The Portland Book Festival is this Saturday! November 10th, from 9am-6pm At and around the Portland Art Museum I will be signing books at the Willamette Writers booths 39 & 40 from 1:30-3pm. Come enjoy the Festival and stop by the booths for a visit.
If you want to tell a story that keeps your readers turning pages, you must convince them that perhaps it could be true. Or, at the very least, convince them to suspend their disbelief for the duration of the story. This won’t happen if they spot even small errors in your work. It breaks the spell and they stop reading–something writers strive to discourage–and say “Wait! That’s not right.” And even if they then continue to read, they will be suspicious of everything else you tell them. In chapter 14, the Temperance chapter of Forging the Blade, the Damian goddess, Brigga, forges a magic sword for Molly, the main character. She uses Molly’s blood to bind her to the blade. As the sword is forged, Molly is also forged into a warrior. I figured that forging a blade would be a perfect metaphor for Temperance. This is a key chapter in the book, and to make it work, the reader must totally believe in the drama of a… Read More »
When I began writing Forging the Blade, the concept of character development was a total mystery to me. All I knew was that I had this teen- age girl in my head that wouldn’t go away, but steadfastly refused to give me any helpful hints about who she was. When I would ask, all I got was a petulant, “You know who I am, write the freakin’ book.” Our twin boys had just graduated from high school, and I had watched, listened, and learned as they went from freshmen to seniors. Fortunately they were (and still are) bright, adventurous, active, and healthy. But they are also impulsive, assertive, quick tempered, and tend to assume that the world revolves around them. OK, this is a personality type that I knew and had been dealing with for years. Could I make Molly—that was definitely her name— a female version of my kids? “Yes,” she replied, “I’m like them, but I’m not them.” Fair enough. Todd and… Read More »
When we think of a convergence, we usually envision two or three shining planets coming together in the velvet black night sky and astrologers urgently discussing what such a striking event might mean. But that’s not the kind of convergence I’ll be musing about here. This post is about the convergence of choices/events; how one thing leads to another which leads to another which leads to a point in time where they all converge and, with lots of help from the gods, something amazing happens. These convergences occur all the time. They are the small and large miracles of our lives and most of them go unnoticed. But there was one recent convergence that the whole world noticed. On January 17th Kaleb Whitby had a miraculous escape from certain death. In the dark, cold predawn his pickup was completely squashed between two big rigs during a freeway pile up on I-84 near Baker City, Oregon. He crawled out of the wreckage with only a few… Read More »
Well, not really. Leo, our cat and true master of the house is still here, curled up beside me. But he is quiet, undemanding company. At least until he gets hungry. My husband, son, and a few friends are off for a weekend of camping on an island in the middle of the Columbia River. Unlike the island, the house is warm and silent and filled with joyous holiday energy. I have the entire weekend and Monday to catch up on my writing. There are several things I need to work on, all of which are emotionally charged for me in one way or another. I could do part two of The World. This is the last major arcana card and will be the end of the series that I have been working on for the past three or so years. I’ve enjoyed the work and feel sad that it’s coming to a close. I could work on a blog that continues the story of… Read More »
If you want to make even the most seasoned writer tremble whisper the words “query letter” in his ear. The dreaded query letter is the inescapable bane of every writer’s existence—at least every writer that is looking for an agent. There are blogs with ominous names like Query Shark whose sole purpose is to help writers navigate these dangerous waters. Not only is the required format rigidly precise, it is also subject to change at a moment’s notice. Author Sean M. Chandler comments that he knows several agents who won’t read a query letter if the writer’s contact information appears at the start of the query. According to some agents, it’s now supposed to appear at the end of the letter below the closing. I was also told several years ago that in a pitch or query the writer should always reveal how the story ends. Now we’re supposed to keep the agent guessing. The list of conflicting information goes on and on, but the… Read More »
I was just reminded in no uncertain terms that to become successful in almost any endeavor, it’s not just what you know, but who you know. Back in December I wrote a post about possible reasons why over 44 agents have rejected my manuscript and ended with the thought that I might have to self publish it. A friend of mine, Kier Salmon, immediately e-mailed me. “Talk to me before you do anything,” she said. “I work in the business and it’s easy to get burned.” The next day I got another e-mail from her telling me that Linn Prentis, the agent she works for, loves tarot decks and wants to see the manuscript. I was thrilled to the tips of my keyboard tapping fingers. I waited until after the holidays and then e-mailed it to them as an attachment. And waited… And waited. Last week I finally found the reply in my in-box. It was a rejection letter, but of a very different sort.… Read More »
I just finished reading two great books. nova, by samuel r. delany, is a science fiction classic; and I predict that Behemoth, the second book in the Leviathan Trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld, will become a fantasy classic. World building is crucial in science fiction and fantasy. Both genres take place in strange worlds with totally alien landscapes, codes of ethics, and/or creatures. These worlds must ring true from the start, because the sooner the reader gets her balance and bearings, or at least finds promising and intriguing handholds, the more likely she is to keep reading. But science fiction and fantasy have slightly different rules for world building. The worlds in science fiction must be based, at least tentatively, on accepted scientific theory and fact. Fantasy has no such constraints, but it does demand that its worlds be true to their own rules and history. Actions must be predictable and understandable. If one character can levitate and all the others can’t, the author must provide… Read More »
A few months ago Clio, my six-year-old grandniece, let me read a story she was in the process of writing. It was about a group of owls, and about how the smallest owl decided to leave. I was hooked until I came to the part about the little owl flying away in the middle of a bright sunshiny day. “Clio,” I said, “this is a great story, but owls don’t like to be out in the daytime. Why did the little owl leave at high noon?” “I don’t need a reason,” she replied. “It’s fiction, and I can write anything I want.” And she is absolutely correct. Everyone knows that fiction isn’t true. However, if you want to write fiction that keeps your readers turning pages, you must convince them that perhaps it could be true. Or, at the very least, convince them to suspend their disbelief for the duration of the story. This won’t happen if they spot glaring errors in your work. How… Read More »
My husband, Craig, came home last weekend with a grocery bag full of chanterelles and stories about his camping trip with our friend Larry. Since Larry loves to cook, much of the conversation was about food prep. Craig mentioned that Larry is of the school that believes water boils faster uncovered. My hackles rose. “No,” I said, shaking my chanterelle cleaning brush at him, “Larry doesn’t believe water boils faster uncovered, he thinks it does.” My long-suffering husband sighed and settled back for a long rant. “It would be a simple experiment,” I continued, “Just boil the same amount of water over the same heat in the same pan covered and uncovered a few times and you’d have your proof, one way or the other. But you can’t prove a belief.” And yet, we are all so certain of ours. Not because we can prove they are correct to the rest of the world, but because our bodies tell us at a gut level that… Read More »