Southern Writing

Starving artist in New Orleans

Okay, I'm not exactly starving. Not yet, anyways.

I've started writing again. In fact, right now I'm writing in a local coffee shop, in between chickory cafe au laits. Here, a small cafe au lait costs $2.07, with tax, and includes a free refill. 

I'm also surrounded by art by local artisans, who don't have to pay to have their works displayed on the walls. I want to buy it all, especially the hand woven rugs that cost $90 each. I hope I get a real teaching job or sell a novel soon (although my first responsibility is a new car). 

I've started substitute teaching, and it's given me a bunch of inspiration for stories. I'd forgotten how repressive and depressing the school system is. So far, all of my classes have called me "the nice lady." I've watched teaching aids tell kids to shut up and throw things at the students. I've worked with aids who refused to tell kids in an alternative school what to do, because they were afraid of them. And, what can I do? I'm just a substitute who's going to be gone in a day. 

Here's what my current schedule normally looks like on the weekdays:

Wake up at 6 a.m.

Fight sleep.

Drive to work. 

Start the work morning around 7 a.m. (but it can be as late as 8:30).

Work with the kids with an hour break and half hour lunch.

Drive home around 2:30 (but it can be as late as 3:30).

Maybe scarf down something quick, like a peanut butter sandwich.

Drive to school for classes and get out around 8:30 (but it can be as late as 10 p.m.).

Write a little or watch TV online or read until it's time to go to bed, which always come to soon.

But, did I mention I'm writing? I'm also going to print out my novel at the college and start editing it, for serious.

Also, anyone who thinks teaching is easy has never had to deal with two emotionally disturbed students heckling each other until one becomes hysterical and vomits on the floor.

My W.I.P. progress for August

I finished The Accidental Eternal a few weeks ago, and I've halted sending out queries for the time being. I found a critique group and now have a critique partner who is pretty much line editing the whole thing. Once this process wraps up, I'll be sending out queries once more.

I started a second novel. This is a Jewish chick lit novel about a young woman who leaves her husband and tries to come to terms with her decision to convert to Judaism for marriage and her new status in the world. Will she begin to work towards long dismissed goals and dreams or forge a new path? Not even I know, but I have an idea of what will happen. She may even find love!

Tune in to The Lost Girls

I applied to be a book reviewer for The Lost Girls, and it's looking like that's a go. I'm waiting for them to send me books, and it looks like I might be writing a few travel posts about Florida and the like for them, too. So, stay tuned for more updates!

And, just because it seems like a good time to do so, here's a breakdown of who I'm currently writing for:

• St. Petersburg Times
• Tampa Bay Arts Network
• The New Gay
• The New Jew
• Chronicles of Healthy(er) Living
• TravelVideoStore

I'm also sending out queries and proposals about my first novel, The Accidental Eternal, to agents and am working on my second. Fun times.

Tinkering around

I'm playing around with my blog design today. I've already cleaned up some categories and added an "About Me" page.

On the writing front, I've submitted some queries to agents. I'm stressing about my synopsis.

I've put my sequel to the side for now, and I'm writing a novel of a different genre. It's giving me a well needed fantasy break, and if my first novel doesn't sell by the time I finish it, I'll be able to query two markets at the same time. It's a little bit harder to write the new novel, though, because it's based in reality. I don't have as much room to play.

If anyone out there has recommendations for urban fantasy agents (I just read the genre is dying in an industry blog- fun!) let me know. I need all the help I can get.

Cue fanfare

I finished my novel. Now, I'm working on preparing the manuscript for submission to agents and going through the whole thing to tweak it here and there with suggestions from my beta readers.

This is new to me, so the people who read this blog now have the chance to follow an aspiring author as she goes through the process of finding an agent and publishing a novel. I'm thinking that next week or the week after I'm going to submit the novel to five agents and see what happens. I'm thinking the worst case scenario is no one wants it and eventually I take it to a writing group or workshop for critiques.

I've already started on the second novel in the series, and I'm working on a submission to an anthology. More about that later. Right now, I'm going to celebrate with my coffee.

Almost there...

Last night, I got to both the 100 page and 40,000 word mark in my novel.

The first three chapters are almost ready to be sent out, and I have about six chapters edited and formatted. 11 chapters are already past the first draft phase.

I'm at the point where I'm actually wrapping up the novel and weaving some plot threads together. I've got a few pages of comments and feedback to go through, and I'm guessing I'll be sending queries out some time in August.

This is the first time I've gotten so far in the process of writing a novel, and I'm going all the way this time, Baby!!

It's so exciting.

Rethinking the writing process

For every piece of fiction I've written before now, this has been my process:

1. Write a story in a couple hundred word chunks at a time.
2. Get discouraged after a few thousand words because of how "horrible" everything I write is.
3. Hit a block where it's about impossible for me to write anything, because it all looks so bad in my own eyes.
4. Finish the story.
5. Rewrite and decide it's not that bad.
6. Send out for publication.

Most stories get to step 3 and fizzle. With my current novel, I've reached 27,000 words with at least 23,000 more to go, and it seems realistic I'll reach this goal.

My secret this time around is my beta readers. I have a couple that, every once in a while, tell me they're sorry they haven't finished reading whatever chapter they're on, then send me a frantic message for another chapter.

There's one guy, whom I've never met, who seems genuinely excited by the story. He reads and sends me feedback; he's already on chapter five when everyone else is on three or, in one case, four.

So far, I've heard that the writing is slick and professional, that it's believable and has unique elements, and that it reads "like a Tom Clancy novel." I think this is going to be the secret to the success of this book.

Almost halfway there!

Despite my free time being taken up by my synagogue, an art project I'm working on, some fun stuff with friends, and a horrible sinus headache that grounded me for most of yesterday, I managed to sail past the 20,000 word mark in my novel over the weekend.

I'm almost halfway to my minimum word count, and I alternate between wondering how I'll manage to get to my ultimate goal of approximately 75,000 words, and wondering if I'll be able to squeeze all of my ideas into such a small allotment of words.

Things I've discovered since I began writing:

• My main character is going to have a real boyfriend.
• Something terrible is going to happen to him.
• She is going to rage against the machine.
• She is (hopefully) going to realize her inner strength doesn't come from having vampire super powers, and that the super powers of the other supernatural creatures mean nothing in the face of her own determination. (Although, she'll still do a bit of experimenting with what limited powers I give her.)

This post was originally full of spoilers. I think I weeded most of them out.

I want you! as my Beta reader

I'm almost finished with the first three chapters of my new novel, and I'm looking for Beta testers. That way, if I get a little stuck, I can go back and start editing into the second draft. Or, if I never get stuck and this book writes itself, I can start my edits immediately.

If you have some extra time or need something to read, let me know. This book (yet to be named) is a dark urban fantasy/ romance. It's got some vampires, fairies, and werewolves in it.

My 5 favorite characters

Catherine Gardner posted one, so I figured I should, too.

For anyone new to my blog, Gardner is my Joneses. I strive to keep up with her, and I admire her work and work ethic. (I really need to update my blogroll, don't I?)

Please check out her site and buy up all of the magazines and anthologies her work has been featured in.

Now, on to the characters who have been waiting impatiently for their introduction.

Evelyn (Eva Garza)

Evelyn was invented for a role playing game, not a story. But, her story has spawned a few I've written down.

As a young girl growing up in Ybor City, Eva resented the control her parents exerted over her life. This resentment grew until one day, when she was around six or seven, she killed her mother. The authorities didn't quite know what to do with the young murderer, so she was placed in the care of an asylum. When a vampire discovered her artwork for sale at an international gallery, she was ripe for the picking.

As a vampire, Evelyn did things like kidnap nuns to use in plots she devised against her enemies and once staked herself so someone could rip out her eyes and throw her body in a dumpster as part of another plot. Surprisingly enough, she died supporting the political ideals of "the good guys" instead of as the consequences of something horrible she'd done.

Vinn

Vinn came about because of another character I made for a role playing game. When I went through a difficult breakup, writing a short story about him was good therapy. The story was published in Vol. 1 Issue 3 of Arrhythmic Souls.

Vinn is a slacker and a slob. He's overweight and has greasy hair and bad manners- not what you'd usually think of as a vampire. When he moves in with Monica and turns her, he doesn't think of the challenges that await. Soon, he realizes almost everything she does annoys him, from watching Oprah to trying to talk about her feelings. He has to figure out if having a swell piece of arm candy is worth it and, even worse, has to come to the realization that she doesn't really need him around.

Olivia

Olivia is a character in the grand WIP I've been toiling over since 2000. I've finally gotten to the point where I'm comfortable drafting the story, so I'm hoping she'll make her debut soon.

When Olivia was born, the village elders saw her as the fulfillment of a prophecy (never mind they'd made the same decision about someone else a few years earlier). Through some unfortunate events, Olivia becomes immortal and has her eyes ripped from her (for some reason this is a theme in my stories, to the point where other people have made it a plot point in game without even knowing it's a theme I'm obsessed with, ooh spooky) and has to deal with the fact that her former followers now see her as a tool of the devil.

Len

Len comes from the same WIP Olivia does. He's based off of a guy I had a crush on for at least 10 years of my life, and he comes in handy because he's a genius in a world with remnants of technology, and he's going to rebuild civilization almost single-handedly.

Len grew up in the same kind of religious cult Olivia did, but he never bought that the "people who came before us" deserved to die. While he's a supporting character, he partners with the main villain of the WIP to build up a city around a museum. He spends most of his time fiddling with old artifacts from the distant past and tries to make things work. In one of the first scenes, he fixes an old crank phonograph, which helps establish the kind of guy the main villain is. Len isn't really a villain (who is?) but he's way too curious for his own good. In fact, he sets off the chain of events that shapes the entire story.

Angel or Devil?

I'm working on my second draft of "Seeing God," a story about a blind girl (more with the eyes!) who experiences her parents dying in a car accident. She escapes the twisted metal of the crash and stumbles through the forest only to encounter a being in the woods. Some clues point to the being as an angel, some as a devil.

I really like this character because it's so ambiguous. I toy around with the myths of angels and devils a bit. I'm pretty sure that if I met a devil who could trick me into thinking it could commit miracles, I would follow it blindly. The only difference between an angel and a devil is the final outcome. This story, and possible related stories, deal with this idea that when it comes to beings outside of the human plane of existence, it can be hard to tell what side they're on. Eventually, humans have to act, have to take a side. I like that this character is a symbol of how we can't know the ultimate consequences of our decisions until after we've chosen which side we're on.