Discovering La Nora

Okay, new [temporary] rule. I bitch talk so much about my WIPs that I think it’s part of why I’m not getting done all I want to get done. Well, that or it’s because I’m reading too damn much, but let’s not blame the books. So I’m going to lay off it for a while. See what happens. (Not to mention I think I sound whiny.)

I’ve been discovering Nora Roberts, arguably the reigning queen of romance. Sound the trumpets, roll at the red carpet, cue the screaming fans. *Grins* About ten years ago, I decided to find out what all the hype was about Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts, so I grabbed a couple of their books each. At the time, I didn’t read much romance; I was deeper into the suspense/thrillers. The gorier the better. Go figure.

Anywho, I discovered that Danielle Steele’s not so much for me (though you gotta respect someone with talent enough to gain such a broad following), and while I liked Nora Roberts’s books, they weren’t at all what I was expecting. I don’t remember which ones I read, and I haven’t picked stumbled over them again, but I know one was a time travel when all I was prepared for was a straight-up contemporary. So I patted myself on the back for trying something new, returned the library books, and went back to the serial killers who cut off victims’ eyelids or shaved and plucked every single hair from their bodies.

Fast forward, and I’ve phased out of the blood, death, and imminent destruction into romantic comedy a’la Jennifer Crusie. (What can I say? I’m a contradiction of extremes.) From there, I decided to try all the different subgenres, with La Nora considered a subgenre unto herself. I’ve only scratched the surface of her backlist, but I’m getting addicted fast. With a greater appreciation not just for her talent and kick-ass work ethic, but for the books and genre as well, I’m starting to have trouble settling on my favorites, though Montana Sky will always have a special place in my heart.

Midnight Bayou is a definite must-read for all the Romies out there, and I’m almost done with the Circle trilogy, which I’d heard recommended over and over and over again. Man, is it good. If you haven’t given her a try, maybe it’s time you do.

Star Trek

I went and saw the new Star Trek this weekend, on IMAX no less, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Man, is it good. The movie effectively deals with the messy problems of coming after an iconic series with a tidy plot, which it manages to explain in such a way that’s blatantly obvious and yet doesn’t come across smelling like an info dump.

The Infamous Kate W. had told me that there’s nothing bad or wrong about this movie, and she’s right. The writers/producers/director/what-have-you could have so easily taken the story off the deep end in so many places, and yet the managed to walk a fine balance that resulted in nothing but solid, well done entertainment. Kirk’s childhood could have been relegated to angst-ridden navel-gazing, the scene of Spock being bullied might have been relegated to the excessive if it hadn’t played a role later in the plot, and Leonard Nimoy’s cameo could have been nothing more than a wink to the hardcore Trekkie fans, except that it wasn’t. None of it. Everything and everyone played a purpose in this movie, which gave it both a sense of completion and of being just the beginning.

Admittedly, I’m much more a Next Generation girl than a fan of the original Star Trek series, so a lot of the inside jokes were lost on me. And while this movie did make me wish to go back and rent the series and the various movies, I still haven’t decided if I’m willing to sit through Shatner’s Kirk. (I just never much went for the grandiose playboy types.)

As a bonus, though, is that I finally had a prolonged look at what so many of the writers at the various workshops are talking about when they use the Star Trek characters as archetypal examples. One less thing to go flying over my head at the conference this year. Woo-hoo!

Friday Feature: The Bakery Sisters

The Bakery Sisters trilogy by Susan Mallery consists of Sweet Talk, Sweet Spot, and Sweet Trouble.

                                       

I’d read one of Susan Mallery’s categories after a friend recommended, and I liked it so much that I bought up Sweet Talkalmost as soon as I saw it in stores, though it wasn’t until I listened to a workshop the author gave on writing trilogies at last year’s national conference that I bumped it up on the TBR list. Once I started the first, I knew I’d have to get the rest. I finished them all within a couple weeks, which includes the go-out-and-hunt-down-the-other-two time.

I enjoyed the first one, featuring Claire, whose determination to overcome her own doormat tendencies kept her from drifting too far into the overly sweet. The hero, Wyatt, was a good match for her, and I appreciated the connection between him and Claire’s sister, the heroine in the second book. And as much as I enjoyed the first, I liked the second more, and not just because the heroine’s name is Nicole.

She and Hawk are a great match, and I loved one of the secondary characters so much that I sincerely hope Susan Mallery gives him his own story one day. Hawk’s daughter is a realistic teen for once, who’s still a manipulative child at heart but does not fall into either of the cliches of being too enamored of her father’s relationship with Nicole, nor too vindictive.

I do have to say, however, that I seem to have poor luck with the final book in trilogies. I had a hard time liking the third sister, Jesse, in either of the previous books, but she won me over to her side within a few pages of her own story. That alone is no easy feat, and I applaud Ms. Mallery’s skill in gaining sympathy for our intrepid heroine. But it’s the hero, Matt, who kept me from thoroughly enjoying this book. His initial reaction to Jesse’s return is to seek revenge by taking steps to gain full custody of their child, a storyline that carries out long after my sympathy for him waned. I found myself distrustful of him even at the end, and I couldn’t help but wonder–once they were married–how he’d react the next time she made him angry.

While I wished I could have found the ending more satisfying, I’d still recommend this trilogy, albeit with a caveat, and I plan on reading some of the other series Ms. Mallery has written.

Links!

Okay, I’ve been collecting links to articles and sites that I’ve found interesting for awhile now, and it’s time to purge my backlist. So here they are, in no particular order:

Beth Anderson’s Tips on Writing the Tight Synopsis – The marvelous Jenna Stuart recommended this article, and it has some great advice. Definitely worth the read!

Seeing Red: How Color Alters Our Behavior – An article on, you guessed it, colors, and why all the fast food chains seem to use the same decorating schemes of orange, yellow, and red.

The Hidden Force of Fragrance – A Psychology Today article on the power of scent, though it makes a statement that’s chilling for someone whose own sense of smell has markedly decreased: “A decline in the ability to smell may be an early signal of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s diseases.”

Food: The Science of Scrumptious – Another Pyschology Today article, this time about the taste, why we like what we do, and why some people are such darned picky eaters.

10 Creative Ways to Earn Extra Money – Okay, the selling of the books just ain’t gonna happen, but some of the other options might be viable.

The Creative Self - Suggestions on how to maintain an active creative life.

Why Your Baby’s Name Will Sound Like Everyone Else’s – An article on naming phenomena and why that unique name you picked out might not end up being that unique after all.

The Eroticization of Equality and Social Justice- A Huffington Post article written by Hillary Rettig in defense of the romance genre and why it’s denigrated in the first place. (If you’re going to read any of these, make it this one!)

How to Spot Mr. Right – A look at why (or why not) opposites attract. (Yes, I know the irony of adding this link right after the previous, but deal with it.)

Neanderthink: The Appeal of the Bad Boy – The title pretty much sums it up.

The Laws of Chemistry – How biology and evolution dictate attraction.

The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter – I’m not able to really get into Twittering due to technological constraints, but here’s a how-to guide for anyone who might be interested.

Humans: The Strangest Species- An explanation for why we do the strange and varied things we do; everything from why we have fingernails to why we’re optimistic.

Accounting for Taste – How the music, books, and movies that we like can reveal who we are.

How Automobiles Work – An article passed on to me by the Great Kate W. An informative read that may not be the most exciting thing you’ll ever set your eyes on, but likely one of the more helpful.

Fluevog.com – I’ll confess; this isn’t actually an article, but this site has some really cute women’s shoes. (Some really strange ones, yes, but some cute ones, too.)

Whew! I didn’t realize how much I’d saved. Hope you something at least marginally interesting. *Grins*

Info Dumps

Yesterday I mentioned a twist to the heroine’s back story in BEAR. I came upon this twist because I needed an excuse to reveal a truth about the world in BEAR. I’d begun to think that this particular truth would end up being one of those little world-building tidbits that the writer knows, but which ends up on the cutting room floor, and I hated that. Not because this part of their world is wonderful or fantastic–quite the opposite. I think this tidbit could effectively show the dark side of their society and would hopefully make the reader begin to question why everyone (the hero especially) accepts the status quo.

So while this truth may not be essential to the plot, I feel it would be a subtle, effective way to mark the beginning of the end. The problem with tidbits like that is how easy they become info dumps (blocks of information that the writer needs to convey, but which is lumped into paragraphs or pages and not layered into the story). The best visual reference I can give for an info dump is an early John Wayne movie I saw recently, Texas Terror. (Personally, I have no idea where that title came from. I guess they must have been in Texas, but I didn’t see any terror.)

When the heroine first arrives on the scene–dressed, by the way, in stylish ’30’s fashion that kind of stands out in a western–she looks directly at the camera under the guise of speaking to the driver and says, “I’ll be awfully glad to get home. You see, I’m Bess Mathews, and I own the Lazy-M Ranch. There must be thousands of cattle and at least a hundred cowboys. And just think–I’m going to be boss!” This is, naturally, followed by the lines, “Oh! Look at those wildflowers,” which she then wanders off to go pick.

This, my friends, is an info dump, rightly inheriting an eye roll and groan of disbelief. Yes, okay–the movie was only 50 minutes long, so the whole thing was peppered with scenes like this, but it’s not the way to write a book. All writers spit out info dumps now and then. The trick is to recognize them and filter them out before they hit the public. Hopefully, I’ll manage to avoid any such mishaps in BEAR.

The Joys of Being a Pantser

So, for those who don’t know (I’m looking at you, Misi), there are two basic types of writers: pantsers and plotters. Pantsers are people who make the stories up as they go along. They “write by the seat of their pants”, if you will. Plotters are, of course, people who plan out everything before writing a word of the book itself. Not exactly rocket science, you ken?

While most writers fall somewhere in between the two extremes, they usually identify with one camp or the other. I, safely ensconced in the world of averagedom, am no different. I’m a pantser, but I do a little skeleton plotting, too. I have the overall concept, the ending, and a few key turning points in my head before I begin to write, and I like to plan a step or two ahead of where I’m at currently. So if my characters are about to go into the spooky mansion, I’ve already decided that Scooby’s going to accidentally hit a hidden switch on the stairwell that separates him from the rest of the group and completely freak out. I may not know where he’s going to end up yet, but I’m a still a step ahead of them.

Now, what does this have to do with anything? In terms of world viewpoint and attempted contribution to the literati, absolutely nothing. I’m just excited because I may have found a twist to the heroine’s backstory in BEAR that’d make it look like I’m a plotter while still being true to my pantser roots. *Grins* It’s the little things in life.

Nationals and Agent Appointments

I’ve decided to bite the bullet this year and sign up (or at least try to) for an agent appointment at Nationals. Yeah, okay, I’m going to need to majorly shore up my writer self-confidence, kill the butterflies that’ll inevitably be fluttering around in my stomach, and try not to panic about the pitch, but I think I can do it.

Yeesh. Just saying that makes me break out in a cold sweat…

Okay, deep breath. Repeat after me: I can do this. What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger. I am woman, hear me roar. I have a whole slew of cliches, and I’m not afraid to use them.

Of course, I have to actually log in on the RWA National site before I can sign up. No easy feat thus far. The website must be swamped because I still haven’t been able to get past the Member Login page. I am resisting the urge to go all Office Space on the computer. It’s not the computer’s fault, it’s the internet’s, and how can anyone go Office Space on the internet ether? Maybe I can take a cardboard box, write “Internet” on it, and then proceed to beat that into submission with my baseball bat.

Anyway, on to updates. As my mother reminded me last night, all she wants for her birthday/Christmas/Mother’s Day/Easter/Administration Professionals’ Appreciation Day/Halloween/etc. is for me to get published (which I both love and hate her for), I’ve gone back to CAROLINA to finish up the last 50+ pages of revisions. I’ll ignore the fact that I’ve already decided to back in and layer in another set of revisions until I get the first rounds down and find myself a couple of victims who’re willing to give me their two cents, after which I’ll decide how much more I really need to tweak.

I worked on the new story, which I’m calling SIX GUN QUOTA (SGQ) for now–not sure why–and I finally got enough of it out that I was able to set it aside and go back to BEAR. Granted, I only managed less than a 1,000 words of BEAR, but still. The story feels renewed to me, and I know it’s time to shove my characters out of their literal comfort zone and into the world unknown. (This is where I laugh evilly as I force the hero and heroine both to reevaluate their entire belief system.) If I can at least get the rough draft done by Nationals, I’ll see if I can’t come up with a pitch for BEAR, too. You know, just in case. *Grins*

Though I don’t know how the hell to sum it up. Outside my straight-up contemporary comedies, I don’t know how to explain the stuff I write. Oh well. One step at a time, Nicole. One step at a time…

Friday Feature: Ha! I Wish…

The Friday curse strikes again. My brain is fried. I have nothing left to give tonight. After some mental recuperation over the weekend, I hope to make it all up.

So, in lieu of anything that could even remotely be considered an actual post, I give you another gratuitous photo of some serious deliciousness (which I kind of stole from Lisa Renee Jones’s website):

Happy Mother’s Day!!

(P.S. Sorry Gary. I know these pictures really aren’t your thang, but sometimes a girl just can’t help it. I mean, look at him! Whoo!)

Damn that Television!

Susan Elizabeth Phillips, I have discovered, is not someone whose books I can read when I’m working on my own stuff. I get pulled in and lose track of time, which means I don’t get to write. This is the part where I grumble with martyred self-pity and try not to think about the fact that, if I chose to read SEP only when I wasn’t working on one story or another, I’d never read SEP, which in turns means I’ll have to suck it up and learn some willpower.

Of course, if I blame SEP then I should, in all fairness, blame The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Castle. Somehow I went from watching hardly any television to having a schedule, which wouldn’t be so bad if I had TiVo or access to Hulu and could arrange my television-watching around my writing instead of the other way around. I keep telling myself that I need to get rid of the television entirely, but I am hopelessly addicted to Bones and the Discovery Channel’s yearly Shark Week. (This year I even saw a commercial for “Alaska Week”. Woo-hoo!)

What I really need to do is just stop making excuses. And, Lexi, I do believe you’re right: website revampisation is a procrastination technique. I do, however, want to at least tweak a couple of the other pages to get ready for the RWA National Conference, which–by the way–I’m starting to get really excited about.

What Happens to My Fridays?

Well, I’ve been reading like mad for a while (another technique brought to you by a lady from the Royal Court of Procrastination), so I’ve built up a backlist of books for the Friday Feature. Why I can’t seem to get them written, however, is a problem unto itself. The good news is, I’ve busted down a lot of the original list from my self-imposed TBR Challenge. The bad news is, of course, I fell off that bandwagon a while ago and built myself up a new list. I need to update the widget.

Speaking of updating, I’m considering revamping my website. (Okay, okay… So this may be yet another procrastination ploy. I haven’t decided yet.) I’m taking the advice of some fellow penners and will begin trying to blend my two voices: the dark, angsty, kind of satirical side with the visual hopscotch, almost glib side. Then again, I’ve only just begun to explore the possibilities, so this could end up stalling before I even get going, so I could be wasting my time. Not to mention time itself is a problem. The sneaky bastard, slipping away like that…

So, in what’s apparently becoming somewhat of a tradition here in the psychotic world of NiRei, I’ll list the various goals I’ve set for myself, of which I have the best intentions of completing, and of which reality will take a major crunch out of before grinding it between its steely jaws and spewing the masticated remains at my feet with a sneer for my unrelenting and apparently unrealistic optimism. (Not that I’m bitter or anything.)

• Get the conversation/scenes from my newest story out of my head so I can finally go back to the WIP that I should be working on.
• Go back to BEAR. Apologize profusely to the hero and heroine and hope they’ll take me back.
• At least think about finishing the CAROLINA NORTH edits, pretending like I didn’t notice that I have yet more edits to go back in and add. We’ll wait until late to jump that stupid hurdle.
• Think about revamping the website. Do I? Don’t I?
• Do my duly-swore Librarianesque duties for my RWA Chapter and update the website with the newest set of resources.
• Um… I think that may actually be it. Wow. That doesn’t seem like a whole lot now that I’m looking at it.

Hope you had a happy Monday.