Category: Reading & Writing

California dreaming

So, the excitement = building for San Francisco this summer. At the end of July I’ll head out there to the RWA National Conference with … wait for it … the kids in tow.

They’ll stay at my sister’s during the four days of the conference. I’ll be in the Marriott.

(Insert maniacal laughter here.)

Seriously, I’m pretty sure positive they’ll behave. I’ve already read them the riot act about it.

Never mind the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, or even the Jelly Belly factory tour, Andrew nearly fainted when he found out my sister owns not only Guitar Hero, Dance, Dance Revolution, but Rock Band. Add in the nearby swimming pool, and we pretty much have instant vacation. Excited doesn’t begin to cover it.

I haven’t been to this conference since 2003. This time, I get to wear my “first sale” ribbon (Note to self: let RWA know you need first sale ribbon.). I don’t have to work myself into a panic over pitching to editors/agents. I can relax, go to parties (Chick Lit, Golden Network), and attend workshops, like these:

Building Buzz in YA (CAREER)– Tera Childs, Heather Davis, Simone Elkeles, Tina Ferraro, Marley Gibson, Stephanie Hale, and Dona Sarkar-Mishra

From Cinema to the CW: Using Pop Culture in Your YA Novel (RESEARCH)– Trish Milburn and Julie Linker (Trish is a Noodler.)

10 Things We Love About Writing YA Romance (CRAFT)– Shelley Adina, Carol Grace Culver, Kelly Parra, and Jennifer Jackson

Doddering Butlers, Pert Housemaids, and Faithful Retainers: Busting the Servant Myths (RESEARCH)– Janet Mullany (I haven’t written an historical … yet, but Janet is another Noodler and she’s hysterical.)

And then, after the conference, I’ll take a few days downtime at my sister’s. I’ll need a few days of downtime.

But! If anyone is headed out to San Fran, let me know. I’d love to see you.

OMG! Oh. My. Gods.

Look what I won:

Not the Greek god, or the pink running shoes (although I’m digging the pink running shoes), but the YA novel by Tera Lynn Childs.

And double-plus cool? It was Tera’s congratulatory email that alerted me to the fact the The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading sale had been posted to Publishers Marketplace.

Andrew is thinking he’d like to read this one, too. He was highly amused by the strategic placing of the banner and shoes (but then, so was I).

Since there’s so much good karma going around, and since Tera is sending me my very own copy, and since I’d planned to buy a copy anyway, I’m going to give one away.

Want a copy? Then leave a comment below. You have until the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. Mother’s Day, say around 0700 hours CDT (that’s seven a.m. here in MN), I’ll draw a name from the comments on this post. Want a taste of what you could win? Read on:

Oh. My. Gods.

If Phoebe Castro can keep her grades up and have another stellar cross-country season, her dream of attending USC with her best friends is only a track scholarship away. She’s made all her plans, so it’s a complete shock when her mom announces she’s marrying a mysterious stranger and moving them half-way around the world-to Greece.

Phoebe’s stuck on a secret island in the Aegean attending the super-exclusive Academy, where her new stepfather is the headmaster and the kids are anything but your average students-they are descendants of the Greek gods, super powers included. That’s right, Greek gods are no myth! If Phoebe thought high school was hard, she knows this is going to be mortal misery.

Securing that scholarship seems like Phoebe’s only ticket out of Greece, but training and maintaining her grades will be grueling, even without a sabotaging stepsister from Hades and a gorgeous guy-what a god!-who just might be her Achilles heel. One thing is for sure-summoning the will to win and find her place among the gods could be Phoebe’s toughest course yet.

The Greek gods get a makeover in this romantic odyssey of mythic proportion.

Leave a comment if you’d like to (possibly) win a copy.

We interrupt this blog…

For an announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance’s debut THE GEEK GIRL’S GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING, the story of a self-confessed debating dork whose practical joke lands her a spot on the varsity cheerleading squad, where she realizes that if there’s one thing worse than blending into the lockers, it’s getting noticed!, to Jennifer Klonsky at Simon Pulse, by Mollie Glick at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

If anyone is interested, I’ll be glad to elaborate why it took nearly two weeks from hat tossing to being able to announce the sale. But. Later. I should be able to form coherent sentences later.

Weave it and read

I went on a serious writing tear this weekend. Serious. Tear. I think there’s a light at the end of the third draft tunnel (and I’ll refrain from making oncoming train jokes). I have a crucial bit of back story to weave in, along with some minor edits, then I’ll be looking for victims, suckers, beta readers for the third draft.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to read, I’ve discovered two new WordPress blogs:

The First Book has interviews with authors of … first books. I was happy to discover it took Jay Asher twelve years and that he felt he’d been writing in the wrong genre. I think this is a far more common mistake than a lot of writers realize.

On the other hand, I have much hate for Mark Henry. (Kidding. If Mark Henry happens upon this blog–unlikely–please know, I have nothing but hearty congratulations for you.)

Over at Elves Among Us, Esri Rose has been mining gems (sometimes quite literally) from eBay. Today’s not to be missed offering: Incubus Possessed Ring.

Seriously, you don’t want to miss this one.

The (non)interview: Marianne Arkins

Today, Marianne Arkins and I are chatting about her debut novel One Love for Liv, which is available from Samhain Publishing.

I wouldn’t call this an interview. More of a chat, where I ask Marianne the tough questions about writing and publishing, involving DNA, non-headless models, and the best way to waste time.

oneliv.jpg

Charity: First things first, now that we have the cover front and center. Is it me, or does model portraying Geoff (lower right-hand corner) look like the result of combining the DNA of David Hyde Pierce (Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier) and Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders on Beverly Hills 90210)? Your thoughts?

Marianne: LOL… okay, that’s really funny and a little scary to think of Niles and Steve mixed together.  But, honestly, you may just be right.  ((shivers))

Charity: In a related question, while I’m thrilled you have models with heads on them for your cover art, was it difficult/weird to adjust your mental image of Geoff and Mike?

Marianne: Ack, YES!! The absolute biggest problem I had was the people chosen for the cover.  The artist, Dawn (who has the patience of Job) and I went back and forth on it.  Oddly, I wasn’t as married to the image I had of Liv as I was of Mike.  I was content with the woman she’d selected for that, even though she really wasn’t the same as I’d chosen on my collage. 

Eventually, we decided to go for an illustrated “comic” cover because of that, and she came up with one that was spot on (I wish I could share it with you … it was AMAZING).  Unfortunately, it was vetoed by the powers-that-be who explained that those types of covers really didn’t sell well.

I sent Dawn a cover to another book that I loved, and she used that as an idea of what to do with Liv.  I still don’t think Mike is right, but he certainly is handsome.  And I’ve gotten several unsolicited compliments on the cover, so she must have known better than I did!

liv.jpg

Marianne’s collage for One Love for Liv

Charity: Although now that we’ve tossed up your collage, I’m thinking the cover artist was spot on where Geoff was concerned. Wait a minute! Is that Ian Ziering in your collage? And speaking of collages, excellent visual aid for writing or simply a lovely way to procrastinate? Do you have any other (unusual or otherwise) prep work that you do for writing?

Marianne: I do think that the artist did a great job with Geoff’s image.  With the exception of the receding hairline, he’s really spot-on.  I love having a collage… I’d originally seen the idea on Jenny Crusie’s blog, but didn’t have time, patient, inclination or magazines I’d need to do a real one.  Then this terrifically talented person I know (*cough*Charity*cough*) showed me how I could work one up in Power Point, and I’ve never looked back.

[Chairty: It’s true. I have mad PowerPoint skillz.]

I really do think creating one helps to boils the story down to some basics.  With Liv’s I tried to focus on the characters and their differences:  hence the spa, and the beer and pizza.  Of course, beer and pizza is an important part of the book.  I know my editor fell in love with Mike over that scene in the book.

Charity: I think I’ve heard you mention that you like quiet when you write, but are there any songs you associate with Liv? Would you ever be tempted to make a novel playlist?

Marianne: I love music, but not while I write, because I tend to really focus on the words and the stories in the songs.  So, yes, I write in utter silence.  Even slight noises like the stove clicking (as it is now) can be terribly distracting.  It’s one of the reasons I do the majority of my new writing in the morning before anyone (including potentially noisy neighbors) is awake.

I do mention some artists in “One Love For Liv”:  U2 (a nod to a certain person I know) and Led Zepplin.  Liv needed a musical education in the novel, because she’d primarily been exposed to classical music in her life.  But a playlist?  I can’t imagine what I’d use, to be honest.  I don’t really associate specific songs with this story.  Classical music and classic rock would have to be the mix.  Yep, a little odd.  But so is the story.

Charity: I know you’ve mentioned being surprised that One Love for Liv was the first novel you sold, since you had several others completed. Thing is, I wasn’t surprised. In fact, I knew you had something with Liv from the very first scenes I read (and I know you’ve revised since then). Did you ever have a whisper go through your mind that maybe this one was the one?

Marianne: Maybe.  I do know that I kept returning to it, even when I’d pretty much decided that no one would want to publish it because it was a little off center.  Of course, I can’t seem to write anything that falls neatly into any one category.  “One Love For Liv” is categorized as romantic comedy by Samhain Publishing, but I’m not sure I’d call it that.  Certainly, it has some pretty odd situations, but it’s not as “comedic” as, say, Jennifer Crusie or Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  I tend to think of it as a romance that doesn’t take itself seriously more than flat out comedy.

* * *

There you have it! I want to thank Marianne for being gracious and answering my weird questions. If you want to know more about Marianne’s writing process, what her writing space looks like, and the other real writing questions, visit her blog tour page for all the real interviews.

Genre angst

So a reader over at Marianne’s blog was curious about the predominance of third person point of view in romance, among other things. She wrote:

Why is romance the only genre mired in the tarpit of such pedantic rules? If the genre is to earn respect, shouldn’t it treat works as literature instead of mere commodity? Could you dedicate a blog day to this topic?

Poor Marianne cannot, at the moment, not with her novel coming out in mere days (stay tuned for the interview we’ll be doing here on Writing Wrongs, sure to go where no interview has gone before.)

But I have some oblique thoughts about this. I wouldn’t say romance is the only genre that plays to reader expectations. If a reader picks up a James Bond novel (by whoever is writing them these days), they don’t expect 007 to abandon the mission so he can go into therapy and find his inner child.

If a reader picks up a cozy cat mystery (by very famous cozy cat mystery author), they don’t expect knife-wielding kittens terrorizing the sleepy village of Meowville. (Oh, there’s an untapped LOLcat: I can has murderous rampage?)

And if a reader picks up a Harlequin Presents, they want (nay, demand) their Greek billionaires. Unless, of course, it’s an Italian playboy. In either case, the line plays into reader expectations, which also includes, for the most part, third person POV, most likely alternating heroine and the hero.

Oh, let’s put those all together, shall we?

James Bond, in his most dangerous mission ever. In the guise of a Greek billionaire playboy, 007 infiltrates KITTEN (Kittens in Tens Terrorize Every Nation), an organization bent on world domination using genetically altered kittens placed strategically in pet stores around the globe. On 007’s side? The beautiful and seductive virgin scientist, the only one with the known antidote, the only one with the key to his heart. Can they overcome his Oedipus complex and her cat allergy in time to save the world?

(Mine, people, this one’s all mine. Hands off. I’m pitching it at RWA national.)

See? No one wants to read that.

Such classifications aren’t necessarily evil. Readers want to find certain books at certain time. Bookstores (real and virtual) need a way to shelve/present their offerings. I suppose they could toss them all into one big room and have the salesclerks say: “Go for it, man. I’ll be over by the espresso machine, making myself a nonfat, extra hot, vanilla latte with a depth charge.”

If you look at one of Marianne’s publishers, The Wild Rose Press, you’ll see they have all their categories down the left hand side. And for whatever reason, publishers may be better at selling one type of story rather than another. So when a publisher says: No stories in first person, please, that reflects their business model.

Now, if they stop being good at selling what they do, or their readers’ tastes change, they either evolve or go out of business.

What happens next is writers turn these publisher guidelines and genre expectations into rules. If you do this … you’ll never be published. If you write for publication … you’ll never be original.

Then we all sit around and angst at each other. Someone ends up refusing to speak to all the rest. Someone goes home crying. Someone swears never to write another word ever again-seriously, people, I mean it this time.

And a good time was had by all.  

This is where it needs to stop. (Actually, it needs to stop before the all crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth.) If you’re feeling frustrated by a genre’s constraints, expand your reading selection. Read, and read widely. Subscribe to Publisher’s Marketplace and watch the deals that go through.

Watch those deals. When someone says it can’t be done, and certainly not by a debut author, you’ll probably see a deal for it in the next months or so. Get firsthand information. Read what’s being published right now. Read about what’s being bought right now.  

One of the best things I ever did was stop listening to people who told me it couldn’t be done and started fully concentrating on the only thing I could control: the writing.

And that’s about all I have to say about that. Now, if someone could photoshop me a knife-wielding LOLcat, I would be eternally grateful.  

Edited to add: Judy found a knife-wielding LOLcat here.

Listen to the truth they tell you*

I’m putting these two links at the top of this post. The rest, if you care to wade in, is my blathering on the Cassie Edwards plagiarism issue.

Read this beautiful and eloquent tribute The Many Faces of Plagiarism by Jane of Dear Author.  

Nora Roberts (AKA the queen of awesomeness) will match donations to Defenders of Wildlife fund up to $5,000 via the SBTB site. Donate early. Donate often.

Now the rest. You may stop reading here.

So, I asked Andrew last night what would happen if, while writing a report on turtles, he found and really great article about them and copied a couple paragraphs into his report. His response:

“No! You can’t do that. That’s plagiarism.”

Can I get a hoo-ah for our school district?

Then I told him the background, minus all the drama, about the current plagiarism scandal. His initial response mirrored mine:

“Maybe she was tired and didn’t know what to write about anymore.”

Initially, I thought a variation on this theme could be the case. Contract pressures, writer burnout after 100 books and twenty five years. I wouldn’t condone the behavior, but at least I could, in theory, understand it.

I told him that didn’t seem to be the case, that the author appears to have copied a multitude of sources during her twenty-five year career. His second response:

“Did she (the woman who discovered the plagiarism) get a reward?”

Not exactly.

We ended the conversation there (although Andrew wants to read the news articles about it) because, he was getting ready to go to Boy Scouts, which, if you don’t already know, Dr. Charles Eastman helped established.

Dr. Charles Eastman is also on the list of authors that Cassie Edwards has apparently plagiarized.

Nice to see the universe still has a sense of irony.

The reason I’ve stayed relatively quiet on this issue is I simply can’t wrap my brain around it. I don’t understand how someone could do this–not morally, not ethically, but physically. Pulling in such disparate (if highly regarded) sources and cobbling together book after book into something passable (remember, Cassie Edwards has published 100 books) sounds like more work to me than actually doing the writing.

I feel like I’ve stepped into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Cassie Edwards was 46 years old when she started her career as a published author, just a scant few years older than I am now. Over the course of twenty five years, she has published 100 books, in multiple formats (hardcover, mass market paperback, large-print editions). I have no idea about foreign rights sales, but I imagine there have been some. Ditto for re-releases of her backlist. She has a substantial and loyal fan base. She is, by all surface accounts, a professional author.

So why, when she’s called on the carpet about this, people equate it to picking on a frail, white-haired little old lady? This isn’t a line lifted here, paragraph there in only her later books, or for that matter, in only her earlier works. This isn’t a little old lady who finally published her one an only tome and didn’t paraphrase correctly.  

What if two guys had a review site, and they called it Intellectual Snobs Who Dig Horror. (Oh, that is horrible.) Let’s say they didn’t care for Stephen King, gave a few of his books bad, even scathing, reviews, then discovered that Mr. King had plagiarized on the scale of Cassie Edwards.

True, Stephen King is a decade younger than Cassie Edwards. He also began his career a decade earlier and has fifty or so novels to his credit.

Would the tenor of the online discussion (and in some cases, I use the term discussion loosely) be the same?

(For the record, I haven’t read a lot of Stephen King because he writes horror and dude, that’s scary. I did enjoy The Stand, Misery, and his writing craft book On Writing.)

Oh, I imagine there might be some calls to leave him alone, but as many? I can’t imagine it. First, Mr. King is a man who has wrestled with many issues during his career and has owned up to them.

Second, and I hate to say it, but I suspect a great many people would expect him to–again, here I go, forgive the phrasing–act like a man.

Let me “de-genderize” that. People would expect him to act like a professional author.

Why don’t people expect this of Cassie Edwards? Is this a gender issue? A genre issue? I’m not asking these questions to be snarky, but to truly find some answers, because the whole tenor of the discussion bothers me.

The us vs. them bothers me. I’ve seen cries that this is a witch hunt, that Candy and Sarah went out of their way to bring Cassie Edwards down. I’ve seen other posts that equate this to everything from mean-girl antics to McCarthyism. (I haven’t found the Nazi reference yet, but I’m sure it must exist.)

And yes, there are the wingnuts on both sides stirring the pot. Sadly, the wingnuts, like the poor, will always be with us. The answer to wingnuts is not silence, it’s not to cower in fear of them, but to work to bring forth more honest and reasoned discussion. And not just about this issue, but who we are as a genre.

Because I think we’ve failed as a genre. When you fail, you pick yourself back up, assess the damage, then figure out what to do next and, if necessary, how to make reparation.

I believe we should examine this, focusing on reasoned discussion and education. The calls to pass this along to the “proper authorities” and go back to business as usual bother me. Yes, the publishers need to do their due diligence. But I believe the reason they will perform their due diligence is the breadth and depth of the plagiarism that’s been uncovered in the first place.

I realize this feels like a black eye or a sucker punch to the genre as a whole. I also think it’s an opportunity for growth as well. We can ignore the situation and hope it goes away, or we can do something about it. The two links above are a fantastic start.

For my part:

  • I don’t want to be a writer who looks the other way.
  • I don’t want to be a writer who’s scared to voice her opinions on important issues.
  • I don’t want to be a writer held hostage by the threat of one-star reviews on Amazon.

Fear is the great silencer.

*hat tip to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for the title to this entry

This blog entry brought to you by the letter P

So, I’m sure you foodies already know this, but Missy Chase Lapine is suing the Seinfelds for plagiarism and copyright infringement, among other things.

Sadly, my first reaction when this story broke a while back was: Wait. Jerry Seinfeld is married? And he has three kids? Clearly, I am the last person on earth to find out. I so missed the memo on that one.

My second reaction was: people spend hours each week pureeing veggies to hide in their kids’ food? For real? I mean, I could understand if you were pureeing some wedgies …

Just to be contrary, I want to whip up a meal of deep-fried Twinkies with a chaser of milkshakes … make that milkshakes with whipped cream. Now that’s what’s for dinner.

In other plagiarism news … yes, there’s other (possible) plagiarism news. Over at SBTB, they’ve uncovered strange similarities between nonfiction texts and passages in Cassie Edwards’s romance novels.

The first in the series of posts is here (with links to the rest). If you have time to sift through all the posts and comments, it makes for some interesting reading, not just what was discovered, but the various reactions as well. And it will be interesting to see the fallout from this.

Wait. Late, breaking news. Signet (one of Ms. Edwards’s publishers) weighed in, as reported on SBTB and GalleyCat.

Well. That’s interesting.