Myth or Reality?

Today at work we had a book club meeting at lunch and discussed The Scorpio Races, which is loosely based on Celtic mythology about water horses that drag people to their deaths (and it's an AMAZING book, so go read it, NOW, if you haven't already). So naturally we started talking about myths in general, and how similar some are all across the world.

For instance, vampires and werewolves are prevalent in myths and folklore all around the world. My young colleague from Trinidad was saying that vampires are still very much feared today, and that as a teen if she came home after dark her grandmother would make her walk through the front door backwards as this is supposedly something a vampire would not be able to do. They also sprinkle salt all around their houses, which is said to ward them off.

How is it that so many different cultures spread all over the world have these common myths? Is it word of mouth spreading from travelers? Do they all stem from some primal basic human fear, thus the sameness of them? Or did there used to be some truth to these myths before the world became so modern that all the magic faded?

I find it all pretty fascinating, especially since I love vamp and werewolf tales. So, what's your take? Is there some truth in the old tales? Or is it all explained in some rational way?

Passions

Last weekend I got to go to an international equestrian event that is held in my city each year. It's pretty exciting, because my city is not that big, so it's cool we have it here. I've loved horses since I was born practically, and been riding since I was nine (though I'm so busy I haven't done much riding in recent years). Anyways, here are some pics I took.

Sometimes I get to combine my passions and sneak equine things into my books (or in the case of my last book, have the entire thing involve horses). What are your other passions besides writing? Do you ever get to combine them?

Hope you're having an awesome week :)

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Recently I decided to pick up the first book in a very popular series that I've heard rave reviews about for years. I was super excited to check it out and had honestly felt remiss for not doing so sooner. So, I started reading it. It was good. I got even more excited. I get to about page 60 in the book, when the main character (a woman), meets the secondary main character (a man). The man comes to the woman's house in the middle of the night (they have never met before), enters her house without her permission, and then she becomes instantly aroused, throws herself at him physically, and they get busy in her living room.

Wait, what??

Yeah, I hope that's what you're saying. Because what rational, intelligent woman would instantly desire to sleep with a complete stranger who has broken into her house? It doesn't matter how hot this man is. I would find a weapon and bash that a**hole's head in. No stranger better come into my house at any time of day without permission and expect a welcome reception, let alone sex.

What is up with this? How is this okay? I am very disturbed by the extreme sexism here, not to mention this book is written by a woman. I've of course heard of this tired plot in bad romance novels, but this is a popular fantasy series. Or, perhaps it's technically paranormal romance, but I thought those were a little more intelligent and were supposed to have strong females leads. Now, don't get me wrong, I love some romance and bedroom action in my books. But not if it makes women look completely moronic. Not to mention, a slow build to the booty scenes is so much more satisfying anyways. If they hook up right away, where's the tension? Oh, that's right, it fell off with that chic's panties.

So, pipe up here - where do you fall on the romance spectrum? Are you okay with home invasion stranger sex (and if so, why?)? Or are you like me and prefer a liberal dash of intelligence and non-degradation of women with your nooky? I want to hear from the guys, too!

Okay, I'm off the soapbox now.... hope you're having a good weekend :)

Writing ADD

So lately I've been bouncing all over with my writing projects, which is extremely unlike me. After Pitch Wars and querying for Everdream, I started working on a rewrite of my first book, Countless, while I waited on agent responses. I did successfully change the book from third to first person, and cut about 15,000 words, and then worked on my plot significantly, and then decided on a completely different climax to the book. And I sat down to start working on the plot changes and just... totally wasn't feeling it. It needs a ton of work, and the hugeness of it looming over me was anti-motivating.

Instead, I decided to start working on the outline of a shiny new idea I had a couple weeks ago about an awesome steampunk middle grade. And I got about half way through the plot points and then just couldn't figure out where I wanted to go with it. So I procrastinated a few days and stared at my Pinterest inspiration board for the new book, and procrastinated some more, and then last night I had a really weird dream about drinking tea and souls, and today I wrote a 2,451 word short story about that.

Sooo.... I've decided that it's okay, for short spans of time, to jump around a little. I am extremely steadfast and meet my writing goals most of the time. It's fine to just let myself drift in the creative winds of my writerly soul for a bit right now. So that's what I'm doing.

What are you up to these days? Are you working on one project only, or dabbling in a few? I hope you're having fun either way :)

In Which I Don't Talk About Agents (Very Much)

So, ever since Pitch Wars, during which I got two full requests and a partial request for Everdream, I've been in this weird torturous limbo place. I mean, I am totally beyond stoked that real live agents have my book and are excited to read it. Holy shiz! But they've all told me it could take up to 10 weeks to read, which is normal stuff, I'm just a bit stir crazy. I've distracted myself a lot with undergoing a massive, epic rewrite of Countless, my first book, which has helped a lot. And this weekend I got to go down to the beach for a day, which was amazing.

Yeah, I know it's February. I do live in Florida though, so winter is substantially less evil than in other parts of the country. So, I headed down Saturday morning with my sister and some of her friends. Hubs stayed home with the kids. I arrived at about 3:30 in the afternoon and we kicked things off with some red wine out on the bluff over the beach. A couple hours after that the giggles set in, along with the dirty jokes and tears-pouring-down-my-face laughter. It reminded me of how infrequently I laugh that hard. A bit later we built a bonfire and drank more wine by the water. It got pretty cold with all the wind along the shoreline, and my sister said I looked like a middle eastern princess with a scarf wrapped around my head to keep warm. After a few hours I got too cold and went up to the house and read for a bit. Then we had some Prosecco I brought, which was extremely tasty, and I crawled into bed just before 1 AM. A few minutes later my sister woke me up because the moon had just risen over the bay. I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and waddled back down to the sand. There, just above the trees, was a perfect half harvest moon. It hung in the sky like a huge slice of orange and cast a wide beam of tangerine light over the water. I have never seen such a perfect half moon so big and seemingly close, and especially not when it's the bright orange of a harvest moon. It was incredible.

So, for almost 24 hours, I didn't think about agents one single time. I just soaked in the salt air and ate beachy snack food and drank entirely too much vino and had a gorgeous time. Sometimes you just need that total break from thinking about your real life. Of course, now that I'm back, I hope, hope, hope that I'll have good news in the near future to think about :)

How about you? What has monopolized your thoughts of late?

Fun Stuff Happening Around the Web

Hi, writer friends! There are a couple super fun things happening this week that I wanted to point out. If it strikes your fancy, hop on over!

First, head to Twitter and pitch to lots of agents tomorrow, 1/25 during the Pitch Wars Twitter party! The official Pitch Wars bloghop was on 1/23 and 1/24, but everyone is invited to the pitch party on Twitter. Use the hashtag #pitmad. Also, I got 3 agent requests so far for Everdream! So stoked! For more about Pitch Wars in general, head to Brenda Drake's blog.

Second, Jamie Ayre's debut novel 18 Things came out yesterday! Here's the Amazon link.

Here's a little about it:

 

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Olga Gay Worontzoff thinks her biggest problems are an awful name and not attending prom with Conner, her best friend and secret crush since kindergarten.

Then, Conner is killed in a freak boating accident and Olga feels responsible for his death.

When she downs an entire bottle of pills to deal with the emotional pain, her parents force her into counseling. There, her therapist writes a prescription in the form of a life list titled “18 Things”: eighteen quests to complete the year of her eighteenth birthday.

But there’s more to Olga’s quests than meets the eye and when her therapist reveals a terrifying secret, her world is shaken.

There’s only one thing she knows for certain: her choices won’t just affect her future, but all eternity.

 

Hope to see you at the pitch party, and give Jamie some love if you can! Hope everyone has a rockin' week. 

 

 



In Which I Make Some Editing Resolutions

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions, I make goals, and you guys already saw that. This is different. I need to define my editing process a bit and you guys can be my witnesses. I'm great at writing a first draft. I can usually get it banged out in 3 to 4 months, and that's with a full time job and kids. Editing, however, not so much. I dislike it a lot more, first of all. And I've developed a very thorough, organized processed for the many rounds of edits needed on a good book, which is great. But I realized after writing Everdream that I tend to languish in this stage.

So, this is what I propose from now on, after my 2-4 week first draft breather so I can have a fresh perspective:

• 2 days for the first read-through with basic notes - this is where I identify big problems and create a to-do list - no actual editing done
• 3 weeks for the first big work-through of edits (with mini timelines established within based off to-do list)
• 2 days for a second read-through - more notes/to-do list
• 2 weeks for the second work-through of edits (with mini timelines established within based off to-do list)
• 1 week for line edits
• 1 week for backwards read-through and edit (sentence by sentence, not word for word)
• 2 days for third read-through and polish

If I can stick to this schedule, I'm looking at about 8 weeks of editing. Now, I know this could vary wildly depending on the book. But I'm going to use this as a timeframe for my deadlines. I'm such a deadline driven gal :)

What about you guys? Do you have a particular editing timetable? Do you like deadlines?