Today I’m over at Terri Bruce’s blog, pimping it. As in, that’s what I’m doing there, not that her blog is about pimping it.
Though it kinda is….
Anyway, come on over and see what the hell I’m talking about before even I forget it.
Please read it, please, please, please!
Today I’m over at Angela Brown’s blog talkin’ about rejection and what to do with it.
Hopefully, you’ll take my all-caps message to heart. ^_^
Wow, what a couple of weeks!
First off, my computer died. Not so much my entire laptop, but my hard drive decided it’s time had come. Luckily, Ross predicted this, so he had a new one waiting. It is now replaced, and life can finally go on.
I could access the internet briefly with the kindness of strangers, but I couldn’t write except for longhand, and that gives me horrible cramps. It was madness, I tell you, madness. Several people told me to think of it as a vacation. Strangely, forced vacation = not fun. I’ve written two short stories since I got my dear laptop back, just because I missed writing that much.
More post-hard drive good news, I got to write the acknowledgments and dedication for The Pyramid Waltz. That was a lot of fun and a lot of trying to remember everyone to thank! I felt like those people at awards shows who just start shouting names and then have to end with, “If I forgot you, I’m sorry.” Luckily, no one was playing me off the stage.
Today I’m going to look at a book launch venue. Soooo exciting. I’ll give you a full report once I’ve finally FINALLY nailed down my location.
Is anyone else doing Nano summer camp this year? I’m gonna try to do it this June, though I have a lot of non-writing tasks to complete. Who’s with me?
Did you have any tragedies these past weeks? Any near misses?
When I first decided I wanted to write female main characters, it was hard not to write ABOUT women, about what pressures I felt as a woman or what impacts I thought society had on women or yeah, yeah, yeah. (I know you were starting to tune out right there.)
To counteract this and write a story that starred a woman instead of being about her, I moved my story to outer space.
Well, that’s not completely true. I wanted to write stories set in outer space anyway, or at least on other planets. Since one of my first college loves was anthropology, I created an anthropologist studying alien species in order to help her human colony survive.
You win this fabulous jungle background!
She felt tremendous pressure to do her duty, to do what was expected no matter what she might want for herself. Those pesky societal constraints sneaked in there again, like ticks, or gnats. Stupid societal constraints…
Crap.
On the same planet, years later, I wrote about a space marine. She followed her own path, walked to the beat of her own drummer. She knew about sacrifice, but she chose to do it; no one ever forced her. She was huge and muscular, and too tough to cry.
Barbie dolls can’t flex enough to truly bring the gun show to town.
I still like her, but she was a bit of an overreaction.
For my next female MC, I swung far the other way. I wrote about a dancer who could take care of herself but wasn’t afraid to cry or love or wear pretty dresses, you know, all that girl shit. She embraced what some might call the feminine things in life. (In real life, I think this is when I fell back in love with glitter.)
No matter what I did, she looked drunk, okay.
I discovered that female characters could cover all these ranges, could cover every range. They could be insecure, easily swayed anthropologists, tough-as-nails space marines and dress-wearing dancers. I realized there was no one role model everyone could look up to. Not everyone can be a superwoman, but all my characters had one thing in common, when the chips were down, they were all brave in their own ways. I think I mixed them all together to make to create the heroines of The Pyramid Waltz.
Prom 1996
Two women, each brave in a different way, each very different people. Starbride (on the left) is a thinker. Katya is a fighter. In different situations, each is cautious or impulsive. They both love jewelry and nice clothes, though they have very different styles. Katya takes sacrifice to extremes and needs Starbride’s level head. Starbride tries to do everything herself and needs Katya’s helping hand.
And it doesn’t hurt that I can easily make them into Barbies. (I do wish, though, that the Barbies of color were a little darker. I think the one I bought is supposed to be Hispanic, but her skin tone is even lighter than her blond counterpart.)
And now I have enough dolls to stage this:
Yes, that is a woman dancing with a panda in the background. That’s what you took from this?
Aaaahhh, so good. Yeah, I didn’t put the panda and the pear together. That would’ve been…weird.
But I can’t stop doing this.
I know, it looks like there’s some ass-cupping there. These dolls are hard to pose!
Or this.
The untold Disney story.
Or if I’m honest, this.
A love that will not be denied…
Who’s up for writing a ninja/pear romance with me?
And a super duper p.s.: My friend John Clark has started a Kickstarter for his novel, Red Chords! Let’s all go help him out. If you’re a fan of Laurel K. Hamilton or Patricia Briggs, I think you’ll really go for this.
p.s.s It’s not even my birthday yet, and I’ve already received some wonderful presents from my writer friends:
Soo……much…..glitter…..*drool*
What’s goin on with you guys? Writing news? Birthday news? Barbie news? What can I say, it’s all I think about.
…I am working on a Barbie post.
In the meantime,
Edits are away to my publisher. Now to decide what the hell I’m gonna do until The Pyramid Waltz comes out in September!
Network: I’ve missed talking to my blog buddies as much as I want, and I haven’t been able to click any #FF links on twitter or to take any blog recommendations. Now I can! I’m looking forward to meeting more internet friends. I’m soooo much more awkward in person. I tend to smile really wide in overcompensation. ^_^
Book release party: I’ve got to plan one. Got to figure out how many people might come, book a venue, and then…no clue. Bake some cheese sticks?
Keep writing: Not only do I have to jot down some ideas for what I’m hoping will turn into a series from The Pyramid Waltz, I also want to write some new stuff, just to keep my brain elastic. Maybe something about giant sharks. Or pirates. Or giant shark pirates. Heh. I almost typed pilates. Giant shark pilates might be fun, too.
On a totally unrelated note and since in my day-to-day life I keep flipping from topic to topic here, I heard Huey Lewis and the News’s “Heart of Rock in Roll” in the car, and when he’s singing about LA, I know what he really says, but it sounds like:
“Neon signs and the pretty pretty girls
All dressed so skeptically.”
You’d need sensible walking shoes, in case you have to disprove something in the wilderness. You’d need heavy trousers for wading through weeds. You’d need all sorts of gear for your skeptical tasks, like cameras, meteorological sensors, tape measures and other tools, and an EMF detector in case you’re investigating ghosts. A girl dressed skeptically has to be prepared to disprove anything. ^_^ I didn’t know they were all Scullys in LA.
Everyone else got any news?
So much editing! Deadlines fast approaching!! Writing well in hand but pressure leading to heart attack!!!
And breathe.
I’m going off on those OMG deadline tangents a lot lately. Luckily, I’ve got them pretty condensed and can go straight into the breathing much sooner than I could before.
And breathe a little more.
Before I pass out, I have some fabupendous news. (I thought about going for stupenabulous, but that’s more like stupid fabulous. Well…that could work.)
Okay, stupid fabulous, stupendous news. I’m on amazon again! But for my book this time which guarantees I will never ever go away.
NEVER.
Squeeee! It’s very exciting. Go ahead and hit that preorder button, don’t be shy! ^_^ I’m sure the cover art will be up as soon as publication time gets closer. (It’s not until September.)
So, who’s coming to my book launch party in Austin? You’re all invited!
You know you are. ^_^ I’m very happy that everyone’s liking them.
Guess who's engaged to whom
I’m going full steam on edits right now as well as freaking out that I’ll have to do author appearances and beg people to review my book before the year is out. You may think I’m funny, but I’m really a hollow shell of a person held together with caffeine and candy.
What have you dreaded lately? I’d love to hear a few stories of when you were sure you would fail but instead came through with flying colors. Go ahead, after-school-special me.
You guys, what bliss!
I almost had NOTHING to blog about today. My next IWW post won’t be ready until next week, but I felt the need to say something, as I do every Wednesday. I’m hip deep in edits and thought I would have to redirect you to more interesting things when lo, I get an email from Letty herself!
Quoth the Letty:
“You are the reason I joined another group…I doubt you REALLY HAVE A BOOK COMING OUT UNLESS IT IS SELF PUBLISHED.
You need to get an honest opinion of your writing. You already have mine.”
Oh, you darling flirt. What acts of charitable kindness did I do to deserve you? I despaired, oh Letty, and down you dropped like a troll-scented angel from Topic Heaven. (Which was next door to Hot Topic in the mall.)
Look how kind you are, trying to assuage my guilt for helping you get tossed from your group by hinting that you left of your own accord. And that you joined a group because of me!!! Did they remind you of me somehow, and you couldn’t stay away?
You’re still a teensy bit confused about the book, though. It’s coming September 18th from Bold Strokes Books. (I never just want to throw the link up, but since you asked so nicely…) And thank you for your honest opinion about my writing. I clearly remember you saying how much you loved it. You’re such a dear.
Ah, now I feel better. A topic and a lovely conversation with my dear Letty. Anyone else have a wonderful yet unexpected email today?
Action movies take three to tango, a wild dance of hero/villain/captive culminating in some serious high-wire fighting over pits of rabid crocodiles.
Am I right?
The villain has more style, loves a shiny, jagged knife (because she wants that shit up close and personal), and has a pet that’s cooler than yours. Not a dog or a cat, something more…MORE. Like a baby panda.
Also, she builds her lair beneath an active volcano
Nailed it.
The hero’s in black ops, which I assumed meant she wore lots of black. She’s ex-CIA, ex-military, ex-coast guard, and an ex-librarian because I like to read. She uses a gun because killing from a distance is somehow humane.
Doesn't need to see the light die in your eyes
But because we’re hard fucking core, we can’t use weapons to hurt each other. That shit’s for babies who don’t KUNG FU.
Ditch gun!
Lose knife!
Battle royale under an exploding volcano…full of crocodiles (not pictured, but trust me, they’re down there)!
Body slam with pithy comment!
Mind if I drop in?
Flying kick with lamer comment! (The villain is always cleverer than the hero. See: Schwarzenegger, Arnold.)
Sorry, I've got to take out the trash!
After several death defying jumps over lava crocs, the hero wins, saves the captive and either kills the villain or leads her away in cuffs.
Let's get this panda back where he belongs!
Scene.
But…I’m disturbed. My three-way tango? Not so much. You see this?
Sigh
That’s not a tango-er, that’s a helpless muppet. It’s more like a love…line, than a triangle. All the conflict, all the passion is between the hero and the villain. This thing hanging behind them could be a giant plastic pear for all the ways it drives the plot.
The villain may have tried to seduce him. The hero may have realized that she wanted to live/retire/random epiphany because of him, but in the end, he’s a tool, in more ways than one. He’s a plot device, not a character, as replaceable as they come.
Let's get this panda untaped from this pear
And in the movies, that was always a woman.
What the shit? I didn’t want to be hanging in the villain’s lair under the volcano. I wanted to be swinging by my whip and cutting fools with my light saber. I wanted to kick ass on my own time, my own way. I’d already started on the path to writing strong female leads, and Barbie was going to help.
Did you ever put yourself in movies or television? Which role did you covet? (It’s all right if you wanted to be rescued. ^_^)
Well, we have a date for liftoff. My novel, The Pyramid Waltz is being published on:
Woooooooo hooooooo! It might seem a long way off, but it’s really just around the corner. I’ve got so much to do, most of it mental preparation. I’ve got to get ready to talk to scads of people I don’t know. On the internet, it’s easy. In person, it can be a lot harder. I can be pretty funny, but I usually make jokes around what other people are saying, making them laugh. If people won’t talk to me, well, there’s not much I can do. I think I must be meeting lots of introverts lately. When no one can think of anything to say, damn it’s awkward.
Does anyone have any tips about getting people to come out of their shells? I’ve got a lot of talking to do. ^_^
Right now, let’s celebrate. I don’t drink champagne, so this will have to do:
(Find this recipe here.)
What are you up to this week, friends? Got any big deadlines looming on the horizon?
