few pages of D&D. Lack of preparation. I did my spa research. (And in a future post I'll talk about just how much I'd like to visit a few.) I did my character sketches for the main characters. I know who gets murdered and whodunnit. So what was missing?

My scene outline. I know a lot of writers just wing it. Or they can plot out mentally and be okay working from that. I have to have an outline in writing. It's not detailed to begin with, but I have to know where my "turns" are, as Jenny calls them. And it's nice to have a list of scenes I know I'll need. So yesterday I wrote the outline and made a list of scenes. I know I'll be adding as I go, but just having the basics down let me relax enough to prewrite two scenes.

Are there certain things you need to do before you can begin? Or can you freestyle all the way through?