Help me pick a excerpt!

There are two things I hate about writing a book:  the back-cover blurb and picking an excerpt.  And with Live and Let Fly, I've been asked to pick not one, but two!  Help!

I went through the manuscript and picked three likely candidates for the mini excerpts.  Would you read them and vote in the comments section on your favorite?  I'll sweeten the pot by putting your name in a raffle for one of my books, including Live and Let Fly!

Based on feedback, I'm removing #2 from the race.  It seems to appeal most to Vern fans, and of course, we want to reach readers who don't know him yet.  Thanks guys!  This does help!


Tomorrow, I'll add three possibilities for the long excerpt.

Possible 1-mini

A part of me was thinking this drug was suspiciously well-tuned to dragon physiology. Another part of me was thinking, Duuuuude! What a ride.

"Go wait outside. I'll make the call."

I didn’t notice the police wagon on the curb until Santry called my name.

"Oh, look," I said. "The heat's come to help me up my street cred."

"Funny. Get in. I'm taking you to the station."

"Why should I?" The words popped out of my mouth. They seemed about right.

Santry took three steps forward, then stopped, and folded his arms. "Vern, get in the van. I've had a bad day, and I'm not interested in taking any crap from you."

Suddenly, I was the one who was tired of taking crap: crap from cowards who attacked me with drugged drinks instead of swords and lances, dukes who thought exiling creatures made a great joke, reporters who burned me in effigy and got all the sympathy, and police chiefs who thought their bad day meant they could lord it over the dragon.

I pounced.

Possible 2- mini - REMOVED FROM CONSIDERATION, but here for fun, anyway.

"Keep going. Don't break rhythm. This is an unusual spell. You have to let it get into you."

Eighth...two sixteenths, eighth, quarter, eighth, eighth, eighth. I started tapping with claws on all four limbs.

"You know, I don't really like that idea."

"You don't have to go."

"No. I'm fine. But I don't think it's—ergh!"

Suddenly, my whole body heated up and got all...gooey. Then I felt like I was being forced into a trash compactor, or maybe a mold that was too small.

"Vern?"

I got heavy, boulder heavy, and fell to the ground. I didn't understand how I could make crashing sounds when I was so much flubber. After what seemed an eternity, I started feeling a little more solid, but lighter, which panicked me, or would have if I weren't so distracted by being gelatinous.

Then it ended, and I was on human hands and knees, panting and fighting the urge to throw up on the bathroom floor.

"Vern!" Grace banged on the door.

"I'm fine!"

I rose slowly, dreading what I thought I'd see.

Possible 3- mini

Festival was Friday. We had two days to stop a Nordic demigod evil overlord—overlady, overbeing, whatever—from blowing up a nuclear power plant, possibly destroying half an island full of revelers in the process, and creating an Interdimensional Gap through which she can bring the rest of her giant relatives to set up housekeeping where the Faerie Catholic Church didn't have the power to control them. In other words, two days until Hel broke loose.

I've had worse deadlines. I could afford a long bath in our whirlpool tub and a good meal first.

On Writers and Plumbers

I had a rotten week.  Last week actually stunk, too.  Both were related to writing and publishing, but I don't want to get into the details here.  The result is I didn't feel like writing or marketing or talking about them. (Still don't, actually.)

So what am I doing about it?  I'm writing and marketing and talking about them. 

I'm in this as a career, and if you've read this blog before, you know I use the plumber analogy.  Plumbers don't refuse to fix your sink because they "aren't feeling inspired."  They don't sit around the house depressed that "the wrench has left them."  Some, I'm sure continue on by inertia, but I'm betting others (and probably many of the working force) face times like this by remembering why they are doing what they do, whether because they need the money or because people are depending on them or the boss will be angry or because they know that they enjoyed this job before and will again.

In those dry days and weeks, when I don't wake up full of excitement to get on the computer, I approach writing and marketing the same way.  I have a basic schedule to help promote inertia.  I remind myself there are readers and publishers out there who like my work and want to see more. I market because I know my publishers are depending on me to promote my books.  I teach classes and publish my 30-Minute Marketer newsletter because I know there are new writers who want to hone their craft and I have knowledge that will help.  I do it because I am my own boss, and I will feel worse about myself if I let my mood stop me from writing because then I not only let myself sulk, but I failed to accomplish anything toward my personal goals.

Most of all, I write when I don't want to because I know I will enjoy it.  Even in a bad mood, my stories turn out fine because the characters are talking, are living out the story.  It's not about me.  And when I do get out of my funk (and I always do), I'll have that much more story under my belt to work with or continue from.  And I will love it and myself again.

So here I am, at the tail end of two lousy weeks where I've wondered, "Why bother?  Does anyone even care--and why should I?"  But if I look at my list, I see that just this week, I

* Met with 4 committees of the CWG and came up with game plans for 2012
* Published the 30-Minute Marketer
* Wrote 4500 words in The Old Man in the Void, plus revised several chapters.
* Started my podcaster contact list (35 names so far.  Are you a podcaster who interviews authors?  Contact me and I'll put you on my list.)
* Taught my Worldbuilding 101 Class through Lesson Four.  (Worldbuilding 201 starts Jan 30!)
* Updated my publicity package.
* Updated a couple of social network profiles
* Updated the Zombie Death Extreme website (need the ftp info from the publisher before publishing it)
* Did the first round of line edits on Live and Let Fly.
* Wrote this blog.

I must admit that even looking at this list, I don't feel especially good about last week, but I do know I feel better than if I'd let my mood keep me from doing anything.

My Novel's Journey: Old Man in the Void - Clawing out of the Information Well

I'm back to writing The Old Man in the Void, which (to refresh memories) is a science fiction novel based loosely on Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.  Instead of a hero's journey like most modern novels, this is a man-against-nature adventure, in which relic hunter Dex Hollister gets pulled into a black hole by a ship he captures. 

I'm having a lot of fun with it, but because I put it away for a month to finish up Neeta Lyffe 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco, it's been a rough week getting back into the astrophysical saddle.  Not only did I have to re-familiarize myself with the plot, but I had to remember all the information about black holes that I'd immersed myself in in the Autumn.  In fact, I'm still feeling shaky on it.  Right now, I've not had to worry overmuch, because the scenes are taking place inside the ship, but I feel like soon I'll need to re-read all my notes, including following all the links to articles and videos about black holes.  (The videos are especially helpful.  I'm so glad some folks with better visualization skills than I are thinking about this stuff and taking the time to help others see it, too.)

I must admit, my favorite scene this week was the mythology scene, even though I had to go back three times to look up the names of the god and goddess.  My memory has never been great, but as I move through 40 into 50, it's getting worse.

I'm making slower but steady progress.  I think once I am back into the characters and the setting, I'll be moving ahead more comfortably.  In the meantime, just like Dex and Santiago, I'm feeling my way as I try to claw out of the information well.

Untrue Truisms

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." Saw this on Twitter and it annoyed me. I know shortcuts home, for making omelets, for doing things on my computer. These are unworthy?

Or this one "Karma's only a bitch if you are."  Granted, I saw this after a truly awful week, in which, if there were such a thing as Karma, I'd just been declared the biggest bitch of the universe.  And after reading that, I sure felt like one.  I actually closed down the computer for the rest of the day so I didn't have to see any more stupid posts.

I can't be the only person who wants to slap her face over some quote someone else thinks is pithy.  So what oddball quotes make you want to whack your head against the keyboard?  Share them.

My Novel's Journey: Neeta Lyffe 2 Revisions

There are a few rules I follow when I send out my manuscripts for critique:

1. Send it to writer friends whose work I respect and whom I trust to tell me the bad as well as the good.
2.  If I send it to others with less experience writing or reading, give them some specific areas to focus on (where am I confusing, where do you lose interest, who do you hate?)
3.  Really consider their opinion--after all, I trusted them enough to ask, right?

I've had a few times where I have disregarded a critiquer's advice, but often, they are right on target.  This happened last month with Neeta Lyffe.  One of my writing friends wrote me that, long story short, the first chapter didn't work.  Neeta came off as old, whiny and weak, and neither he nor his wife or daughter wanted to read anymore.

The great thing about Walt is that he doesn't pull his punches, and he can zero right in on the problem.  He was right:  Neeta is whiny and indecisive, and she feels much older than her 29 years.  However, she has reasons:  in the first book, she had to behead someone under her instruction in order to keep him from returning a zombie.  That's haunting her, as is the fear that someday, she might have to do the same thing to Ted, her partner in the extermination business whom she's in love with.  Ted sometimes operates on a different frequency from the rest of the world, and can come off as flakey or even insensitive, which leaves her confused about where they stand romantically.  So she's dealing with a lot of anxiety, and it's making her insecure and indecisive. 

I thought I was showing that in her behaviors, and while I was, I also didn't give the reader enough clues into the reasons behind her behaviors.  Like my husband likes to say, "It's not my job as a reader to understand; it's the writer's job to be understood."

Fortunately, it wasn't a difficult fix.  I added some nightmares, a psychiatrist, the determination to wean herself from her pills, and she went from whiny to troubled, and Walt was able to sympathize with her rather than dismiss her.

Something else happened, too:  I realized an important subtext hadn't been developed because I skipped over this important part of her situation.  I went through the rest of the manuscript, adding and even changing some things.  We get a little more insight into Ted's motives, too. The entire book is a little richer.

Critiques can be hard to hear, especially when the manuscript really doesn't work.  However, taking the time to consider the comments and work the manuscript pays off.

I should be getting more critiques later this month.  I'm looking forward to them!

Female Heroes--Strong Because They Need to Be?

Please excuse the profanity.  I claim no responsibility for the captions on any but Lt. Col Carter's.

So this internet meme has been going around Facebook for awhile, but this month, someone added to it with Princess Leia, then Janeway and Sarah Jane.  On Dec 14, when I'd posted the Sarah Jane,  my husband contemplated it and said, "You know who really beats them all?  Samantha Carter!"  So I asked him to write it up.

What I like about this meme is that (Bella excepted), it shows that there are strong women in science fiction and fantasy, and they are awesome in different ways.  I have a lot of strong women in my novels, too:  Sister Grace (whom Vern calls his "magical tank."), Neeta Lyffe (who actually considers beheading zombies "just part of the job"), the Rescue Sisters (nuns who do search and rescue operations in outer space) and Tasmae, (charged with protecting her world.)

I never consciously try to create strong women; they just come about in my books when they're needed.  (I also have strong men, and strong dragons, and sometimes all of the above--like in Live and Let Fly.)  I think the key to all of these women, though is as Rob put it in Carter's post " All because it needed to be done."  And I wonder, is that more common of female heroines than male?

What do you think?