Granted!

(At least to myself)

After I finish my novella (which has picked up, much to my delight), I am giving myself permission to go back to the Crackhead Project. Because I read through it last night and I still want to work on it (and love it and hug it and possibly call it George).

It’s amazing how freeing it feels to give myself permission to work on blow-off projects. Well, that, and working on a project every day exponentially increases the love you have for it.

I’m expecting my promo bookmarks in any day now. They’re arriving just in time for RWA, and I will be carting them around by the handful while at conference.

If you want to see my terrific cover art, this is the ONLY way to do it (at least for a few weeks). So if you want a bookmark, just ask me! And keep it at hand for after RWA, because I intend to have a contest where you can win something impressive. Like lots of free books, or a gift certificate, or maybe even an ipod.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

It occurs to me that I have this argument with myself every few months.

Carry on, carry on.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

And I’m an idea chaser.

It’s shameful to admit, I know, but it’s true.  I want to write an epic fantasy. I also want to write a YA horror novel. And a romance. And an urban fantasy. And a fairy tale novel. And a historical romance. And…I think you see my problem.

It’s not the bad TV shows or movies that are the insidious ones. It’s the ones that do something GOOD, but they do not do it GREAT. Or they take the story in a direction I don’t want to see. I don’t care about an airship full of pirates! Take me back to the part where the hero and heroine were going to kiss again! Damn!

The writer-brain is ever at work. It seems a movie and thinks of ways to make it better. It reads something it likes, and begins to add to the story. What if the writer took it this way? Or this way?

Suddenly, new ideas are assaulting my brain. This, my friends, is both blessing and curse.

Let’s say you write a few novels…we’ll say ‘twelve’.  The first one is one of those kitchen sink books that no one can classify. It has time travel, monsters, historical tidbits, coming of age, evil puritans, and a hot Ojibwe dude who thinks the heroine is ugly but loves her anyway. This book is basically garbage. Sorry. The next book? Epic fantasy. Book one of a bajillion. Except you’re still learning how to write, so none of the story pieces sort of go together, and it’s kind of weird all around. The next book is a little better – it’s more or less a young adult novel featuring a heroine and dragons. Which is fine except that the heroine is a little overly sexualized/traumatized and the rest of it kind of screams to have the serial numbers filed off of it, or Anne McCaffrey might sue. So yeah. That one’s in the trunk too. The next one is Your Preshus. The one where things start to click, but the writing ain’t there yet. It’s an urban fantasy with a light, goofy tone, a heroine that is more shrill than funny, and a wisecracking horse. You still freaking love the horse. It’s not romantic, it’s not dark, and basically, it’s all wrong for the market.

Anyhow, that book is close but no cigar. Lots of bites, but no one reads the full manuscript. So you abandon #4 and you write something new, because at that point, you don’t know what’s wrong with that novel. And the next one…the next one gets you an agent. But let’s say you’re left rudderless and with still plenty of spare time while that one sells, right? So you write a few more things as your agent sells your book. Namely:

1) An urban fantasy about superheroes. It’s kind of light and fluffy.

2) A time travel romance

3) A romance that’s paranormal (kind of) and in the wrong voice (doh). Everyone pretty much tells you this idea is too weird.

4) That second book you’re contracted for. Yay you! You stuck with a genre!

5) A fantasy romance.

6) An urban fantasy. But this one is dark and srs bzns and woe. (You also kind of hate this one)

7) A light paranormal romance. Yay! There’s that genre again!

So let’s recap. You’ve sold a book! Hurray you! And your publisher says “We love this! What else have you got?”

…

And you look back at your list, and really, the only thing you’ve got is the most recent book you wrote. Sure, I can lob the time travel romance at my publisher. But time travel doesn’t sell, and why am I writing something else when my paranormal voice is so good, right? What about the fantasy romance? Bzzt, sorry. Different audience. Urban fantasy? Maybe. Which one? Light or dark? Because you can’t do both – people will expect a certain tone from your books. And heck, you might have to take a pen name and start building an audience all over again anyhow. And do you really want to do that?

A game plan is so, sosososo crucial. You have no idea. Think about what you enjoy writing. If you enjoy writing a bunch of stuff (like, say, me), focus in on one thing. Focus in on what people really seem to enjoy in your writing. Maybe your crit partners aren’t super crazy about the flying nuns in your latest book, but they sure do like the way you pulled the mystery together.  Focus on that. Write more mystery.  Build your brand.

Because, really. Think of an author you loved and followed for years…and then that author switched genres. WHY GOD WHY? Don’t you feel betrayed? I sure do! I still haven’t quite gotten over my favorite author’s switch to romantic suspense (a genre I normally don’t read).  What if George R. R. Martin decided to write detective stories instead of fantasy? Wouldn’t all those Westeros cosplay fans feel disappointed and left out?

(Now, GRRM can do whatever the hell he wants, I think, because the audience would follow him. But little ol’ me? Not so lucky.)

So anyhow. I tell myself this because I am talking myself down from several ideas. Instead, I am working on a light, sexy paranormal novella.  I’m sticking with my genre, because once you get the contract, you can’t write just for yourself anymore. You’re writing for your business as well as potential fans. And you don’t want to confuse them by writing an urban fantasy one day, and a cozy knitting mystery the next. Just sayin’.

(And if you have suggestions on what I’m supposed to do with a romance that involves the Bermuda Triangle, conquistadors, and dinosaurs, I’m all ears.)

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

Hair? Cut.

Dresses? Bought.

Dress shoes? Check.

Sweaters/tops? Ditto.

Luggage? Yup.

Tan? Never.

I did waffle about a pair of tights, but ended up going with them. We’ll see how that turns out. I’m going to spend the next week in a frantic state trying to finish two weeks’ worth of work in 1 week, slowly, sloooowly packing stuff so I don’t have to wash it again before wearing it, and generally remembering to bring everything. I hope.

My schedule is made, room plans are done, tickets are bought, and I don’t think I’m leaving anything to the last minute except maybe travel toothpaste. I wasn’t sure what to expect last year but this year I have a general idea.

(now if my promo materials could just get here so i can squee over them)

If we were supposed to meet up for breakfast/lunch/whatever and we have not talked, EMAIL me because I am booked, yo.

Anyone else got last minute prep for Nationals?

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

It’s been a while since I’ve raved about a book, but I truly, truly loved this one. I went into it with no expectations – I’ve been on a definite historical romance slump, and especially slumping in the areas of regency or Victorian (this is a Victorian). But I met Meredith at RWA last year and she was such a fun, sparkling personality that I wanted to read it, regardless of genre ennui.

I. Loved. This. Book. Words cannot describe how much I freaking loved this book. I started to read it and couldn’t put it down. After I finished it, everything else made me fussy because it was Not This Book. She ruined me for a good two weeks on other reads.

The hero and heroine were perfect. Perfect. If you liked Loretta Chase’s MR. IMPOSSIBLE, you simply must read this book. Jane at Dear Author gave it an A. The Book Smugglers gave it an 8 out of 10. It’s brilliant and clever and tender and I think Duran is going to be the next Loretta Chase.

You seriously want to read this book, guys.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

If I’m quiet lately, it’s because I’m busy. I started a side project just for fun, and sure enough, as soon as I launch into that particular project…copyedits arrive!

That’s all right, though, because I’m quite happy to get my copyedits out of the way.

It’s funny, because when copyedits were originally mentioned to me, I had the notion that someone would send me a big long print-out of changes to make to the manuscript. Then, I’d have to take each page and make the changes on my document. After all the endless changes were done, I’d print out a fresh one and send it back to my publisher.

Apparently, I was not the only one with this misconception. The letter on top of my manuscript says, quite clearly (and possibly in bold AND capslock) – make the changes on this document. Do not print a fresh document. We need this document back. Lose it and die.

(Okay, so maybe the last part is not on there)

I was also provided (very thoughtfully!) with a green pencil. At first, this amused me. They’re sending my copyedits…AND a green pencil? Some sort of weird two-fer deal? But the green pencil is very important. My copyedits are marked up with red, grey, and blue already. I have to use a different color so my changes stand out.

Armed with my green pencil, I dive in to see what a copyedit is all about. Turns out…it’s about reading other people’s marks to my manuscript to see if they make sense. Some of them are punctuation related. Once upon a time (and even today) I loved me some extra commas or em-dashes. My copyeditor does not like them so much, so there’s a lot of them marked out. Other punctuation changes. Deleting unnecessary words and sentence tags (there’s an embarrassing wealth of this).

I also have in the margins several notes about things to clarify. “On page 12, you said it was a diner. On this page you say it’s a café. Which is it?” So I correct the item and write ‘fixed’ over the note. The bigger changes, I’m making a note to go back and fix at the end. For now, I’m still re-reading.

Did I mention this is a long, time consuming process? The first few days, I had no clue what I was doing and didn’t know what half the marks meant. Took me 2 days to get through 25 pages. (Did I mention I have to have this turned in ASAP?) Luckily, I’m getting more confident with the changes as I go, and was able to make a big leap in progress yesterday. I should have no problems finishing on time, which is nice.

After all this is turned in, about a month later, I get galleys! I have to admit, I’m really excited about seeing galleys. That’s when all the fonts and styles are set, and the book starts to look like a real book instead of just my old manuscript.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

I meant to go to the local RWA meeting this morning. It would have been an awesome one – the speaker was talking about marketing and publicity.

But someone (and we won’t mention any names here) slept until 1pm. Way, way past meeting time. Sigh.

So I have the rest of the day to sit in my pajamas, with dirty hair. I think I’m going to surf the internet, twitter a bit, and write. I wrote 2 pages in a fun side project – I’m going to see if I can write a novella based on a concept I had rolling through my mind (and one that Jane encouraged).

Wish me luck!

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

I got cover art for my second book last night! It made me squee in all the right places. Love my publisher - Pocket does really amazing romance covers, and it makes me sosososo happy to see mine.

But I can’t show you. At least, not until I get approval. BUT! I can show you a little something that is going on the cover…

“Laugh-out-loud scenes, scorching eroticism, and pulse-pounding adventure.” — Kresley Cole, New York Times bestselling author of Kiss of a Demon King

Perhaps you did not read that closely enough. I’ll wait here while you read it again.

KRESLEY FREAKING COLE BLURBED MY BOOK YOU GUYS.

(Perhaps you recall last RWA, when I mentioned I might meet Kresley? And I was excited? And posted this picture?)

That’s right. She was nice enough to make my day year decade and blurb my book.

You so want to read it now, don’t you? Yeah. Me too.

(But I get to! Because I am getting copyedits this week! And I’ll get to read — and edit — the whole thing AGAIN. Oh writer’s life, you are a glamorous one.)

Anyhow, there was some great link salad going on around and about the interwebs, most of it related to writing. Here ya go:

http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/111221.html <-- On writers and self confidence, and how being confident in your work does not equal ego. At least, not always. (Maggie has an awesome journal, guys. You should be reading it.)

http://beth-bernobich.livejournal.com/282487.html <-- Beth Bernobich talks about poisonous writers on the web. Can I get an amen?

http://jimhines.livejournal.com/450145.html < -- Jim Hines talks about writers with 'real' jobs vs writers without real jobs. Excellent post. Jim's posts on the business side of writing are an absolute must.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JK7IKSfyLE < -- Earworm of the day (not the real video, just the song)

http://mymilktoof.blogspot.com/ < — Cutest blog ever. EVER.

And that’s all I got for now.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

Oh editing. I love you and I hate you. It feels like I’ve been doing nothing but editing since April (ETA – that’s pretty much the truth, actually). I had a few lingering scenes that were breaking my head on VANISHING ACT, so I logged off the internet and went and worked in the other room. No distractions, just me and my characters as I tried to force them to do things that did not feel natural (since I’d already written the climax of the story once, rewriting it in a different direction – no matter how good the direction is – still feels unnatural).

But I wrote a huge chunk and I’m happy to say that I’m done, more or less, with the edits. Except I’ve got to go back through and re-read one more time to make sure there’s no bizarre jumps in logic. At one point I ripped out almost 40k from this book and rewrote back in about 25k (some of it coming from very early drafts).

For those of you that are word count junkies like myself? Starting tally of this book – 92k.

Tally after completing the last draft? 74.5k – my goal. I’m really happy with that number. The 92k felt bloated, but I wasn’t sure where to cut. The 75k feels much more streamlined for a YA.

I expect the wordcount to bounce up a little as I go through a paper copy of the novel and re-read one last time. There’s always tweaks here and there. But I can’t imagine it getting much higher than the 75k it stands at now.

And maybe now I will go back to my crackhead project. Or work on some short stories. Have not decided, but the world is my oyster. For a few weeks, anyhow.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

So. Wordcount. (Yes, I’m struggling for things to blog about, and Moonrat just posted something awesome on her blog and it reminded me that I wanted to talk about this.)

Here’s a great post from an editor:

http://romanticreads.net/2009/03/12/the-economics-of-word-count-requirements/

Here’s another great post from Moonrat (who is also an editor):

http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-there-word-count-cap-for-debut-novel.html

Here’s another great post from an agent:

http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

Okay. Did you read those three? All three of them mention word count. Did you also notice how small the word counts are? 80k. 85k. 90k max.

There seems to be this mythical unicorn of a concept that longer books still sell so word count doesn't matter! Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT was 700 pages long! JK Rowling’s books were enormous! Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER is a brick of a book! 

(And wow, this got totally Ranty McRanterson, didn’t it? My apologies!)

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

A boy (man?) in a black shirt with a skinny red tie, skinny jeans, and a black polka dotted fedora hat.

A girl in skinny purple jeans, a black concert t-shirt, and her hair was long in the back, and shorter layered, textured waves in the front. I swear it looked like a mullet.

In the car behind me, I could see the boy in the rearview mirror. He had Adam Lambert-ish hair, except it was glued/styled down so far over his face that it covered one eye, and spiky in the back.

Dude. When did I wake up back in the 1980s? Should I break out my gold lame MC Hammer pants?

(Just kidding about the Hammer pants…OR AM I?)

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

Not my release day! Someone else’s. It’s that day you’ve been waiting for, the day that is led up to by scouring the local grocery stores in the hopes that a hapless Andersons (or whoever is the distributor now) employee put out the books early. And when that fails, it’s taking my lunch hour to make the trek - in the rain - to Barnes & Noble for that most prized of possessions.

THE NEW CATHERINE ANDERSON BOOK. BOOYAH.

I will be useless tonight in a reading marathon. Two words for you. Gun and slinger, baby. Gun and slinger.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

I have discovered Goodreads and spent half the evening tagging some of my favorite reads. I’m Jill Myles on there as well, if you’re on Goodreads too!

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

WHEW.

I’m still working on VANISHING ACT (which was once called UNNATURAL). Started with a draft of 89k. The file I’m now staring at is 66,866 words. Sure, I may have had to sacrifice most of the last 5 chapters (sob) and there’s one I yanked out entirely because I’m going to have to rework it from scratch, but this editing pass is done. This draft was by far the worst one.

For those playing along at home, this is draft #eleventybillion and one. Kidding. I honestly don’t know how many drafts this is. I think I edited this book 6 or 7 times before I said to my agent “Hey, can I make it a YA?” She said yes, so I edited it again, and sent it back.

This round was to fix the (tons) of suggestions she had, to shorten the draft, and to type in the mark-up changes I’d written out on paper.

I have a list of notes for stuff to fix in successive drafts (like we talked about in the prior post) and the list is here:

1) Make R a conspiracy theorist - check his dialogue and actions
2) D threatens L via J - make sure to add this in and to correct their interactions — this changes J’s motivation
3) L’s personality = too old. Fix!
4) Connect gym scene (okay, so I have no idea what I meant when I wrote that one down, but I’m sure I’ll understand what the hell I’m talking about when I actually get to the gym scene again)
5) J should be able to hear W’s thoughts starting at page 206. Note to self–Either this scene needs to change or I need a workaround.
6) School lunch room (correct prior scenes showing private kitchen)
7) p213 - helmet?
8) Add in chapter of doom.

Some of these are a snap to fix. Like, say, #3. I just basically do a word-search for his name, tweak his dialogue and body language so he actually sounds his age. Some of it (I’m looking at you, #8) is going to break my brain.

But whew. Feeling a major sense of relief here as I move forward! The hardest stuff is done.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

So, last we heard from our intrepid heroine, she was working on two projects. One, she was hating (we’ll call those ‘the edits’) and one she was loving (we’ll call that one the ‘forbidden crackhead project’).  Torn between the one she really wanted to work on (FCP) and the one her agent thinks she’s working on (edits), our heroine was naturally torn.

(Boy, it’s really weird to talk about yourself in third person)

Anyhow. For a while there, I was working on both books. And you know when you split your time equally between two projects? That’s right, both end up moving really, really slowly. And I mean REALLY slowly.  So on Friday, I decided to work on the edits alone. If I got a large chunk of those, I’d switch to FCP. But instead, I started to get back into the story at the core of my manuscript, and spent all weekend working on the dreaded edits.

For those of you playing along at home, this is a different book. A spec project that I’m working on. My agent read the polished novel that I turned in (and had been edited a bajillion times before) and said “Whoa there” and gave me a ton of good things to fix.

I’m still fixing. I’m still fixing a lot, in fact. I got to the point where working off of page edits wasn’t doing it for me any longer, because I was making so many changes that the pages themselves were useless. So I’ve been going through the entire draft, word by word, changing characters’ descriptions, names, personalities, and giving others new roles.

In case you’ve never done this before, it’s really, really slow.

But! I can see the light at the end of the (very long) tunnel.  I’m at page 204/249 and still working. I think when I started this weekend, I was on page 50 or so. After a month. That’s how slow. Still a ton of heavy lifting to do, but I’m really enjoying what I’m getting. I’m hoping to be done in another week or so (which might be wishful thinking).

It’s been a while since I blogged - sorry! And I have a half-written post about editing-and-pantsers (since I am one), but I haven’t finished it yet. I will some time this week. And blog about my photography session, because it was a lot of fun. And um, some other stuff.

And since I’m a slacker, here’s a snippet from the edits I’m working on. The book is now called VANISHING ACT (thanks, Karen Duvall!).

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

So this weekend I was going to blog about plotting, and process. And my first visit to a real live photographer to get an author-photo done (I got tired of the big blank grey dude on the S&S website). But Saturday I wrote all day, and Sunday involved visiting, baby cuddling (not my baby! yikes), laundry, and the Survivor season finale. And writing. So. Yeah.

The posts will just have to wait for now. I’m still deep in editing a spec project for my agent, and I started a new one (I guess because I wasn’t crazy enough). An idea for the ‘dangerous book’ I promised myself that I’d write showed up, and I took the opportunity. It will either be glorious or a total disaster, but I’m almost 6k in and the plot is unfolding like a great unfolding thing.

We’ll see.

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

I am sad that a certain someone has been voted off of Survivor. I loathed him, but he was entertaining. Now he can no longer lead his team with his eyes! Oh noes! Farewell to the strongest, most true warrior!!

Let’s see. What else. Oh. Supernatural’s season finale was good. Can’t wait for more Castiel next season.

Other than that, there’s been a little bit of writing, but it’s mostly idea scribbling. I have a really difficult time working on two projects at once, no matter what I do. So I told myself that I’d work on edits, and when I got enough to feel virtuous about spending my time, I’d switch to one of the projects burning at the back of my brain. Except…when I work on the edits, then I get caught up in the edits! And find it hard to switch.  Just not much of a multi-tasker.

Oh, and there is a dead possum in my back yard. Apparently it’s been dead for quite some time (like, months). And apparently I need to go into the back yard more often, because we never knew it was there until the Orkin man pointed it out.

Yeaaaah.

Oh oh oh!! And Succubi Like It Hot (Succubus Diaries, book 2) is now available on Amazon! You know you want to pre-order it. The book will be released on January 26th, 2010 — one month exactly after Gentlemen Prefer Succubi hits the shelves.

Yay!

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

Just when I seem to have gotten a handle on my time again, it runs away from me once more. Sorry I haven’t posted! Now that I’ve turned in edits on Book 2, I’m…knee deep in edits for a project that my agent is helping me with. It never ends over here. But that’s a good thing, really, because I’m cranky and obnoxious when I’m not working on a project. Trust me. You do not want to be around me when I’m between books.

In other news, that crazy idea I told myself that I wouldn’t write keeps showing up, and it shows up better than ever every single time. Argh. Maybe I’ll write it. Just a little. Just to see how it goes.

(This is how they all start, isn’t it? Subversion.)

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.

So I’m waiting in line at the cafeteria during my lunch hour (well, more like lunch-10-minutes). There are several ‘bars’ of food choices set up – I was virtuous and went for turkey and steamed broccoli. The line was empty except for the man in front of me, and he was what I refer to as a close talker.

You know the type. If they come up to you to speak, they’re within two feet of your face. They brush up against you when on the walking path (even though there’s plenty of room otherwise).  They lean in uncomfortably close, and they proceed to shout in your face. Or stare at your boobs (though guys might not have this problem). They’re in your face so much that you can feel their breath touching your face, or (in really bad situations), the spit from when they are talking.

I’ll be honest – close talkers baffle me. Perhaps because I am intensely conscious of other people’s space, or just intensely conscious of others, period. So I don’t understand the mentality. WHY would you invade someone’s space like that? I have to assume they don’t know better, because the thought of someone doing it on purpose is a little, well, creepy.

This particular guy was leaning over the buffet windows to talk to the employee there. “I want the turkey,” he told her, and leaned his arm OVER the buffet windows so he could point at it (because, you know, no one can point at something on the other side of glass. Sigh).  The woman takes a step back (and so do I) and he continues to wave his hand on the other side of the glass, pointing out his vegetables. “I really like carrots,” he tells her, and he’s so close to the glass that I can see his breath fogging on it.

(Dude, that’s when you know you’re too close. Really.)

Anyway. He takes his lunch and disappears off into the cafeteria wilds, but I’m left wondering…how exactly does one become a close-talker? Is it in your genetics? Originally I thought he might be hard of hearing, but I’m half deaf (no lie) and while I talk loudly, I don’t close-talk. So that can’t be it every time. Are these people just born without a sense of space? Missing their conjoined twins? Or do they grow up in confined areas and thus don’t know how to use the full sidewalk? 

(I momentarily have a vision of children being raised in rows of cages, much like puppy mills. Close-talker mills?)

At any rate, I just thought this was a bit of weirdness I could share. That, and I’m probably going to put a close-talker in my next book. Just because it’s uncomfortable for my heroine.

Anyone have any bizarre quirks they’ve added to a book after seeing someone exhibit it in person?

Mirrored from Jill Myles Dot Com.