I Lost the Nine

Well, I didn't really, but I wanted to combine the two titles and that's the lame one I came up with. :)

This week ends the season premieres of the shows I wanted to watch this season. Last night were Lost and The Nine, and I have to say, I'm not at all disappointed.

Lost had a quieter start than usual, with a low suspense level but LOTS happening. It appears this first six episodes before the way-too-long break will focus on the immediate aftermath of the abduction, but next week will include Sayid/Jin/Sun and not those from the hatch or beach. Which, of course, are who we are most dying to learn about.

The Nine lived up to my expectations. I'm really unhappy that Eva died, and I'm not thrilled with a couple of the relationships they're building (adulterous boyfriend with pregnant girlfriend--cliche, cliche, cliche) and I don't like Nick (the cop) with Catherine (the lawyer). But I'm dying to learn what happened in the bank. The best part of the whole episode, I think, was the skill with which they jumped us from the start to the end of the situation. All these strangers, with superficial interactions--and then, suddenly, they're completely bonded. They know each other intimately. There are extremely intense emotions that we only get hints of--just as we would if we were on the outside of that bank for 52 hours. That was well done. Remains to be seen if the long-term aftermath will be as compelling, but the flashbacks will be enough to keep me coming back.

Two Guys

Has anyone else noticed that so many current TV shows feature two hot guys?

I mean, "hot" is subjective, of course. And sometimes it's not "hot" in the physical sense, but more "appealing" or "attractive." But just take a look:

Clark and Lex, inspiring feverish slash fiction all over the Internet.





Jack and Sawyer. Or Sayid and Jin. Or Charlie and Locke. Or Desmond and Eko. Or any combination of the above, with more to come this Wednesday. This is the show for every woman!




I already talked about Supernatural. We've got the cocky, protective, no-fear sexy older brother, and the confident, reluctant-turned-driven, don't-call-me-little-brother. Both are smart and funny and cute.




These two are more in the "appealing" category, but they have excellent chemistry together, which I think is a driving factor in any TV show's success. Their friendship is so complex, yet so solid, it makes me want to be their friend.



Dichotomy--the absentminded genius professor who feels too much, and the take-charge FBI agent who won't let himself feel at all, which makes it worse.


What other shows contain two hot guys?

Edited to add:
Trish reminded me in the comments that I'd neglected to upload this pic and mention these guys--probably the hottest brother team on TV (at the least, tied with Dean and Sam):

The Most Appealing Comparisons

I was able to pick five celebrities who "match" my face. I picked the most gorgeous...I mean, most famous ones. There were several who were ugly...I mean, who I'd never heard of.

I Hate Central Pennsylvania

Thank GOD for Netflix.

I watched the first disk of Supernatural last night. It was SO good. The actors have tremendous chemistry, and the writing is smart and funny and scary without going overboard on the cheap flinches and gore.

Today my kids are at the inlaws so my husband and I can celebrate our 14th anniversary. We're going out tonight, but in the meantime I have the afternoon free so I went to Blockbuster to get disks 2 and 3 of Supernatural. You know how it feels to crash when you're really excited about something and then find out you can't have it?

Yeah. That's how I feel right now, because the Blockbuster near my house doesn't have it. Neither does the library, though that doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that the Blockbusters in Dillsburg and Camp Hill and Lemoyne and the West Coast Video and Hollywood Video don't have it, either. I finally asked, at the last place I called, why not. She said the owner doesn't feel it will rent well.

WTF??????

I hope they're happy, because every one of those stores has just guaranteed that they will never get my business again. I'll just have to learn a little patience and stick with Netflix.

All Hail Netflix.

Beach Evidence

I was at the Cape (Cape Cod, for those outside of New England) this weekend for a wedding, and we spent some time on the beach. Storms had washed hundreds of horseshoe crabs and thousands of pounds of gushy seaweed onto the shore. Most of the seaweed was attached to shells and rocks that also had dozens of cetaceans also attached. Above, on the left, is my biggest find ever on a beach--part of a conch shell covered with barnacles and all manner of other creatures. Shell upon shell upon barnacle upon shell. Very complicated, just like me.

On the right is my husband's favorite find. A very simple, dark striated rock and a piece of shell with a bit of purple at the tip. Simple, clean. Just like him.

So I made him take the picture with me, and let me show the Internet how different we are. Amazing how he can put up with me, huh?

Especially since most of those shells contained non-dead animals that are now stinking up my carport.

It's the Writing, Stupid

I'm sorry, I say that all the time, but it keeps manifesting in new ways. And I am a writer.

This time the context is new fall television. So far, I've seen Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Class, Six Degrees, and Heroes. (minor spoilers ahead)

Six Degrees
This is a well-acted and nicely shot show. But it's dully written and as such, is likely to be my first Season Pass casualty. The characters are clichéd beyond belief:

• A straightlaced public defender who goes "nuts" over a quirky, fun-loving girl
• A gambling addict trying to live honestly, who gets sucked back into whatever by his criminal brother
• A mother grieving her dead husband
• A fast-track businesswoman ready for marriage who learns her fiancé is cheating on her
• A guy who had everything and destroyed it, who's trying to get it back

I found nothing compelling about anyone's stories, except Erika Christensen's, and I don't think what's in her box is going to be enough to keep me watching. Which is a damned shame, because this is a JJ Abrams property and I still love the premise. I'll just have to get my connections fix from Lost.

In contrast, there's...

The Class
I posted on the pilot before, and have watched one additional episode since. The performances are still stiff, the production very "sound stage classic sitcom." And I can't say the writing has NO clichés, especially as regards characterization, but they do follow my acceptability clause when it comes to clichés: If you're going to go there, twist it up.

So there's the slacker who lives with his mother and longs for the girl he let go--but is smarter than he sounds and apparently good at his job in construction. There's a gay man who's happy and in a committed relationship and even a TEACHER! And another gay man who apparently doesn't know he's gay (in a totally different way than Jonas of Arrested Development). The dialogue is funny without trying too hard (okay, sometimes it tries too hard, but it still gets me to laugh). My favorite character is Richie, a guy who's miserable enough to commit suicide but keeps getting interrupted. He meets Lina, thinks maybe he has a chance to be happy, but runs her over with his car and breaks all the bones in her feet. When she wakes up in the hospital, the first thing she says is "I met the nicest guy."

So this show has a chance. It doesn't make me run to the TiVo, but I'm happy to use it to fill in the gaps.

Heroes
This show is a surprise. It's darker, moodier, than I expected it or wanted it to be. I think the indestructable cheerleader tried to commit suicide, and that's how she found out she can't be killed. Her certainty that this has ruined her life is very annoying. I mean, come on! You can't be harmed. That seems pretty damned cool to me. Then there's a desperate mom with maybe a powerful second personality...a desperate geek who can teleport...a sweet, selfless guy who can maybe fly and loves his asshole older brother (and if it turns out only the brother can fly, I'll hate the show)...a hot Indian who's father was researching these genetic anomalies...a desperate painter who's predicting disasters (why, I asked my husband, do people with predictive powers ONLY predict bad things?)...and more desperation to come, from what I can tell.

It sounds like I don't like the show, which is weird, because I did like it. It was interesting and well done all around, even if I'm having a hard time connecting with any of the characters. I'm willing to give it a lot more time to grab me than I'm willing to give Six Degrees.

And finally, the pièce de résistance:

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Funny, dramatic, unpredictable, suspenseful. This show has the best chemistry between actors of all the new ones I've seen so far. Relationships are complex. Humor is paramount but not at the expense of the drama. The filming is...geez, I'm gonna sound like a geek...compelling. Yes, the FILMING. There's one scene in the second show that follows Matt and Harriet through the set, and you feel the presence of it just like you do the spaceship Serenity when you watch Firefly. It feels more real than any of the other shows, which is ironic since it's set IN Hollywood, often considered the most UNreal place on the planet. :)

How about the new episodes of old shows?

Prison Break
Not as good as last year, but still decent. The yummy factor is still huge, and the speed with which the FBI agent has gotten on the trail is fascinating. It feels like it doesn't have much further to go, however, which is worrisome.

Eureka
Since this show started in the summer, I'm not sure how long it's going to go before its season ends. It's my first Sci-Fi Original Series. :) The gimmick still works for me. I like the "what if" element, and the characters are interesting enough to keep me watching. They seem to have dropped their overriding conspiracy, however, and that jars me whenever I see Beverly-the-shrink-who's-much-much-more.

Numb3rs
Season premiere in two parts, so far as comfortably good as it was last year. It's a quiet show, not as explosive and rock-music-driven as its bigger compatriots. It drops and picks up characters and their plot threads seemingly at whim. And I really doubt a single FBI team would cover soooo many different kinds of crimes (but I could easily be wrong). I like the people, I like the stories...a definite keeper, though again, I'm not driven to the TV to watch it.

Upcoming
I can't wait for Lost next week. I guarantee it will top my list again. Ugly Betty and 30 Rock are well reviewed, though I'm not too excited about either one. I just want something to make me laugh. The Nine starts next week after Lost, and tomorrow I get Smallville (yay!) and Supernatural (which I still have yet to watch on DVD, season 1). Twenty Good Years is my final test show, and I have a feeling I'll keep that one and drop 30 Rock and/or Ugly Betty. When Lost goes on early haitus after far too few episodes, I'll check out Daybreak, which, like Six Degrees, has a high concept that might not be borne out in the execution.

So, how do you all rate the new fall season so far?

FiOS Fantasy

I caved.

I called Verizon a few weeks ago to cancel our second line, originally installed when we moved in for Internet access and my fax machine. We've had cable Internet access for over three years now, and the one or two faxes I send and receive a year don't justify the second line, even at a cool six bucks a month.

So while I was on the phone, they very cheerily said, "we're now offering fiber optic Internet in your area!" I gave my usual response, "We're using cable," which never failed to shut them up because cable is faster than the DSL they used to try to get us to buy into.

"Oh, fiber optic is much faster!"

Hmmm. Turned out to be the same price as the cable, too, except we're also paying for basic cable we don't need (we've got DirecTV for the NFL Sunday Ticket), so it would be slightly cheaper. I told him I'd think about it.

They sent us a UPS priority mail envelope with the offer.

They sent direct mail postcards, and inserts in the phone bill.

THEN they got serious. Last week a sales rep came door to door, offering a $5 discount and 5/2 service that's $10 cheaper than our cable (plus the $9 extra for the cable we're not using). That's when I caved.

They're connecting the outside line now. Next Monday they'll come to hook up the house, replacing our copper wire and installing the box for the fiber optic telephone service and Internet.

Jim's nervous that it won't actually be faster than the cable. It's comparable, and Verizon says it will be faster because of cable's shared technology (i.e. the more people using it, the slower the speed). It's a simple upgrade to 15/2 if we don't like the 5/2, and the price will still be less.

What excites me most is that AOL is now offering free XDrive (5GB of storage)with automatic backup. It's now taking me several hours to back up 652MB of files. Since the REAL difference in speed between FiOS and cable is in the upload speed (2Mbps instead of about 724Kbps), I can't wait to see how fast it goes then.

So, any of you out there already have FiOS? Any advice, comments on the speed difference, thoughts on computer configuration? I'm having them configure Jim's computer, but I'm going to have to do mine on my own. Any tidbits are much appreciated.

Creepy

This week is going to be a tough one for me. Concentration is 95% elsewhere. I have a wedding to attend 8 hours away and tons of planning I haven't yet done. Plus a dozen everyday concerns. I apologize in advance (and after the fact, since it's been days... "Bastard's not gonna get days!"...ahem...sorry, Firefly flashback.) for not posting often enough here.

Sunday morning my husband and I woke up, and he cuddled me before we got up and told me he'd just had a horrible nightmare. The kids had died while we were away somewhere, and the gods had granted us a gift--we could see them for one more day, to say goodbye.

Horrible, horrible thing to dream about. But that's not the creepy part.

Guess what was on the cover of Parade, the magazine supplement in our Sunday newspaper?

If You Could Spend One Day With Someone Who's Gone, Who Would it Be? What Would You Do?

Yeah. Creepy.

I'm a Critic!

I got to view advance showings of two new TV shows! I feel so special.

Okay, I'm not that special. Anyone can join Entertainment Weekly's Front Row program. Usually, they just ask me to grade new movies I've seen (which haven't been many) and guess what the next cover of the magazine will be (Pirates of the Caribbean was a no-brainer. The rest, not so much.).

Tonight they asked me to view The Class and Shark, two new CBS TV shows premiering this fall. And because I like mouthing off, I'm gonna say what I think.

I was actually pleasantly surprised. I read about The Class (guy throws a third-grade reunion to surprise his fiancée) and thought it sounded really dorky. It was only partly dorky. The casting was interesting, with some familiar faces and some I never saw before. The acting was very stiff and blocky, like, "Now I walk over here, lift my hand like this, and state my next line." But it's a pilot, so it stands to reason that would relax out as the show goes on. But the thing that makes this show have a chance is...everyone say it now...the writing.

It was surprisingly funny. I BARKED with laughter. Yes, barked. Some dialogue was excellent, and there was a shocking development near the end. Not sure what will happen with it. The characters were refreshing, in that they were stereotypes that didn't fulfill their promise. The disdainful, says-what-she-means character has compassion, for example. I might TiVo this for a while and see if it holds my attention.

Shark is yet another legal drama, about a defense attorney who switches sides. I adore James Woods, but I wouldn't have watched this show without the advance video. Actually, I didn't finish it, because the feed locked up, three times, and I got sick of trying. Again, there are some refreshing elements. He's a divorced father with a good relationship with his daughter and ex-wife, a guy trying to do the right thing for them all. The process is kind of interesting. The acting was decent, though it looked like the production company got a 19-for-one Botox deal. The "team" assigned to Stark (Woods) seem like placeholders. They all seem to be the same age, like they're interns or something. But they're supposed to be full-fledged attorneys with varying levels of competence. It was interesting to see Clark Kent's psycho girlfriend playing a suck-up. Bottom line on this one was...I am so sick of legal dramas and I haven't watched one since LA Law...I recommend giving it a try, but I won't be watching it.

Next week starts the series of season premieres, so be warned, I'll probably be talking about them for a while. :)

When I Became a Writer

This is post 200 for me, a milestone of sorts, so it seems fitting that my topic today is based on Erica Orloff's post yesterday asking for the moment when you felt like a real writer.

I wrote stories as a child. I have one called "My Very First Book." I was about 5 or 6, and books were my life. (Well, books have been my life since I was 4. Ask anyone. :)

As an older child, my best friend and I constantly "made movies." We wrote short plot synopses and acted things out, "writing" them verbally as we went. I can still vividly remember what it felt like to be immersed in the worlds we created.

As a junior in high school, I got an "A"on a term paper about colonial food, from a teacher who was infamously stingy with her A's. I wrote the paper from the point of view of a tree.

In college (again, junior year!) I had two abstracts for term papers published in the Student Scholar. One was on deforestation, the other on the behavior of starlings. The one on deforestation won me $100 and the Ruth Davies Award for Excellence in Writing.

That same year I started a novel. It got erased and I waited years before trying again.

The summer between my junior and senior years, I had an article on fireflies published in the local paper, and a short piece published in a newsletter about Sarrett Nature Center, where I had an internship as a naturalist.

After graduation, I had an internship at National Geographic Society. I proofread field guides and edited 500+ geography abstracts, some written by native Mandarin speakers, for the 27th International Geographical Congress.

In 1993, I wrote 50,000 words on my first book before deciding it should be three shorter books and starting over. I took correspondence courses and attended workshops by Jennifer Crusie and Victoria Thompson. It was in the latter that I realized I could pinpoint the moment I REALLY became a writer.

I don't know exactly when it was, time-wise. But there is this very famous author who shall remain nameless. I'd been reading her books since high school, and sobbed over many of them. Somewhere along the line, I sobbed while thinking that I really didn't like the book, so why did it make me cry, anyway? A book or two after that, I stopped reading her. It was excruciating trying to, so I gave up.

In that workshop with VT, she said this particular famous author was a good storyteller, but not a very good writer.

I knew when she said that, that the moment I became a writer was the moment I recognized that and stopped reading the book.

For a lot of people, the difference between storytelling and writing is meaningless. It's why this famous author continues to sell books. It's why The Da Vinci Code was so big. It is even the secret to JK Rowling's success.

Storytelling wins over writing any day. Having both will serve you best, but storytelling will triumph more often than not.

Which scares me. Because unlike Famous Unnamed Author, I think I'm better at writing than storytelling. I'm working on it, but the writing is easier to learn. The storytelling is innate.

What about you? When was your moment?

And if you're a reader, do you notice the difference between writing and storytelling? Which do you prefer?

Doing the Circuit

I've been all over the place lately! Last weekend Cassie and the Silverettes joined Seth and the rest of Blue Silver to post on the Amber Quill Authors blog. Some very funny stuff over there!

Monday I launched The Gab Wagon with a post about the reality of romance.

This morning my analysis of romance in Pirates of the Caribbean popped up on Romancing the Reader, in addition to my frustration over choosing a hero, below.

If your weather is as dreary as mine, and your week had been as fatiguing, you're wanting to just veg for a while. Why not read blogs? :)

Difficult Choices

One thing I love about modern romance is that there is room for books that do not contain an obvious hero. The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and the Pink series by Stephanie Feagan are the most popular examples. There's no obvious choice for Stephanie Plum between Ranger and Joe, or for Pink between Ed and Steve. And that is so much fun!

There's a new element of excitement in reading romance books, or books that contain romance, without knowing who the heroine will wind up with. It's even better in books that aren't part of a series because you get the gratification of her choice by the end of the book.

But boy, does it present a conundrum to the author! You see, as a reader, I can develop a preference and wait to be satisfied or surprised by the way the story pans out, or the choice the heroine makes (sometimes by the end it's no choice, if one of the heroes becomes less than heroic, or even villainous). A skilled author will make the reader agree with the resolution, even if it wasn't where she thought the story was going.

But when you're trying to be that skilled author, and you don't know who to pick, that can be a problem.

In my book Black Widow, which is currently homeless, the heroine has three potential heroes in the story. One is a police chief, and he's solid and good and unjudgmental. But she's been engaging in criminal activity, and when she finds the guy she's looking for, she's not sure if she'll do something that would be unforgivable to him. Then there's the agent. He gets her. He, too, can help her, and he won't care what she's done. But she has hopes for a normal life, and he would not fit into that. Finally, there's the PI she engaged when her husband's plane first crashed and she woke up alive but with a stunning power and the desire to find who had tried to kill them. He's been a partner, a guide, a friend. He doesn't deserve what she does to him, unintentionally, and might not have her even if she wanted him. In the end, she does what she has to do, finds a way to heal from it, and then makes her choice. In the end, there was only one choice for her to make.

But my current book...oy! Every time I think I know which guy she's choosing, the other one comes along and changes my mind. One is her mentor and her leader. His dedication to responsibility keeps him from letting her know how he feels, but when it gets too much, the result is explosive. The other is a new guy, one with an agenda he won't reveal. She's suspicious of him and drawn to him at the same time. Both men are worthy of her. Both are noble and heroic in the super sense as well as the literary sense (though only one has powers). I'm just under 3/4 of the way through the book and I'm going insane.

I'm dying to have someone read what I have so far and tell me who she should choose, but that would be cheating. The heroine has to make the choice. That's the only way it will work.

I just wish she'd give me a hint.

Lessons From Hot Men

I know a few of you watch Prison Break. Last night's episode has been sticking in my head, because of two small but powerful scenes. I have been reading, for some reason, a ton of blog posts and industry articles about showing emotion in your books, and these two scenes are excellent examples of how to do it. Except they're also problematic in terms of visual versus narrative media.

The Backstory (for those who haven't seen the show):

Michael Scofield has broken his brother, Lincoln Burrows, out of prison. To do this, he used a lot of people and a lot of planning. One of the people who helped him was Nika, an immigrant he married in exchange for her assistance. She's fallen in love with Michael, and of course he's totally oblivious to this. Another person was Sara, the doctor in the prison, with whom he fell in love, and who is in very deep trouble for leaving the infirmary door unlocked.

The Setup:

Nika brought a car to Michael and Lincoln, and in doing so was followed by two asshole just-fired prison guards (COs) who take them hostage for money. Nika plays Bellick, the head CO, to get them free, but as she's doing it, we the viewers are unclear who she is really playing. Lincoln doesn't trust her; Michael does. Linc says anyone he trusted betrayed him, anyone he loved screwed him. But she does get them free.

The First Scene:

Bellick taunts Michael about Nika and Sara falling for him, and it earned Sara an overdose and a prison sentence, which Michael did not know. After he kicks Bellick in the face (YAY!), he calls Sara. You can hear the rawness in his voice as he whispers his regret to her, his assurance that they are real, and that he will protect her. You can see his despair in the way he's leaning against the wall, in the tilt of his head, the shadows that hide him. In the background is Nika, unseen by Michael, feeling her heart break.

The Second Scene:

When parting, Nika hugs the men goodbye and takes the gun from Lincoln's waistband. She wants to call the police and turn them in. She's gotten nothing for all she's done for Michael, she loves him, and for what? Linc says she's not going to shoot them, and pulls the gun's clip from his pocket.

See the dichotomy? One scene powerful in its intensity, pain and need laid bare. The other just as powerful in its absence of emotion: Lincoln's bitter cynicism upheld, Michael's belief in people cracked.

"Emotionally compelling" is my weakness as a writer. I want very much to make people feel the way I felt when I watched those scenes. I said "poor Linc!" as he walked away from Nika, and my husband said, "You'd love him." I said, "I love them both!" and he laughed, but it's true.

Now how can I put that on the page? I struggle with this daily in the book I'm writing. In Michael's scene, if you're in his POV, you can describe his pain, but that's telling. There are only so many ways to describe how it feels, and describing his posture is difficult without interrupting the pacing and distracting from the dialogue. If you're in Sara's POV, you can't see Michael at all. You can hear the rawness of his voice, the desperation, but you can't use light and shadow to enhance it, and you can't see his body language. The best way to show it is from Nika's POV--she can see him, hear him, and highlight his feelings by her own. But she's a very minor character and would not have POV in my book. It would be easier, but it would be cheating.

The second scene is less difficult. You pretty much have to write the action and dialogue by themselves, though if in Michael's POV, he can see that his brother's view of the world has been affirmed, and wonder if Linc is lost for good. But the eyes are the best portrayal of everything they are feeling, and you can only say "the expression on his face" so many times in a book. Preferably, zero. I don't use that phrase, but I refer to "expression" 9 times so far in 260 pages.

Anyone else struggle with this?

Remind You of Anyone?

UNDER CONTROL
Coming in October from Amber Quill Press

Who does this guy remind you of?

Hint: He (the inspiration, not the actual cover image) is a celebrity.

Second Hint: The story is about a superhero.

If something happens to me...

...just know I love you all.

I've been going with my middle schooler (6th grade) to the bus stop, partly because she lets me, partly because there are two older boys (either 8th grade or really, really big 7th graders) there, and the kids in her grade are not taking the bus. I don't know if she's uncomfortable or just likes me. I'm not asking. :)

So yesterday, we get to the bus stop, and this woman comes out of the house on the corner, points at us all, and growls, "just so you know, the police are on their way."

Oooo-kay.

The boys said she came out screaming and cursing at them for being noisy and disturbing the peace. I have never seen that, but they get down there before I do. Still, it takes us a few minutes to get down the street, and I would hear/see them if they were loud enough to justify the police. They talked to the bus driver as they got on the bus, and that afternoon, she motioned me over (I don't generally go to the stop in the afternoon, but yesterday it was late and I was worried--forgot about the high school run once a cycle). She said she talked to the police, who she passed that morning, and let them know what was going on.

This morning was completely normal, but she motioned me over again, and asked me to tell her if anything happened.

Yeah, so now I'm an informant. And it's not like I'd be doing back alley informing. I'd be walking up to the bus, in plain sight of them, and trying to tell my tale with kids hanging over the front seat. Sounds cool! Sign me up!

Not.

I don't know anything about these boys, so I can't vouch for their character or anything. I can only report what I see. And so far, they're fine. They walk to the bus stop, they walk home. And they're never noisy on the way home, either. Still, they both outweigh me (hard as that may be to believe). So I'm just sayin'. You know, just in case.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From today through Monday, the characters from the five Blue Silver novellas will be blogging at the Amber Quill Authors blog. So far, we've got excerpts, 80s music quizzes, note-passing, and IMing. Come join the fun!

The Gab Wagon

Four authors...four perspectives...one place.

We've got opinions, and we're not afraid to use them.

Join romance authors Cathy McDavid, Natalie Damschroder, Monica Burns, and Mackenzie McKade as they provoke the Internet into intelligent, respectful, yet raucous debate on everything to do with romance novels and the industry that births them.

The Gab Wagon

Why Viral Marketing Fails

Recently, I participated in an experiment by Dear Author, which was meant to investigate the viability of "viral blogging," where one person blogs something, and it expands to 100 (or 152, in this case), other blogs. The experiment was deemed a success because more people knew about the book than before. The verdict is still out if it has any impact on sales (and may never actually be in, given the small scale and the inability to track direct results of any marketing effort).

A slight bit less recently, the movie Snakes on a Plane was a huge informal (I assume) viral marketing experiment. Everyone from geeks on the Internet to Entertainment Weekly were talking about the movie. It had HUGE buzz. It was also a huge failure (in case you ignore the link, it had a modest $33 million production budget and made $31 million domestically). It didn't matter that everyone was talking about it, because most didn't go see it.

A year ago, Serenity suffered a similar fate. A short-lived TV show, Firefly, was beloved by its fans and treated badly by its network so that there weren't enough of them. One of the fans was a producer for Universal, who gave the creator, Joss Whedon, the ability to make the movie Serenity out of his original idea for Firefly. Marketing was mostly done on the Internet, catering to the existing fan base. Which was great, except I believe it had the effect of making people say, "I never saw Firefly so there's no point in seeing the movie." A fabulous, smart, funny, suspenseful, intriguing movie didn't get the audience it deserved.

On the other side, we have My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The Da Vinci Code. Harry Potter. What makes those successes when the others were failures? What's the difference between word-of-mouth and viral marketing?

I think the difference is timing and intent.

Viral marketing generally happens BEFORE the product is available, and is done with motivation. Usually, it's started to try to make something sell bigger, and perpetuated on a large scale because there's a reward for those who perpetuate it.

Word of mouth happens AFTER the product is out there, and is done because people really liked it. The product itself is the selling point, and it sells because, in some way, it's done well.

I'm no marketing expert, and I have no education, training, or background in the topic. I'm just saying what I see.

And I have this book that was just released...

Fall TV Squeeeee!

TV hasn't played a huge role in my life. Saturday morning cartoons, Must-See TV with The Cosby Show, and Superbowls are significant more for the people I watched them with and the times of my life they highlighted than for the shows themselves. There was always something else to do--read books, study, play Chase, work...and then AOL chat rooms and Internet surfing and kids came along.

Since my marriage began, there have always been a few shows my husband and I watched together. Usually we taped them and watched on Friday night. Our schedule was never dictated by the idiot box. Which, in fact, became an apt name around the turn of the century. John Doe was pretty good. Firefly was awesome but a victim of network idiocy. Friends was a habit. I took pride in telling people if I'd asked show A or X that I never watched TV. I even skipped over the Must Watch pages in Entertainment Weekly.

Ah, but then came Lord of the Rings.

I know that was a book, but it was also a pretty f-in fantastic trilogy of movies, and it was my first full-blown obsession. I was following everyone involved--not just the cast, but even the effects people and costumers!--into their follow-up projects. Yes, now you know where I'm going. Dominic Monaghan, one of my five favorite hobbits, was going to be on this interesting new show about a plane crash. I thought I'd check it out. And of course, it was FAN. TASTIC.

Alias was on after Lost, and I'd had a mild interest in that show since I write heroines like Sydney Bristow. So I started watching that, too, with season 1 simultaneously on DVD.

And oooh, how wicked that DVD/Netflix thing is. Watching several episodes of a show in a row is addictive, so I've done a few other shows on DVD since then. Shows I didn't get on TV (Smallville, Entourage) and shows I refused to allow to carve into my writing time (Arrested Development, How I Married Your Mother). I managed to balance the TV thing with the writing thing last year, doing the writing first, then staying up too late to do the TV. But now, I write during the day. My evenings are my own.

I've struggled recently--and by recently, I mean my entire adult life and much of my childhood--with a lesson I was taught by example from the women in my family and from society: A woman, especially a mother, should not do something for herself unless it also benefits others.

I say struggle because if I ever hear a woman say she can't do something because her family won't allow it or because it's just for pleasure, I will fiercely defend her right to it. But I have trouble doing it myself. The guilt causes constant justification. Case in point: The only reason it's okay for me to take the time to exercise every morning is because being fat and out of shape is a bad example for my kids and harms my sex life. I can only justify reading for pleasure instead of doing chores if the others in the household are also reading or watching TV or whatever. It's a disease.

So this TV thing is difficult for me. My husband doesn't watch with me anymore. He plays City of Heroes almost every single night. The one night he doesn't, he's playing City of Villains. But he makes fun of me when I turn on the TV. And I get annoyed because that prods the guilt over which I'm always laying sawdust, in an attempt to absorb it and sweep it out forever.

Anyway. Since that first 2004 season of Lost, TV has gotten better. Comedy is still trying to find new footing, but drama and dramedy are flourishing, with good writing (justification! I'm studying the craft!) and good acting. I have created...*deep breath*...I admit it, I have created a spreadsheet of the shows I want to record in the fall season. Some of them will drop off pretty quickly, I'm sure. I won't watch something just to watch it. It has to really GRAB me. But here's my list:

Red shows are ones I already watch from previous seasons.
Green shows are new ones.
Underlined are shows I'm skeptical about, but have them on the list for a specific reason.

Prison Break
I started watching this because Dominic Purcell was so hot and smart on John Doe, Wentworth Miller is also hot and smart, and the show's premise was intriguing. The show turned out to be, as well. I never dreamed I'd root so hard for such horrible criminals. It's less good this season, but still watchable.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
I like all the cast members, and reports have been saying it's going to be a really good show. Aaron Sorkin did West Wing, which I never watched but would have enjoyed.

Six Degrees
One of my favorite things about Lost is the backstories, and how all the people on the island seem to be connected in both tenuous and solid ways. This show uses that premise, but I have no idea how well it will do it. It's a JJ Abrams show, though, and he rarely missteps.

Numb3rs
I don't like cop dramas. But this show had MATH. And Rob Morrow. And though it stretches my suspension of disbelief that the same FBI unit would investigate such a wide range of crimes, the writing, acting, and suspense come together to keep me interested. It's a good end-of-the-week show. Now if Don would only get a girl...

Heroes
I'm writing a book on superheroes. I love X-Men. That's enough to get me to watch the pilot. Varying reports on this show, though, so we'll see how it goes.

Ugly Betty
This wasn't on my list at the beginning, but it's getting enough good press that I'm gonna try the first show. There really aren't enough good comedies out there, and the loss of Arrested Development made me feel bad for not watching it.

Smallville
Tom Welling and Allison Mack rock. So does the portrayal of Clark, which stays true enough to the core of the character that I don't mind all the messing with canon. In fact, I LOVE the messing with canon. It's fun! In previous seasons, Lex Luthor was the most complex, intriguing character on the show. He's less so now that he's more evil, but I have one request: Now that he's Zod, can he please kill off Lana Lang? Or at least scare her back to Paris and off the show? Pretty pretty please?

Supernatural
A friend's report and Jensen Ackles, who was delish on Smallville, are causing me to give this one a try.

The Nine
This had echoes of Lost, as well, though as time goes on I'm less intrigued by the story idea. I loved Tim Daly in Eyes, and was really mad that show didn't get a chance, so we'll see how this one goes.

Lost
I'll be with this one until the end. Which could be this season, actually. All the stupid whiners last season--"why do we have to many reeeee-peats?"--have caused the network to premiere the show late (Oct. 4), go for about 8 weeks, then go on a three-month hiatus and run it to May, non-stop. I hate stupid whiners. They're stupid because Lost had NO MORE reruns than any other show. And I don't want ANOTHER three-month gap just when I'm getting into it again. But we'll see how THIS goes, too. Maybe it will work, and I'll be the stupid whiner. :)

Twenty Good Years
I saw a preview. Jonathan Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor are both about as funny as you can get. If they get good material, this could be one of the rare comedies that makes it.

30 Rock
I want Tina Fey to make it. There are plenty of successful women in television, but still not nearly enough. And for some reason, the spotlight is on her big time. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't watch this.

Daybreak
This is one of those shows that has an intriguing premise that will probably fail in the execution, like Blind Justice. But reports so far are good, and Taye Diggs is hot. Djimon Hounsou is hotter, but he doesn't have a TV show right now. In fact, Djimon Hounsou is doing far too little. Two movies this year is barely enough to whet the appetite.

So there's my list. What are you looking forward to this season?

No Melting Pot?

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Mine was okay. I spent all day cleaning yesterday (gah) and we were supposed to go to Hersheypark on Friday, a weekday, but it rained horribly so we went Sunday, the middle day of a holiday weekend.

Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE crowds? And lines? And inconsiderate people? Yeah. Fun.

But it's worth it for the end of the day, when we're leaving the park. Why?

Fresh. Popped. Kettle corn. Sold directly out of the cast-iron kettle. God, I love that stuff.

I didn't get any. Because we'd miscommunicated and run out of cash, and they won't take credit cards.

Gah.

~~~

TIME Magazine recently did an interview with Pat Buchanan, who is apparently violently opposed to immigration. He said:

The country I grew up in was culturally united, even if it was racially divided. We spoke the same language, had the same faith, laughed at the same comedians. We were one nationality. We're ceasing to be that when you have hundreds of thousands of people who want to retain their own culture, their own language, their own loyalty.

You all know the one subgenre of romance I don't write is historical, and it was never my interest. But what I do remember from my AP American History class tells me Pat Buchanan is completely delusional.

Maybe his tiny corner of the U.S. in the early 1950's was culturally united, but they laughed at the same comedians because they had one TV show a day. They were force-fed their so-called "national culture," and I bet there are millions of people his age who would dispute his sunny memories.

Shall we also discuss the fact that aside from Native Americans, we are all descended from immigrants? And there's even debate about whether their ancestors evolved here or migrated from elsewhere.

I may be completely wrong about this. I wasn't alive when he was growing up, never mind during the history of this country's growth, and shouldn't mouth off about stuff I didn't experience myself. But it just seems very easy to pick and choose the memories that support your beliefs and ignore everything else.

He also said:

What do we have in common that makes us fellow Americans?

Freedom, Pat. Freedom to embrace our OWN culture, or blend cultures of all our ancestors, or create a new culture. Freedom to let everyone else do the same, without judgment or insult or infringement. That's the commonality I see. It would be nice if certain people would stop trying to force their versions of the "right" culture on anyone else and just let us be what is celebrated in that great old Schoolhouse Rock song...

...The Great American Melting Pot

Wanna Be A Silverette?

The original members of the (fictional) 80s band Blue Silver fan club have
opened up membership in the Silverettes to ANYONE who wants to join!

Go here for details on how!

No idea what I'm talking about?

Start at http://www.bluesilverpax.com for the whole story.

Not Quite How I Imagined It...

Thanks to everyone who participated in my little giveaway!

For anyone who didn't post 'cause they didn't know, it's Elsa to Indie about his father in The Last Crusade.

I wrote everyone's names on slips and drew...Liz!

Congratulations, Liz. Please e-mail me at nujii@aol.com and let me know what format you want Lost Our Forever in, or if you'd rather have a different story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back when I had a day job, I imagined my day. I figured I'd have all kinds of time, and went giddy with the idea of being able to exercise, write for several hours, keep the house clean(ish), not be rushing around every night to get to evening activities, and get a full eight hours of sleep because I don't have to stay up late writing.

Yeah. Not happening.

Some of it is. I'm writing, which is good, though I've allowed frustratingly necessary things like phone calls to make appointments, trips to the vet and the dentist, bill-paying, and laundry to cut in, which is bad.

I've walked every day this week, which is good. No accompanying bad with it.

The other two things are exactly the same as always. Last night we had dance and algebra homework. I'm sufficiently concerned about my new middle-schooler's hugely increased responsibilities that I want her to have plenty of time to work, and yesterday she didn't. Hey, sealants are important, too. But then I found that I'd been foolish to think her feet wouldn't grow A WHOLE FREAKIN' SIZE over the summer, so she had to hurry to eat so we could go buy THREE FREAKIN' PAIRS of dance shoes (tap, jazz, ballet) before class.

Tonight should be better, except for the vet appointment to get my dog's ear checked. She's got a growth that looks like a cauliflower wart. I betcha anything that's gonna require surgery and hundreds of dollars in bills. Sigh.

The sleep thing isn't working out, either. I think I need to cut back on my blog reading, because it's keeping me up really late every night now. TV is starting soon, and I have to make some choices. :)

Six thirty never looks good to me, so I'm really happy the kids are off on Friday. No writing for me (Hersheypark is on the agenda), but we don't have to get up early, either.

Thank goodness.

So, how are your schedules working out?

Giddy As a Schoolboy

This morning, while I was putting towels away between trips to the bus stop, I was thinking about this blog post. I had something to post about that made me giddy. And then, for two hours, I could not remember what it was.

It was not towels.

Then, as I was doing this post, for some reason I remembered that I wanted to make note to record Twenty Good Years when it premieres, and in the course of making that note, I remembered why I'm giddy.

Yay!

So now you have to read a full post because I have a CONTEST!

First, my giddiness. Many years ago, when Smallville came out, I was mildly interested but we had no local WB affiliate. When Supernatural came out, I could not find WB anywhere. It turned out that even though our cable had added a Philadelphia affiliate, we no longer had cable, we had DirecTV, and Philadelphia is not a "local" channel. So still no WB.

I'm all caught up on Smallville now, but was concerned about the whole CW thing. I really want to watch the new season, but wasn't sure I'd be able. But I looked at CW's web site, and they are using the old UPN affiliate, which IS local, and I DO get it.

Tom Welling and Jensen Ackles, here I come!

Okay, now the contest.

The word "giddy" always makes me think of the phrase that's the title of this post, which makes me remember the delivery in the particular movie that it comes from, which makes me think of...an actor I will not name or I'll give it all away.

Post in the comments what the movie is that I'm thinking of, and I'll give away a copy of Lost Our Forever, my Blue Silver story. If I get at least 10 entries, I'll give away TWO copies. Twenty entries, I'll give three. And if you've already bought it, I'll give you a different download of your choice.

If I get less than five entries, no one gets anything. Yes, I'm mean. But you gotta work to get something for free around here!

Day One--Anti-Dream

I woke up around 3:00 this morning with a pounding headache. Not quite a migraine, but enough to make me nauseous. I have an old shoulder injury that pinches a nerve and causes this particular kind of headache, and regular painkillers don't help. So I didn't bode well for my first day alone in the house, first real day as a full-time writer.

Which is probably why I then dreamed that I was back at my old day job. They'd asked me to work a couple of days, and I slipped right back into it and kept on going, then realized that it was today, the kids' first day of school, and I was supposed to be writing! I woke up during the part of the dream where I was torn between being true to myself and following through on my new/old commitment. I was telling my boss I'd work until Wednesday, but then mentally reneging. I was supposed to be writing!!!

Speaking of which...I'd better go do that, then.

Things I Won't Miss When School Starts Next Week

Just a side note: The worst (non-emergency) thing to wake up to is the sound of your dog vomiting her dinner all over your bedroom. Hello, last day of summer vacation. :(

Okay, things I won't miss. Many of these are universal:

1. The Bickering
My kids really aren't that bad with this, and I try to just let it go. But then the older gets all pissy at the younger, who is very crafty about baiting her sister, and I lose it. I used to bicker with my brother, and wondered why it bothered my mother so much, since it wasn't about her.

Now I understand.

So, I won't miss them saying "I can't wait until school starts so I can be rid of you!" to each other.

2. "I'm Bored."
Don't think I need to elaborate on that.

3. Making Meals
They've been getting their own breakfasts, poor things. But I'm tired of making lunches and dinners every day. Though they've been doing a lot of that, too. Doesn't matter, though, I still hate it. The elementary and middle school lunch menus are so much better than what I had as a kid, and fairly balanced (they offer salad bar and fresh fruit at the middle school!) so I don't worry when they buy. And I think the $1.40 or $1.75 they spend isn't much more than what a pack lunch would add up to.

They offer breakfast at school, too, with which I am less enamored. I make them eat fruit most mornings if they want the donut or muffin at school.

Which just leaves dinners. I am a decent but uninspired cook. They suffer from my ennui.

4. Constant Errands
Especially in the last two or three weeks before school starts, we're running all over taking care of things. And we're never good enough or have the right timing. We come back, and realize we forgot something. Or we get a letter the day after we went shopping, with one more thing we need.

5. Interruptions
For the most part, the kids have been good. They allow me my writing time. But if I'm trying to do anything else that doesn't involve them, it's constant "Mommy" this and "Can we" that and even just talking about stuff that I'd love to hear, but not at the moment they want to say it.

6. Bad parenting
Too much time that the kids aren't directly occupied means too much giving in to watching TV. Meal-preparation fatigue leads to junk food lunches and ice cream dinners. Not a lot! But once is too much. And I'm not a playmate kind of a mom, so every day that I don't play with them means more guilt. I'll be very happy to shed that.

The structure of the school year makes everything easier. No TV during the school week. More physical activity. Compartmentalization between work, family, and household. Defined activities at pre-scheduled times, which means unscheduled, undefined time is more welcome for everyone, and easier for the kids to fill. I can't wait.

Balance, here I come.

Things I'll Miss When School Starts Next Week

I find myself in a weird position, halfway between two factions who often stare at each other across a chasm of guilt: stay-at-home moms and working moms.

When my kids were born, they came to work with me until they were nine months old. Then I took breaks to go to the day care center to nurse them twice a day, then once a day, until they pushed away from me to go play with the kids. I was incredibly lucky to have a job that allowed me that flexibility, and also allowed me to take time off when needed for school events and the like. I did as much as I could for them within the confines of my need to work, both personally and financially. And I was aware of a huge portion of society that looked at me as a poor mother, who wasn't at home for her kids' every need.

Now, for the first time in eighteen years, I had a summer "off." (I was writing all summer, but in a very flexible fashion--and not exactly getting up at six thirty to do it.) The guilt has been much stronger this summer than ever before, because I'm the primary spender now, with income only coming in four times a year, and that negligible when compared to my day job income. I was home for my kids for the first time in their lives, and they were loving it, yet I feel just as guilty as I did when I was working, guilt that sharpened every time I had to say no to spending money on something.

The thing is, it doesn't matter what other people think is the right way--it only matters what your family needs. And I know I did/am doing the right thing, in both cases.

So next week, on Monday, I become a hybrid. I'll be home for my kids when they get off the bus in the afternoon, but after they leave in the morning, I'll be Full-Time Writer.

So what will I miss?

1. Sleeping in.
I'm most definitely, no matter what I do, a night owl. I thought I'd go to bed earlier since I don't have to work at night anymore. HA! It takes more effort than I'm willing to expend to change your biorhythms that much.

2. The kids helping me clean.
For most of the summer, we cleaned bedrooms on Monday, living and dining rooms Tuesday, kitchen on Thursday, and the family room on Friday. They did most of the work (I did the bathrooms, too, though). They empty the dishwasher every day, and I load it. It's a good system that has kept things manageable and maintained my sanity. It remains to be seen how much they'll have time to do in the afternoon, between homework and soccer/dance/cello practice, etc.

3. Library runs
We've been going to the library several days a week, because inevitably, something one of the kids put on hold comes in the day after we were there. And every time we go, they put more things on hold.

4. The pool
I got a lot of writing done at the pool this summer, 'cause there are no distractions there. No bills to pay, cat pee to try to find (still failing at that), air conditioning filters to change, newspapers to gather, letters to write, magazines to read, etc. Also, during the hottest days, it was nice to jump in and cool off. Five minutes in the water lasts a few hours out. I also bought disposable contacts in June, so I have been swimming underwater for the first time in years.

5. No pressure
Specifically, I don't feel pressure to make every minute quality time with my kids. I'm with them all the time, so if they're watching TV or building an obstacle course and I'm refusing to play with them because I need to write, it's okay.

I feel like there should be more things I'll miss, but to be honest...there are more things I WON'T miss. I'll list those tomorrow.

How I Got Here—And Here I Am

Last fall, things started to look uncertain in my day job. We lost a couple of big clients due to market circumstances rather than our own service quality, which is something you can’t combat. One of our services halted completely when the person providing it retired in December. I voiced concerns to my husband, who wanted me to get a new job immediately. I wasn’t willing to go into a worse unknown when I still had a decent job, working with people I loved, with the flexibility and the four weeks of vacation I’d earned over the years.

I had always had a goal of writing full time. I wanted to be earning enough money to make it happen, but that horizon kept moving away. I wanted to be writing full time when my youngest started first grade, and missed that goal with little hope of rescheduling. But I mentioned that it seemed like everything else was lining up to that end—my oldest was heading for middle school with no easy day care options, yet she’s not old enough that I want her alone every day for as much time as she would be.

So my wonderful, darling, fabulous, supportive, thoughtful, sacrificing husband crunched the numbers, we made some adjustments, and with six months of planning and preparation, on June 8, 2006, my dream came true.

I became a full-time writer.

I got my last paycheck from my employer 11 years to the day after I got my first one. Gotta love the symmetry of that.

So here we are. Finishing up my kids’ first summer of their lives without a day care/summer camp situation. Facing the prospect of getting them up at 6:30 when they’re used to sleeping until 8:00. And me, having six hours of uninterrupted time to write and work on writing activities.

One of my mother’s favorite sayings was “leap, and the net shall appear.” Right after, “Never start a fight, but if they hit you first, hit ‘em back harder.” I’ve leapt. I’m currently without agent, without day-job income, and with no one to blame but myself if I fail.

Except I’m not going to. I may not have an agent at the moment, but I’m courting one. The book currently pending her re-read post revision was the “over-the-top” Bombshell wanna-be, revised to single title with increased romance and a greater role for the hero, with more depth.

Black Widow was the Bombshell wanna-be the editor hated. It will be a hard sell. I was once told it was “too category,” except that it has a married heroine who’s been married four times and widowed twice who is searching for the person who put her current husband into a coma and gave her the power to conduct electricity. It also has three potential heroes, and the one she sleeps with isn’t the one she winds up with at the end of the book. There’s a prostitution ring and a very unusual confrontation situation with the villain. So there are a lot of reasons someone might not like it. But I love this book. I love the heroine and the way her story evolved. So it’s currently under consideration with several publishers.

The last rejected Bombshell I kind of always wrote with single title in mind. I have a partial of that ready to go, and over 100 pages written.

My active project is about superheroes with everyday problems in addition to their big nemesis. And I have several ideas on the back burner, including a goddess story and a married couple who is faced with living together for the first time in fifteen years. So come on, career. I’m ready for you.

I’ve leapt, and I’m not even looking for the net.

How I Got Here—The Bombshells

I clicked really well with that editor, as far as writing goes. I wrote and submitted Cat’s Claw. The heroine was most definitely kick-ass. The romance wasn’t foremost in the story. I thought I’d nailed it.

But no cigar. The romance was still too strong for Bombshell, but the conflict too external for Intimate Moments. Please try again.

While I’d been waiting for her response on that book, my mother died. She’d battled cancer 15 years before and won, but this time, she didn’t even know she had it until too late. Diagnosed December 9, she died February 6, my brother’s birthday. He flew up from Texas, I drove from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, and we spent four days clearing out her apartment. At night, in the hotel, I wrote the first three chapters of what would be my last potential submission to Superromance. It featured a heroine who was dealing with mother issues and the guy who got away. It had problems. My agent was fantastic at helping me fix those, but it was the last remnant of my early career. It wasn’t the type of book I wanted to write anymore.

After I got the rejection on Cat’s Claw, I decided to complete another book I’d started before I met with the editor again at the National conference in July. I wrote the draft in eight weeks and revised it after the conference. My agent submitted the full to her, and the wait began again.

In the meantime, the Luna editor had liked Soul of the Dragon,, but it didn’t quite fit Luna. She wanted to hold onto it for other possibilities (that didn’t come to pass in the end). My agent suggested I try a more traditional fantasy, since that editor, too, had liked my writing. I did, and the editor was encouraging, but ultimately passed. That was the end of that, but I still had Bombshell.

And Bombshell was IT. I knew it with every fiber of my being. This was where I belonged.

Then the editor left, because her own writing career was taking off.

The replacement editor was less enthusiastic about my stuff. She rejected the next book, Behind the Scenes as too comic-bookish, too over-the-top. So I wrote another one, and met with HER at the national conference, and submitted it. She was encouraging in manner, if not excited about my submission, so I had no reason to think I was going backwards.

Then she asked me to call her to discuss the book. I knew she wasn’t going to offer a contract, but I didn’t expect her to hate everything about it. I asked what she LIKED, and she said, “well, the widow thing was kind of cool, but actually…” Nope. She hated that, too. I ran my next idea by her, and she said, “Great, but instead of this, maybe that, and make this into that…” I’ve since learned she did that a LOT, and she’s also left to pursue her own writing career. I’m sure she’ll be much happier. In the meantime, that proposal I wrote based on her ideas was rejected with a form letter.

I tried one more time, with a book *I* wanted to write. Another form letter. And now, as of this past week and effective January 2007, Bombshell is no more.

I guess I don’t belong quite there.

Tomorrow…How I Got Here—And Here I Am

Sick of Me Yet?

I'm all over the Internet this week!

For fun stuff, check out Trish Milburn's blog every day. Today I'm a guest blogger about Firefly! Different guests will blog about other Joss Whedon brilliance as the week goes on.

Elsewhere, my latest release, the anthology Indulgence, is the featured book of the week at Romance Readers. New content every day. Check it out!

How I Got Here—The Big Books

When my first child was about 3, we were watching a manga-style cartoon with a red dragon in it. I asked her idly if she wanted to meet a dragon someday. She said, "Yes. A red one." Very matter of factly. It sparked the first line of a book, a book I knew would be my first Big Book, Soul of the Dragon. I had the title and first line for two years. Scribbled on a piece of notepaper from one of those giant cubes they give out at business conventions, and sitting in my in bin, calling to me.

Alexa Ranger knew that one day she would meet a dragon. A gold one.

I wasn't ready to write that Big Book. I hadn't developed my skill enough. But one day, I had a brain surge and wrote 16 pages of the opening. Because my office had been flooded, I wrote crammed into a corner between empty stacked bookshelves and piles and piles of papers. That memory allows me the rare ability to pinpoint when it was: early June of 2000.

I didn't write anything more on it for at least a year.

Finally, I was ready. I worked on Soul of the Dragon steadily. There was no sagging middle. There was no period of “GAAAHHHH, I hate this book!” I LOVED it. Everything about it, from the ex-spy heroine to the dragon hero to the mysterious stranger and the magic and the villain. I entered it in the Golden Heart, and came >< this close to finaling. I started looking for an agent, then a publisher, then an agent again, and signed with one. I wrote the second book in the series, Soulflight, and that was the same incredible experience. I started writing the third book, certain my destiny was assured, because this was what I was supposed to be doing. And paranormal romances were becoming popular again. I was so incredibly happy.

For a while.

SOTD didn’t sell. I’m not done trying. That two-year gap between the first sixteen pages and the rest of the book have stymied me. At first, the book was finaling in contests and garnering great praise. But the part that wasn’t praise was similar from judge to judge. So I revised and revised and then rewrote completely. Each time I entered the GH, I got worse scores. Then I won a critique of my first chapter from an agent, and she had great things to say, that actually reinforced the original opening (that she didn’t read). So I’ve started another revision, but that’s on hold.

In November 2002, a rumor started going around that Silhouette was going to start a line of books about kick-ass heroines. I called and talked to the acquiring editor. Yes, it was true. Yes, I could submit my full manuscript about an ex-spy, and no, a dragon would not be an automatic rejection.

My agent submitted the book (not sure if she sent a partial or full) the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The following Monday, the editor called her. The book had too much romance for the new line, but she’d passed it on to another editor for consideration for Luna, a fantasy line that was also in the works. Could I write a new book specifically for Bombshell?

I was so sure that was it. I was going to hit. My career would stop crawling along and start climbing.

But it’s rare that things go that smoothly in the publishing industry.

Tomorrow…How I Got Here—The Bombshells

Experiment

I am participating in a blogging experiment hosted at dearauthor.com. To enter the contest, put up this blurb, image, and trackback and you are entered to win the following prize package.

• $200 Amazon gift certificate


• Signed copy of Slave to Sensation


• New Zealand goodies chosen by Singh


• ARC of Christine Feehan's October 31 release: Conspiracy Game

You can read about the experiment here and you can download the code that you need to participate here.

SLAVE TO SENSATION

Nalini Singh

Berkley / September 2006

Welcome to a future where emotion is a crime and powers of the mind clash brutally against those of the heart.

Sascha Duncan is one of the Psy, a psychic race that has cut off its emotions in an effort to prevent murderous insanity. Those who feel are punished by having their brains wiped clean, their personalities and memories destroyed.

Lucas Hunter is a Changeling, a shapeshifter who craves sensation, lives for touch. When their separate worlds collide in the serial murders of Changeling women, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities…or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation.

Excerpt

How I Got Here—Writing Life

Part of the reason my first book took so long to complete was because I can only do one intensely creative thing at a time: Write a book, or build a baby. Once my first was born, I wrote like gangbusters, writing while she was in a swing or on the floor next to me in the late hours, during which my husband was working as a public accountant during tax season. I even devised a highly effective method of typing while nursing. She rested on my forearms while I had my fingers on the keyboard. That worked both at my day job, where she was with me until nine months old, and in the evening. I wrote when she napped and when she ate and when she was just happy to hang around, which wasn’t that often. I took her to my first meeting of Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers, and like I said before, she inspired my first published book. There’s a lot of her in Montana.

Side note: I was completely shocked when my friend Marilyn said, “I love the baby’s name. Montana Winter.” Shocked and horrified. I named the baby Montana because my daughter was Dakota. The heroine was Nikki Winter, the name I’d used in that ill-fated first chapter. I NEVER EVER put the two together. What a cheesy, stupid name! Marilyn was sweet to say she liked it.

With my second child, the creativity issue hit around the fifth month. I knew I was going to go into labor the day I wrote 8 pages, after four months of not writing anything. The footage of Columbine was on the TV in the labor room. I have no idea why I didn't ask to have it changed or turned off. The sights and sounds remain vivid to me, until the moment she was placed on my chest, surprising me by looking very different from her sister, yet far too much the same (someday I'll post same-age photos—we can't tell who's who without looking at the rug to see where the picture was taken).

Lots of things have derailed my writing, temporarily, over the years. My day job turned into a day-into-night job, and I had no time to write. I had horrible evening sickness with the second pregnancy, so Jim took care of the toddler in the evenings after I picked her up from day care and I napped on the couch, trying not to be sick. Moving, twice, meant packing (and unpacking) instead of writing.

For a long time, rejection and despair made writing difficult. I credit my husband’s support and my membership in CPRW with keeping me from quitting. Counting now, as Immediate Past President, and subtracting six months around the time #2 was born, I was on CPRW’s board in some capacity for nine and a half years. That commitment kept me going. I couldn’t let them down by reneging on promises I’d made, and if I was a member of the chapter and by requirement, RWA, I might as well keep writing. CPRW is also known as the Hobnail Boot Squad, inspired by Ginny Aiken, a former member who threatened to use her hobnail boots on us if we didn’t stop whining and produce.

Incidentally, my need to be in a position of control (the charitable would call it leadership) and my propensity for saying “sure!” when asked to volunteer at chapter, regional, and national levels also kept me from writing at times. Educating myself by immersing myself in the World of Romance Writing (aka the Internet) has always been a time-sucker. There have been plenty of periods when I had to struggle to find balance.

Promotion, too, gets in the way. It’s easy to spend money for someone to create an ad, and then to spend money to place that ad, but money is hard to come by at this level of publication. Time is a better promotional currency. But time spent promoting is time not spent writing. Again, balance is difficult. When my first book was being prepared for publication, I spent six months working on promotion and marketing and not writing a single thing.

Over the last few years, as my kids got older and went to bed without waking again, my husband discovered City of Heroes and no longer had a need for my company, and the day job required only day work, I found balance. I took a year to avoid all volunteer opportunities. I wrote consistently, and brought my speed to excellent levels, which maximized my time. I developed procedures for making sure attention was paid to everything in my life, without anything getting neglected for too long. And it was working very well for a long time.

But it wasn’t enough.

Tomorrow…How I Got Here—The Big Books

How I Got Here—Short Fiction

When I sold to Echelon Press, they offered a short story program to keep their authors in the reader’s eye between novels. I sold several short stories to them that I’d written early in my writing, while I exercised my plotting and characterization and exorcised ideas that couldn’t sustain full novels. I also wrote a few new short pieces, with forays into fantasy and futuristic romance. When erotic romance started taking off, I tried my hand at that, too. Pirate of the Stars remained on bestseller lists two years after publication.

Short fiction is how I sold to Amber Quill, too, and my oldest daughter gets credit for the story that did it. My friend Megan Hart encouraged me to enter the erotic romance contest, and I had no ideas until my daughter said one day, “I wish money grew on trees.” The story of a colonized planet whose economic system was dependent upon leaves from one particular tree flew from my head to my fingers and became The TreeKeeper. Since then, I’ve published or contracted for eight additional stories with Amber Quill.

I’ve been very happy with my small press experience. Both publishers put out high quality products, and I’ve learned a great deal. But my goals are higher, farther, faster.

Which is WHY I “got here.”

Tomorrow: How I Got Here—Writing Life

We Interrupt This Boring Story...

Go to Google.

Type "failure."

Then either get really, really mad, or laugh your ass off.

How I Got Here—The “Category” Books

I’d known since that ill-fated first chapter that I wanted to write, but I also knew I hated longhand. So I waited until we bought our first computer in 1992. It had 100 MB of memory and Windows 3.1.

I'll wait while you finish laughing.

I took a fiction-writing class via Writer's Digest, bought lots of how-to books, joined Pennwriters, went to some workshops, and started my first book. I wrote 50,000 pages before I decided it would be better off as three category books instead of a single title.

The first completed book took me three years. Why? Because I liked King's Quest better. Jim and I spent our bonding years hunched over the keyboard, puzzling out the clues and watching the animation that was cutting edge then.

Papa Potential
It boggles my mind how little writing I did back then, Before Babies. This is the book that started as a Big Book, then got modified into a Silhouette Special Edition style story. It was about a kindergarten teacher who wanted to have a baby and enlisted her best friend’s brother to do it. I queried SSE. They requested the full. I had my first taste of excitement and, not long after, my first rejection. I’m not sure if I submitted it anywhere else. But I did start book two.

Hunter’s Song
Inspired by my experiences nursing my daughter, I wrote about a woman who was a single mother on purpose (this time by anonymous sperm donor), and the man who convinced her that being a family did not compromise her independence. Rejected by SSE, Superromance, a few larger publishers and several smaller, it was published in 2000 by Avid Press.

Against the Rules and Second Chance at Forever
I was in a dry spell for a while. Then I went with the women I worked with and my mother to a male dance revue, which sparked ALL manner of ideas. :) ATR and SCAF are about the reasons straight men might choose to strip for a living. ATR is a bit on the lighter side. SCAF deals with despair and loss and clawing your way back to a happy life. These were both rejected by Superromance. ATR was also rejected by Five Star. Both were published by Echelon Press, in 2001 and 2003.

Kira’s Best Friend, Sophie’s Playboy, and Brianna’s Navy SEAL
These are my best regular long contemporaries, about a trio of sisters and the men who are meant for them. They contain full casts of characters and complex stories with twists on frequent stereotypes. KBF and SP were both declined by Superromance, and though they politely asked to see anything else I wanted to submit, I knew I was done. I sold the trilogy to Amber Quill Press. BNS was a difficult book to write, both because so much time had passed and because I’d moved on, to other types of stories. But I’m proud of these, thrilled with their covers, and pleased they found a home.

Note: Brianna's Navy SEAL is in production and will be released soon.

Tomorrow…How I Got Here—Short Fiction

How I Got Here—The College Years

It never occurred to me to seek a degree in a field related to books. I am a compulsive reader, but I don't read just anything unless there's nothing else. I resented every book I was assigned to read in class, so English lit was definitely out. I took a physical geography class my freshman year to meet a distribution requirement. It was the only class I never fell asleep in, so I declared that my major. Another geography major and fraternity brother of my then-boyfriend-now-husband encouraged me to double major in environmental studies, which was more commercial, so I did. I also graduated a semester early (slap for shameless bragging).

Somewhere along the way, I started to get interested in writing. I was getting high accolades for my term papers. Two of them were selected for inclusion in the Student Scholar, for permanent shelving in the university library, and one of those won a writing award (first money for writing!). I also had some articles published in newletters and the newspaper while I worked a summer job at a nature center.

I'm not sure exactly when it was; possibly the end of my junior or beginning of my senior year. I wrote part of a first chapter of a romance (because though I read widely in high school and college, romance was very top of my list, and because I already knew I preferred fiction, despite my success in non-fiction). Back then, we had a computer lab in the library. I accidentally left my disk in a drive. Lots of us did that. Protocol was to leave them in the aide's desk until the loser remembered it. But when I went back, the Bigger Loser aide had used my disk to try to recover something for someone else, and erased it.

Yes, my romance novel was gone. As was my award-winning term paper, the other published paper, and three-plus years of college work.

No, I did not throttle her. I did learn a very valuable lesson, however.

Buy your own computer.

I didn't write fiction again until after I was married and we bought our first computer.

The early graduation was a really good thing, because it enabled me to apply for and obtain an internship at National Geographic Society. I worked the 27th International Geographical Congress, proofreading field guides and editing geographical abstracts, many of which were poorly translated or written by those for whom English was a late-learned language. The Chinese ones were the most fun.

This was the first time I was serious about working with words for money. I applied for a job with the industry journal Explorer, but it was given to someone else. Someone no more qualified than I except that he had a penis. But we won't go any further into my one and only encounter with sexism in the workplace. :)

Tomorrow...How I Got Here—The Books

How I Got Here—Before the Writing

My mother taught me to read when I was four.

I was reading Little House on the Prairie books before I was seven. I remember being called to dinner and resisting, sobbing because Jack got left behind when they crossed the river and wanting to get to the part where he reappeared while they were gathered around the fire. It didn't matter that I had read the book several times and knew what happened. I sobbed my little heart out.

That's good writing.

I say I wrote "My Very First Book" at age five, but it might have been six or early seven. I still have it somewhere. White paper and a piece of purple oaktag-like cover, folded in half and stapled, containing a story about Jamie Summers, the bionic woman. Hey, we all start out copying. Just ask Megan Hart. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that story was a romance.

I was a voracious reader growing up. Avoiding playing outside...not a lot of friends...reading under the covers late at night...begged to be dropped at the library instead of dragged along grocery shopping...scoped out my cousin's bookshelf instead of playing Chase...rushed to finish "homework" in the few minutes they gave us at the end of class so I could read for a few minutes...that was all me.

I recall a frank discussion with my mother when she found me reading Jude Deveraux's Velvet books. She was concerned about the portrayal of rape in romances. You can tell she was a bit behind on her own reading. This was mid-eighties. The only book I recall reading such a thing in was Whitney, My Love, (I think) which I bought because everyone raved about it. I was in my early 20s at the time, and I hated it. Returned it to get my money back. ONLY time I've ever done that. Which just illustrates how subjective this whole business is.

Tomorrow...How I Got Here—The College Years

More Photos

Thank you to Sherry Davis, who reminded me that the picture of her and Mary Karlik I was so sure I had, I did.

It's a cell phone photo, so it looks like newsprint. But otherwise it's a great shot:
















Here's one of Sherry and Julie Mensch, previously mentioned. I stole this from Sherry's blog, but she offered it to me, so I think it's okay:













And one more of Carrie Weaver and Lisa Mondello, both of whom were in my other post but I just like this shot.


The advantage of camera phones is the fading affect eliminates the shininess of my regular camera. :)

Breast Cancer Three-Day

Three and a half years ago, my mother died of metastatic breast cancer, after being free of it for 15 years. I'm hardly unique--can any of us say our lives have not been touched by this disease? More than anything else, it affects all of us to some degree.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is trying to do something about it:

About the 3-Day

Thousands of women and men will unite in cities across the country and walk 60 miles over the course of three days. It's a weekend of hope, as we honor lives lost, celebrate survivors, promote breast cancer research, and help bring breast cancer care to those who so desperately need it.

Net proceeds from the Breast Cancer 3-Days benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to fund breast cancer research and community outreach, as well as the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, to provide an endowment for breast cancer initiatives.

Team Parallel Heat, headed by Deidre Knight and members of The Knight Agency, are participating in the 3-day in Atlanta. Alas, I am unable to get down there to walk, but they are recruiting members (flights can be discounted if traveling for this purpose!) and seeking pledges. Head straight from here to www.the3day.org/Atlanta06/parallelheat to sign up or sign on.

It wasn't too long ago that a diagnosis of breast cancer was a death sentence. It's due to people like you and me, donating what we can, when we can, that research has brought us far enough to make it serious but treatable. Let's do our part to make sure it can be CURED.

www.the3day.org/Atlanta06/parallelheat

Best Part of National

There are multiple purposes for National: Education, networking, business, entertainment/fun. For me, those are important. But THESE are the best part of being there:





Cathy, Natalie, Mackenzie, Monica. Just you wait. This isn't going to be the last of us. :)













Some people are workaholics.














Great friends for life. I've known Cathy (left) and Lisa (right) for about 10 years now, and bonded quickly with Carrie in New York three years ago, as we are wont to do when sharing a room. :)










Cathy again (sheesh, she's EVERYWHERE) and Libby, whom I see at every conference and adore, but whom I never talk to in between. No idea why that is.













Me and my new friend Kelly. Part B of the best part of National is making new friends.







I'm kicking myself because I met some other great people, too (waves to Sherry and Mary) and connected with some close friends I talk to every day (Jody) and not very much anymore (Julie) but didn't get any pictures of!!! I'm such a dork. Carry the stupid thing around everywhere I go and not use it. Sheesh.

The Atlanta Marriott Marquis

I'm annoyed at how blurry these are, because I was trying hard not to let them be. I guess the camera didn't know what to focus on.





This is the lobby and conference levels as viewed from the atrium level. I think.












Here's the same view, from the 47th floor. Isn't it awesome???














This was up from three, I think.















And here's a shot from 47 of the elevator on the rise. Most of the elevators were glass, which I loved and a lot of people tried to pretend wasn't true. :)